An emotional weekend on the track for a Sikeston racer

On a busy weekend for Southeast Missouri racetracks, the biggest win of all happened out of state.

Austin Rettig of Sikeston won his first career event on the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, seven years to the day after the death of his older brother Nathan.

Austin, 16, won the event at Riverside Speedway in West Memphis, Ark., late Saturday. A day earlier, his dad — a longtime racer himself — made the right call.

"Dad told me yesterday that I was going to win on Saturday night, but to actually do it just means so much," Austin said. "I just know that Nathan was just there with me the whole way."

Nathan, the first to follow his father Allan's path as a late model competitor across the region, was killed April 9, 2004, from injuries he suffered in an ATV accident near his Sikeston home. He was 13.

On Saturday, Austin raced side-by-side with another of dirt racing's rising stars, Arkansas' Billy Moyer Jr. Austin's lead at the finish was 0.04 seconds.

"This one is definitely for Nathan," Austin said in victory lane.


• AROUND THE REGION: Short-track racing continued at St. Francois County Raceway near Farmington and at Malden Speedway, and the weekly schedules began for Thunder City Speedway near Doniphan and Black River Racepark near Poplar Bluff.

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