It involves careful planning, community involvement, plenty of driving — in more ways than one — and many sleepless nights.

Despite all of that, after helping bring Redwood Speedway back to life with revving engines and roaring crowds last year, it’s all been worth it.

Glencoe’s Velvet Dostal and her husband, Ricky, took on the task of getting the Redwood Speedway back and running for the 2024 season after years of it sitting dormant. The track was unable to operate in 2020 due to COVID and the year after was a struggle as it closed down in mid-2021. The Dostals, already working at the North Central Speedway in Brainerd, added one more thing to their plate last year by taking over as promoters at the Redwood Speedway.

“I’ve been working at a race track since 2012 and Rick’s son started racing in 2017,” Velvet Dostal said. “That’s when [Rick] started learning about race tracks. About six years ago I took over the promoter role at North Central Speedway in Brainerd and also Princeton Speedway in Princeton, Minnesota.”

Submitted photo Pictured left to right are Velvet and Ricky Dostal, promoters and managers of the Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls. The Dostals took over the track last year and have been having a strong first two years

After an expired lease, the Dostals left Princeton and had a little more free time on their hands. That didn’t last long.

“Ricky and I decided, we had been asked by a couple racers to try and get Redwood back to life,” Velvet Dostal said. “We thought, ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea.’ Here we are [laughs].”

Velvet met her husband, Ricky, through his son Alex’s racing. Ricky Dostal was hired as a tech inspector at North Central Speedway in 2020.

As the Dostals got acclimated to Redwood Falls last year, Velvet Dostal said

“Overall our year last year went really good,” she said. “Car counts were a little bit lower than we would have liked because we come from Brainerd, where we have a higher car count. However, we have more classes. So when we broke it down and stopped beating ourselves up, we realized it wasn’t really as bad as we thought. We still have some nice fields of cars and good racing, so that’s the main thing.”

Photos courtesy of Richard Keech Photography New Ulm’s Brad Jones competes in a race at the Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls earlier this summer.

Velvet Dostal said this year has been on par with last, although there has been a few more cancellations than she’d hope for.

“This year has been pretty much level with [last year],” she said. “However, we’ve been faced with some rain and excessive heat this year, and last year we decided that we weren’t going to beat up our staff and our racers and everybody when we have that excessive heat, we’re just going to take the day off because it’s not worth risking somebody’s life for it. So, we’ve had a little more rain this year, but hopefully the rest of the year will finish out good.”

Redwood races every Sunday in the summer, but there is potential to expand upon that in the future.

“We are entertaining the idea of having a few different night races, we’re just looking at it with scheduling with other tracks in the area,” Velvet Dostal said. “Mainly Iowa. Iowa seems far, but it’s really not for our racers, so we’re kind of looking at having a few odd nights next year, just to give it a try.”

Velvet Dostal said she’s also been happy to see all the loyalty from the racers, which has been a big part of the track’s successful return.

Photos courtesy of Richard Keech Photography Sleepy Eye’s Matt Speckman leads a group of cars during a race earlier this summer at the Redwood Speedway in Redwood Falls.

“We have a lot of racers that are loyal and that’s a big deal to me,” she said. “I really believe in loyalty for a race track because that’s the only way to really make them work, you know who you’re going to get every week, with the addition of some others.”

In addition to seeing driver loyalty, Velvet Dostal said she also loves to see drivers get their first win ever or end a drought.

With a two-hour drive from Glencoe to Brainerd and another hour-long drive from Glencoe to Redwood Falls, the Dostals’ average week during the summer includes many hours on the road and minimal hours of sleep. Despite this, Velvet Dostal has appreciated the support from the Redwood Falls community, which has made her decision to promote the track much easier.

“The community that we’ve walked into has been so welcoming and just really great to deal with all the businesses in town and surrounding areas,” she said.