Ty Fredrickson enjoys an emotional Oktoberfest 200 win. So does his dad

WEST SALEM – Ty Fredrickson climbed out of his car, stood on the roof on the front stretch of La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway and let out a holler. 

Nearby stood his father, Dan, a four-time winner of the Oktoberfest 200 and an ASA Midwest Tour champion before Ty was born. He was so overcome with emotion about his 17-year-old son’s first checkered flag in the end-of-season extravaganza that he might cry. Soon there was no “might” about it. 

“It’s always been my favorite race and probably where I’ve had the most success,” the elder Fredrickson said. “Ty Majeski is probably the best at this, and we just whooped his ass.

“My son worked so hard to get an opportunity just to get to the next level. My family, myself, have given everything we could … and to beat Majeski handily, it means the world because it just proves that my son deserves an amazing opportunity in the upper ranks.”

Fredrickson led the final 82 laps and 117 in all, survived four restarts while leading and finally pulled away from the five-time Oktoberfest winner Majeski by 3.676 seconds at the checkered flag. Justin Mondeik was third, Jacob Goede fourth and Casey Johnson fifth. 

“It’s everything,” said the younger Fredrickson, who is in his third full season driving his father’s super late models. “To beat [Majeski], to win the 200 here, La Crosse has so much history.

“I’ve lost this race two times. In 2024 I made a mistake, got sent to the back, and then last year I was in the exact same position. So I can always find myself in position to win this race, but today nothing went wrong and all the cards played right for me.”

The Minnesota pair are the second father-son duo to have won Oktoberfest after Tom and Bryan Reffner.

Johnson claimed his second straight series, edging Penn Sauter, who finished seventh. (The actual point total was delayed.) The Edgerton native’s fifth title in the series capped what might be among the best years of his career, he said, given he won the Slinger Nationals in July, but ironically he went 0 for 8 on the Midwest Tour itself.

“I’m not sure I love that, but I’m so glad we got the championship,” Johnson said.

“Last year, we won the first three out of the gate. It’s just been one of them years. We were on second or third in almost every one of them that we finished.”