By: Paul Reichert
June 20, 2026

There are times that when we have been going through a very frustrating day, we need a good avenue to let out all of the tension and anger pent up in ourselves. Letting it out on inanimate objects is a good one. Maybe trying the new craze of axe throwing. Going to the gym and working over the punching bag is another good release. The drivers of the LaCrosse Speedway have had a great way of letting all of that stress go during our annual summer Smash-O-Rama event. Former LaCrosse HSRA champion Ashton Kinsey put in a dominant showing to win the Street Stock feature. Matthew Parent has an even better night winning two of the stunt competitions to go along with his Mini-Van feature triumph.

Colton Jacobson powered around Cole Lewis to lead the first half of the Six Shooter feature. After getting around lapped traffic, Ashton Kinsey surged ahead of Jacobson with six laps to go. As the rest of the field battled each other and slower traffic, Kinsey pulled away to a comfortable victory.

The Mini-Van feature saw Matthew Parent zoom to the front as the rest of the pack had to battle with John Mashak. Ryan Stanfield broke from the pack to claim second on lap six. Stanfield was slowly reeling in Parent and found himself right on Parent with five laps remaining. Parent stuck to his guns on the inside lane over those last remaining laps to capture the checkered flag in first.

Each division racing tonight got to run in their own Novelty Race, starting with the Six Shooters in the Flagpole Race. Here you had to make a complete rotation around the flagpole in turn two every lap of the five lap battle. Rob Stanfield had to battle with Kyle Cottone as the leaders caught the back of the field around the tire, but Stanfield pulled away thanks to Cottone’s contact with another vehicle to win the race.

The Mini-Vans ran the second Novelty race of the night, the Tag Team Race. One driver ran the first lap, then tagged the rear bumper of their teammate so they could run the second lap, and so on. The father-son team of Rob and Ryan Stanfield had this race perfected as they pulled away from the teammates of Marshall Rinartz and Matthew Parent to win the race.

John Huebner performed the first stunt of the night, the Camper T-Bone Crash. Huebner made a perfect center hit through the front door of the camper and ended up trashing and destroying the living room.

A group of four Harley-Davidson motorcycle stunt riders performed some amazing stunts that wowed and thrilled the crowd. This group performed some fantastic wheelies down the front straight, tandem surfing on top of their bikes in two groups of two and some impressive wheel hops on the front tire of their motorcycles.

The thrilling and exciting ground pounding monster trucks made their annual Smash-O-Rama appearance at LaCrosse. Josh Baumgartner (Litchfield, MN) brought back the legendary monster truck Bigfoot to show why this truck is the king of the monster trucks. Casper (Mason City, IA) brought a just completed monster truck out to play known as ‘The Ghost’. Both monster trucks caught some big air as they made incredible leaps over the pile of cars they were smashing and crashing over.

Our first-ever Belly Flop Contest brought out five challengers to make the biggest splash in West Salem tonight. John Eron leaped from the top of Matthew Parent’s Mini-Van, then Parent himself dove from the top of his own race vehicle. Parent did an even better flop into the pool with $100 on the line, which he donated to charity and won the event.

You have heard of Punt, Pass and Kick for young football fans. Tonight we did a grown-up version called the Marshmallow Punting Contest. The contestants had to see who could hit the extra large blow-up marshmallow the furthest. Matthew Parent got his to the end of the front straight, but Marshall Rinartz got his to turn one to claim the win.

The Contact Drags saw the competitors literally battled hard on the quarter-mile to win and advance. Rubbing is racing was brought to a whole new level in this competition. The final saw a battle of Cadillacs that left the crowd speechless and a newer Cadillac win out over an older Cadillac.

The Pool Splash-tacular is just good old redneck fun. That is why we gave the job of smashing and trashing the pool to Bryon ‘Redneck’ Olsen. Olsen made exact contact with the pool to leave just its frame and the yoga balls intact.

17 competitors were out to smash, trash and destroy boats meant for the water in the Boat Race of Destruction. Even though the last boat came off its trailer eight laps into the race, the loose water vehicles were at the mercy of the drivers over the final laps of the race. The fans had the ultimate decision to make about who did the best job of destruction. In the end newcomer Cassidy Oldenberg edged out Kyle Hopkins to win the fan vote.

After we witnessed an aerial fireworks display in the sky thanks to Skyline Fireworks, we turned the heat up back on the track with the Magdatude jet car. After needing a few minutes to fire up Magdatude’s loud yet intense jet engine, Magdatude needed just ten minutes to burn down two old Mini-Vans out of their misery. All that was left of those vehicles was their burning bare metal frames, which created a nice setup to roast marshmallows and make s’mores by an impromptu campfire.

The fender-to-fender high powered racing action on the big track returns next Saturday, June 27 with another pair of 20 lap features for the Late Models on the docket. Also competing next week will be the Sportsmen, Hornets, Street Stocks, and High School Racing Association along with the Hot Dog Novelty event. After qualifying the kids will get to ride in an actual race car during the KQ98 Kids’ Rides. Gates open at 5:15, qualifying steps on the gas at 5:30 and the heart stopping thrills of racing picks up the pace at 7.

To learn more about LaCrosse Speedway and the 2026 schedule of events, call the track office at 608-786-1525 or visit our website at lacrossespeedway.com. LaCrosse Speedway is proud to be a NASCAR Regional race track, part of the NASCAR Local Racing Series powered by O’Reilly Auto Parts.