THUNDER BAY – Fresh off of winning the WISSOTA Modified national championship in his first year in the division, Cole Chernosky’s magical 2024 season has one more race to go.
Chernosky has earned an invitation to the prestigious Gateway Dirt Nationals, which is held at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Mo. from Dec. 5-7.
“They have a fan vote for spots and we were in the last draw, but I was told that because I had won the points title in WISSOTA, that got me a spot in the event,” Chernosky said.
“At first, I was like ‘Do I really want to go down there?’ because they wreck a lot of cars at that event, but you got pretty much every big name in dirt racing from the Super Late Model guys to those who race UMP Modifieds with 900 plus horsepower.
“It’s such a small track, so we might have a shot at it, but it’s going to be a learning experience that’s for sure.”
The track, which is located in the former home of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams, is only a 1/5-mile.
“It’s pretty much like racing in a hockey rink and we’re kind of going in there blind,” Chernosky said.
“I’ve asked a couple of guys about what they run for gears there and there’s a different tire rule down there, so there’s all kind of variables that are going to play into it.”
The field features a who’s who of well-known faces from the dirt track world, such as Super Late Model stars Cade Dillard, Jimmy Owens and Ricky Thornton Jr., along with former NASCAR Cup Series driver Kenny Wallace.
“I think there’s a couple of guys from WISSOTA that are going to be there as well, but that’s about it for guys that I’ve regularly raced against,” Chernosky said.
The trip to St. Louis will mark the official close of a memorable campaign for Chernosky.
He ran a total of 108 races in #33 Midwest Modified, Super Stock and Modified and finished first in 33 feature races.
Chernosky’s rookie season in the Modified saw him win 19 main events, earn 37 top-five finishes and 48 top-10 results.
That showing propelled him to the national title by a scant 23 points over Kevin Adams of Cameron, Wisc. and 26 points over Mike Stearns of Aberdeen, S.D.
“Everyone on the team is still speechless about that to say the least,” Chernosky said. “Our goal for the year was to win just one modified race as it was my rookie year, as it’s such a big jump from the Midwest modified and the super stock.
“It was definitely a battle early on as we lost a motor and a couple of transmissions, so we never expected to be in this spot where we are now.”
As the summer wore on, Chernosky and his crew started to travel a lot more around the United States in order to amass enough points – a driver’s best 30 results over the course of the season are what are used to determine the standings – to win the title.
In addition to taking home the Modified crown at Thunder City Speedway – which is his home track – Chernosky also won feature races at Emo Speedway, Grand Rapids (Minn.) Speedway, Rice Lake (Wisc.) Speedway, Bemidji (Minn.) Speedway, Greenbush (Minn.) Race Park and Madison (Minn.) Speedway.
Chernosky said the biggest win of the season was his last at Madison, which came on the opening night of the Madtown Showdown on Sept. 27.
“All of the big guys that were chasing national points were there,” Chernosky added. “That win pretty much sealed things for us.”
Chernosky and his team are celebrating their championship this weekend at the WISSOTA awards banquet in St. Cloud, Minn.
He will be joined at the ceremony by fellow Thunder Bay driver and his long-time friend David Simpson, who captured the WISSOTA Midwest Modified title.
“It’s going to be pretty cool for a couple of Canadians to be down on American soil doing something like that,” Chernosky said.
“It also puts a good name for our track in town. They’ve built a beautiful facility at Thunder City and the fans pack the stands there all the time.”
When asked what his plans are for the 2025 season, Chernosky plans to continue running his Modified and also running a few events in his Super Stock.
“That thing is a rocket ship every time it goes on the track so it’s going to be pretty hard to give that up,” Chernosky added.
“I don’t think we’re going to be racing as much as we did this year though. I think we did 65 nights and David ended up running 85. I don’t know how we both did it … but we did.”