Good morning!

This weekend marks the National Short Track Championships at Dells Raceway Park (and the Wisconsin weather certainly looks better for racing than last weekend). The NSTC will be held at the Dells for the third time, after the 2023 closing of Rockford Speedway in Loves Park, Ill.

This Thursday Throwback edition (we promised you one!) looks back 21 years ago today, when Tim Noble won for the only time at Rockford. Noble had enjoyed some Late Model success at Jefferson Speedway, closer to his home in Janesville, Wis., as shown in the inset image (Mark Melchiori photo).

Click on the large-type underlined link below to see this Thursday Throwback and look back on Rockford, and find out about Noble's later venture as a track official … and why he changed his number from #71 to #50.

Enjoy the rest of your week. Thank you for reading!

Above: This was the first serious racing involvement for Tim Noble (back center), as a crewman for Iowa-born sprint and midget car star Kevin Doty. (family photo collection)

Below: Tim Noble (center) was having some fun with his childhood friend Gregg McKarns (left) and Gregg's father and legendary upper-Midwest racing promoter John McKarns (right) during their younger days. (Sue McKarns photo)

Late Model Digest - September 24, 2026 (Thursday Throwback)