Above: Racing in car 77, Esten Nelsen of Grand Marais gets ready to blow by the field at Proctor Speedway. Left: Craig Horak (left) and Esten Nelson hold up trophies each have won this summer while racing stock cars. Nelson won first place and Horak placed third at the Proctor Speedway for the season in the Pure Stock point series. While the regular season has ended, both will race a few more times this fall before putting their cars away for the season.
Weekends have been busy for two local men who have been tearing up the racetracks in the Twin Ports area this summer.
Every Sunday since May, Esten Nelson and Craig Horak, both of Grand Marais, have been racing at one of three venues: Proctor Speedway, AMSOIL Raceway in Superior or ABC Raceway in Ashland.
And at one of them, Proctor Speedway, Esten Nelson racing in car No. 77, came out on top in the Pure Stock point series. He won the title on August 19.
Nelson’s last day at the Proctor track wasn’t reminiscent of his season. He received an early caution flag that put him at the back of the pack, and then raced his way through the field into 6th place before a flat tire ended his night. He finished 17th in the 15-lap race. Despite his woes, Nelson had accumulated enough points to lock down his first track title at the Proctor Speedway. For winning Nelson will receive a trophy, a nice jacket similar to a lettermen’s jacket, and a check.
“I don’t know how much I will get, they have a banquet in October where I will get my check,” Nelson told the News- Herald at press time.
Meanwhile, Horak was having one of his best nights of the season, steadily working his way to the front and taking first place in his 26H Station Wagon.
This is Nelson’s second year of racing and Horak’s third year on the track, although he raced sparingly his first year.
“I built a car for Esten last year and built my own car this year,” said Horak.
The cars are equipped with 305 V8 engines. The track at Proctor is a 3/8ths of a mile long, banked, oval dirt track. Racers get up to 65 miles an hour on the straight-aways.
At Superior’s AMSOIL track, “We hit about 75 miles an hour on the straight-aways,” Horak said.
For the season Nelson had three wins at Proctor while Horak had two. Horak also won a big race at Superior. He finished third overall at Proctor in the Pure Stock category.
“I might have done better but my tranny [transmission] broke on two nights of racing and I crashed one night,” he said.
While their cars get dinged, Horak feels the sport is relatively safe. “People get hurt, but Esten and I build real safe cars. We follow the Indy racecar safety guidelines. We’re strapped in real good and we have very strong cages and roll bars.
“There is bumping on the track but it’s not intentional,” Horak said, adding, “but we’re usually about 3 inches apart when we’re racing, especially going around corners, so we are occasionally going to make contact.”
Both Nelson and Horak love cars and love machinery in general. Nelson’s day job is running equipment for his family’s construction business, Edwin E. Thoreson, Inc. and Horak is owner of Tire Auto & Lodge, where he puts his mechanical skills to use all day long.
Nelson and Horak spend between 10 and 12 hours every week working on their cars. They are self-sponsored and pay their own way to and from races.
When asked if they would consider moving up in category, Horak replied, “Never. We’ll never move up. It cost too much and you have to get sponsors and it gets to be a lot of work. We do this for fun. We enjoy it. It is an expensive hobby, but, and this might sound strange, it is my cheapest hobby. This isn’t as expensive as snowmobiling or some of the other things that I do.”
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