It’s been a month since races were last held at Rugby’s Geographical Center Speedway (GCS), no thanks to Mother Nature.

Track officials are hoping rain will steer clear of the one quarter-mile oval this Friday, July 9 when the racing schedule resumes in Rugby, including opening night of the annual Dakota IMCA Stock Tour.

The GCS has kicked off the last four IMCA Stock Tours and track volunteers expect good car counts this week with a $500 payout to the A-Main winner.

This year’s tour has increased to seven nights. In addition to Rugby, tracks in Underwood (July 10), Mandan (July 11), Estevan, Sask (July 12) Williston (July 13-14) and Dickinson (July 15) are participating.

The added dates will equate to more payouts for drivers and could potentially boost car counts at some tracks, but the expanded tour also means a greater commitment for those races who plan to complete the tour.

“Seven nights of racing is hard for a lot of drivers to do,’ said Rugby’s Tyler Dosch, who races in the IMCA Stocks class. “There is a lot more travel and expense involved and plus it’s hard to get a pit crew who can take that much time off as well.”

Dosch plans to compete in only night one of the tour this year and said car counts could be around 25 for the A-Main. A good number of drivers from the Minot area should compete in Rugby’s leg of the tour.

Tour officials have indicated an agreement has been reached with IMCA to allow Wissota Streets to run in the tour.

In addition to the IMCA Stocks, the Pure Stocks, Midwest Modifieds and IMCA Hobbies will be in action on July 9, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Weather permitting, this will be the third racing program of the season. Rain canceled two programs and speedway officials last week rescheduled races for Aug. 6 and 13. Championship Night will be on the 13th.

Despite the rain, car counts have been strong and attendance for the first two race programs was excellent.