10/23/2023
WISSOTA
SABRASKI SPEEDS TO UNPRECEDENTED TENTH AND ELEVENTH WISSOTA NATIONAL TITLES IN 2023
Entering the 2023 racing season, no driver had ever won more WISSOTA National Championships than Shane Sabraski, who picked up his 9th national title in 2022, but Sabraski, who is rapidly approaching 1,000 career victories, wanted more. You see, Sabraski has been a multi-division racer for the majority of his career, yet he had never won national titles in multiple divisions in the same season. Until this year!
Sabraski has been in contention to win multiple titles in previous years, but was finally able to race to both the WISSOTA Modified and WISSOTA Super Stock national titles at season’s end in 2023, a feat that he has been vying for throughout his career. The bittersweet part about winning both titles this season was that it meant Shane was forced to miss some of his son Mason’s high school football games in person. He said he streamed them every Friday in the trailer, but it just wasn’t the same as being there to cheer him on because he loves watching him do what he loves to do. Shane went on to say ‘we’ve both had great years, so there’s nothing to complain about, I just wish I could be in two places at once sometimes.’
As he always says at the start of each new season, Shane set out on his 2023 season just like he does every year – race a lot, run well, hopefully win races and let the chips fall as they may as far as points are concerned. Similarly to the start of the 2022 season, Shane got off to a white hot start, winning 8 feature races in the month of May between the two cars, propelling him to have great seasons in both cars all summer long en route to winning both national titles.
Sabraski, the 2012, 2013, 2021 and 2022 Super Stock National Champion, added the 2023 title to his resume - his eleventh overall National Championship - which includes the 2019 and 2023 Modified title, along with the 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2014 Midwest Modified top honors as well.
In the Modified division, Shane won 22 WISSOTA-sanctioned feature races, including the $10,000 to win Great Lakes Border Battle at the Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, WI; the Wisconsin Modified Nationals, also at Gondik Law, plus the Minnesota Modified Nationals at the Ogilvie Raceway in Ogilvie, MN, along with winning 4 XR Northern Storm races and being crowned as the XR Northern Storm Series Modified Champion.
Also, Shane racked up 33 Super Stock wins during the 2023 season, consisting of big wins such as the Dirt Track Nationals at the Thunder City Speedway in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada; both nights of the Great Lakes Border Battle at Gondik Law; both the Wisconsin Mod Nationals at Gondik Law and the Minnesota Modified Nationals at Ogilvie, plus the Red Clay Classic at the ABC Raceway in Ashland, WI; the Fall Classic at Ogilvie, both nights of the Labor Day Shootout at the Hibbing Raceway in Hibbing, MN, 4 Fastlane Super Stock Series races and winning the overall Fastlane Super Stock Series Championship as well.
He also won one unsanctioned Modified race in Arizona to start off the season back in January and won one WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature race as well, bringing his yearly win total to 57 victories in 2023.
Of all the races he won this season, a pair specifically stand out to Shane and his team for various reasons. He said ‘Winning the Border Battle was a huge deal because $10,000 is the most money we’ve ever won and it’s such a prestigious race to win and then racing at the new Thunder City Speedway in Canada was a new and great experience for us as well. We wanted to try something different and it was pretty neat how many fans came to say hi and thank us for coming. It was a bit overwhelming when trying to get the cars ready because there were so many people, but it was a super cool experience.’
Sabraski’s #7a JMR Modified and Affordable Super Stock both carry sponsorship from Jeff Sell and West Metro Buick GMC. He is supported on and off the track by his wife Katie, son Mason and daughter Braelyn. His main help in the pits consists of crew chief Glen Majeski with help from crew members Mike, Jimmy, Troy, Jared, Todd, and Chris.
Sabraski’s double championship season came in his 24th year behind the wheel. He started his career back in 2000 and competed in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified division from 2000 to 2005 before he added a Modified to his arsenal in 2006. He ran the Mod and Midwest Mod regularly from ’06 throughout the 2010 seasons when he decided to get into Super Stock racing as well and ran three cars weekly from 2011 through 2016 before retiring from Midwest Modified racing at the start of the 2017 season, when he decided to focus on ‘just’ 2 cars and began racing the Modified and Super Stock as his primary rides.
At the conclusion of the 2023 season, Sabraski amassed 3306 points to win the Modified title and 3345 points to win the Super Stock championship. He was able to win the Super Stock title by 32 markers over runner-up Dexton Koch and by 60 points over Tyler Peterson in the Modifieds when the final points were tallied.
As of today, Shane plans to continue to compete in the both the Modified and Super Stock divisions when the 2024 season rolls around and although he never starts out the season with plans to run for national points, but you can bet he will be in the hunt to win more national titles when next October nears. There are also rumblings about a Late Model being added to the 7a stable for next season, so we will have to wait and see as the winter months go by.
Congrats!
The WISSOTA Promoters Association exists to benefit its member tracks to enhance safe, profitable and successful dirt track racing, through unified, cost-effective rules, policies and procedures, enacted within a democratic environment.
The WISSOTA Promoters Association was founded in 1981 by eight track promoters in Wisconsin and Minnesota, with intent to offer uniform rules for the promoters and drivers involved in the Late Model division. Soon, the group decided to do the same for the growing Modified division.
In 1984 a voluntary steering committee was formed to oversee the business aspects that developed and to guide the future of WISSOTA’s racing divisions. That steering committee evolved into a board of directors, and the non-profit racing organization became incorporated in 1986.
Promoters who join the organization become, in essence, part owners of the racing organization and are expected to contribute to its overall success. Each November, the WISSOTA annual meeting is held; the member promoters gather annually in this forum to discuss the future of the organization. Member promoters are given the opportunity to vote on all organizational policies and procedures as well as rules for competition in the various racing divisions. WISSOTA’s member promoters and racing associations have spent approximately 30 years of hard work at the annual meetings crafting unique rules for each of the divisions, which are known as WISSOTA Late Models, WISSOTA Modifieds, WISSOTA Super Stocks, WISSOTA Street Stocks, WISSOTA Mod Fours, WISSOTA Pure Stocks and WISSOTA Hornets.
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Submitted By: Camryn Sullivan
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