Driver Information

His first race was in 1974 at Nodak Speedway with the #218, 1955 Chevy Street Stock which he purchased for $25. The first night he raced, during the heat race, he lost control of the car and slid into a light pole in the infield and knocked the lights out. Some still say it was all of SE Minot, but Marlyn doesn’t remember it that way. That was forever after known as his first “pole position”. With the racecar destroyed, that was the end of his Street Stock career. After such a stellar performance in the Street Stock, he made the calculated decision to move up to a Late Model and purchased a car from veteran car owner Kenny Miller. The first race he won was in 1976 at a Late Model Tri-Can race at Jamestown Speedway.

Marlyn was also a chassis builder, he built Late Model race cars the winters of 1979/1980 and 1980/1981. He sold cars to Marv Gillig, Ron Huettle, Paul Schulz and John Gaule, all of which went on to win numerous races in those cars. Hank Berry purchased his first racecar from Marlyn.

Marlyn didn’t race from 1981 to 1987, as his family grew he needed to make a commitment to make farming work, during that time he started a custom harvesting business as well as a trucking business. Upon his return to racing he raced a modified and his been in one ever since.

He has raced in many different states throughout his career with numerous feature wins. in 1980 he won 26 Tri-Can Late Model races. Unfortunately there are no records from the early days and Wissota did not keep any records of wins. Between the Dakota Mod, Wissota Mod, Imca Mod and Late Model classes he feels justified in believing he has won in excess of 350- 450 features in his career.

“I’ve got a love for racing like some people have a love for fine wine!”

19 Championships - 2 Latemodel and 17 Modified Championships. 5 at Dacotah Speedway, 7 at Nodak Speedway, 3 at Jamestown Speedway, 3 at Southwest Speedway and 1 at Bismarck Speedway. 1 Dakota Mod Tour Championship, 3 Governor's Cup Championships, Jamestown Stampede Mod Champion and the Speedweeks on Dirt Champion in Florida. Nodak Speedway 100 lap feature winner. Players 100, Winnepeg. Feature winner of the final IMCA modified race at Manzanita Speedway on the 1/2 mile track. Driver of the Year twice at Dacotah Speedway. Sportsman of the Year and Most Improved Driver. He is also a 2016 Hall of Fame Inductee at Nodak Speedway. He also has 9 Championship runner-up's. 5 at Nodak Speedway and 4 at Dacotah Speedway, Marlyn has also served as Vice-President and Treasurer at Nodak Speedway.