North Central Speedway issued its weekly penalty report for the Saturday portion of its Mighty Axe event that explains why modified ace Joe Chisholm was disqualified from the WISSOTA portion of the event.
On Saturday night, Chisholm competed in both the IMCA Modified division and the WISSOTA division. He won the IMCA race and crossed the line first in the WISSOTA race, but was subsequently disqualified following a post-race inspection.
The track shared in its penalty report that Chisholm was disqualified for multiple violations:
- Right rear wheel was an IMCA wheel
- Right sail panel bowed in –
- 2026 WISSOTA Rulebook Page 40, Section 2-C – Both sides need to be same side-to-side with max of 2 inch outward bow.
- Bottom of doors and quarters flared out
- 2026 WISSOTA Rulebook Page 41, Diagram Mod-1 – Max body width 78 inches and bottom of door and quarters. Also not allowed to flare out to bottom.
- Doors concave on right side –
- 2026 WISSOTA rule page 40 – No concave body panels.
- Right front shock had 3 inch bump stop –
- 2026 WISSOTA Rulebook Page 45, Section G – Shock travel limiting max 2.5 inch max combined rubber and packers.
The penalty report comes in the wake of Chisholm disputing his disqualification in a post to Facebook on Monday, September 7th. In that post, Chisholm alleged that he was subjected to a three hour tech inspection and was not informed why he was disqualified other than the fact that he was told “Your body is illegal.” He wrote, “I asked where it was illegal and what measurement was out of compliance. I could not get an explanation or a specific measurement. I was simply told that it was illegal.”
After being disqualified on Saturday night, Chisholm returned to compete on Sunday and claimed the track wanted to put both his IMCA car and his WISSOTA car through pre-tech. He shared that he got his IMCA car through pre-tech, but was unable to get his WISSOTA to the tech shed. From there a verbal altercation ensued between him and the tech officials, and he was tossed from the track.
Additionally, Chisholm accused the tech officials of consuming alcohol on the job, “My concern is that tech officials were consuming alcohol during post-race technical inspection, before the inspection was completed. If tech inspection is still taking place, that is still part of the race program and the officials conducting that inspection should be held to the same standards expected of the competitors.”
Following Chisholm’s post disputing the disqualification, track owner James Trantina addressed his accusations. He wrote, “He wants to play victim like he always does and I’m sick of the Chisholm way and bull[crap]. If you want to run WISSOTA run a legal car in WISSOTA.”
He then directly addressed Chisholm’s claim that he was not informed about why he was disqualified, “Saying we didn’t tell you what was right or wrong, you just argued. You had your own way of explaining the sail panel. You were in denial of the illegal bump stop. It was everything.”
“Your car is so out of whack for WISSOTA, your bump stop as pictured here is illegal. Your body, I can post that picture next, rule is 78” and NO flare, it is 88” with flare,” he added.
Photo of Joe Chisholm’s sail panel shared to Facebook by James Trantina
As for the length of time it took to inspect Chisholm’s car, he wrote, “But back up, Saturday in the tech shed, the top 3 had birdcages taken off and weighed. No one [whined] or complained but you. I like teching things that matter and different thing weekly. The other two cars took about an hour to get theirs off and weighed. Your program, about 3 hours.”
Trantina also shared that due to the numerous violations discovered on Saturday night, he wanted to give Chisholm a chance to make changes so his car would be legal for Sunday, “I was kind enough to let him fix it but his lazy ass didn’t want to.”
“I am the one that said, guys, he drove up this far, let’s give him a chance to fix it and make it right. BUT, I want him to pre tech,” he stated. “Not a big deal. Throw a shock on, fix the body, I figured he’ll an hour he can race.”
Bump stop measurement for Joe Chisholm’s car shared to social media by James Trantina
In regards to why he was asked to leave the track after not fixing his WISSOTA car, Trantina wrote, “You were disrespectful to the general manager Shelaine, to her husband Jeremy, their right hand man Ty and tech official Pogones. Even through every single one of them said you were being a ‘little prick’ an ‘asshole’ a ‘jerk.'”
Finally, he addressed the claim that the tech officials were drinking, “Pogo hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol in years. Nor Kenny. So again, trying an escape goat and blaming someone else instead of admitting your wrong.”
The two would get in a back-and-forth in the comments on Chisholm’s original post with Chisholm taking issue with the rulings as well as the photos. Trantina had enough and banned him from all three of the tracks he owns. Those tracks include North Central Speedway, Granite City Motor Park, and I-94 EMR Speedway.
He wrote, “I’m done with your stupid [crap]. You are banned and done at my three tracks. I94, Granite and NCS. You will also be getting a letter in the mail for your actions. I’ll also be talking with Staley’s as if you choose to race USMTS next year you’re not allowed at our tracks and they can figure it out or we will cancel the USMTS show.”
Trantina went into further detail on why he banned Chisholm in another Facebook post, “This is also why I ban people, why should we deal with someone like this if we DQ him again and deal with the drama, bull[crap] and name calling all over again. He doesn’t support our tracks regularly, he doesn’t want to fix what’s illegal, so why have the headache?”
“Also, I get racers get mad and tempers flare, I’ve been there. BUT, why, time and time again should you allow someone to throw a fit, call names and treat staff like [crap]. Then in this situation where we were generous to tell him we will let him run but needs to pre-tech and he chooses to lose his mind and swear and call names to the tech guy. So we send a female general manager over to talk to him and he loses his mind on her calling her a bunch of names. So we send her husband and another guy over and he does the same thing. That’s when it’s time to leave. Just go.”
0 Comments