If it's Thursday in the summer, that means it's race-day in Willmar. The city features stock car races every week at the Kandiyohi Racing Association Speedway, just blocks from downtown. But the thrill of one of the Minnesota's hottest summer sports is wearing thin for some who live close to the track.

	Stock cars line up to enter the track along a residential street in north Willmar. Neighbors watch from their front yard. View a slideshow of images from the Willmar stock car races. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

Even if you don't have a ticket, you can still get a good dose of stock car action from Jeff Peterson's front yard.

The retired science teacher lives just across the road and perhaps 100 feet from the Kandiyohi County Fairgrounds. The smell, the grit, the roar of the race: Peterson says he's got it all. On race night, his house at first looks deserted; every window is shut, with the shades drawn tight.

"We're gonna feel the windows shake, sometimes we might feel the house shake a little bit," he says. "A few years ago we had somebody with a decibel meter go out in the street here and it was over 100 decibels, which is unacceptable according to the pollution control people."

Racing here has grown in frequency and popularity over the past decade. This summer it happens every Thursday night for 15 weeks.

"In the morning," Peterson says, "you can go out there and there's dust all over the car. You can't hang out laundry."

	Drivers and mechanics work in the dust and mud of the pits to get the cars ready for racing. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

The fairgrounds and this north Willmar neighborhood have sat side-by-side for decades. Peterson has lived here 30 years, and he's not about to move. Neighbors haven't filed any formal complaints or lawsuits but a number are lobbying the city council for relief. (A noise level of 100 dB would violate a state Pollution Control Agency standard, but the agency says it has not investigated the track.)

It helps, of course, to be a race fan. You can't get any closer than Pat Halvorson, who looks down on the track from her back porch.

"I love (the racing)," Halvorson says. "It's better than listening to the neighbor's dog bark constantly ... I guess I don't pay attention myself because I'm sitting out there watching them. My daughter works nights, and she seems to sleep just fine."

The Kandiyohi County Fairgrounds has one of three dozen speedways in Minnesota, and many have their own similar complaints to deal with. Stock car racing is, by its very nature, dirty, smelly and loud.

"The noise and the fumes," says Dan Edwards, are "all part of the excitement."

Down in the pits, the mechanic from Grove City explains over his idling engine why racers keep coming back to Willmar.

	A driver gets ready for an early qualifying heat. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

"It's got real low banks, pretty flat corners, so it's a real challenge," he says. "Puts a lot back in the driver's hands. It's not all motor, not all car. It takes a good driver."

Cars slip and jostle in the mud around a 3/8-mile oval, hitting 80 mph. To the side of the track, an army of drivers and grease-monkeys fuss over 120 street stock, super stock and modified stock cars.

Charlie Nelson of the Kandiyohi Racing Association says a typical night packs in more than a thousand fans.

"I think what appeals to so many people is the competition, and really watching guys battle this out, doing the best they can to pass each other," Nelson says. "And I think with a lot of people it's the speed factor and noise factor, too, has a lot to do with it ... The fans, it just seems like it gets in their blood and they just want to keep coming to the races, thank goodness."

Nelson keeps the track on a strict watering schedule to keep down the dust. Racecar drivers are encouraged to install "downpipes," mufflers that deflect noise into the ground. And the races almost always end by 10:30 p.m. But this year residents have pushed for more, and the mayor will convene a task force to look at the future of racing in Willmar.

The discussions will be tempered by economic considerations. City officials say racing is a money-maker. Fans and crews stay in motels, buy gas and eat in restaurants.

Another concern is the financial link to the fairgrounds. Races brought in a little more than $1 million last year, and rent from the racing association has become a good source of income for the fair. If the speedway were to move, the whole fairgounds might have to move with it. Nelson thinks that's going a bit far.

"The bottom line is...to keep the fair going," Nelson says. "Personally we have a little over 42,000 people in Kandiyohi County, and we don't think 15 or 20 people should dictate whether this fairgrounds stays here or not."

But with the track so close to a residential area, small fixes are unlikely to make the complaints go away. North-side Willmar residents looking for peace and quiet say this forced night at the races is one summer ritual they didn't ask for, and would gladly do without.