Remembering Don Mack

Don Mack in the Rydell Chevrolet / Howells No. 4. Photo by Dennis Sokness via Tom Cummings.

Don Mack in victory lane with Steve Kinser in 2010. Chad Spieker photo.

Racing communities throughout the Red River Valley learned and were saddened by the news of the passing of another of its most impactful fixtures, Don Mack. Mack was born in 1939 and battled in football in his high school years at left tackle. But it was while attending Grand Forks Speedway at the behest of friend Curt Sobolik where racing became his supreme passion. Mack's first car was purchased the very next week for $150, competing for the first time during the 1959 season.

It didn't take long for Mack to find his way to the top of the Class A rankings, becoming a threat to win night in and night out by the mid 1960's. As the decade came to a close, Mack was running sprint cars all over the country, finishing second in the IMCA national standings in 1969. With six victories in 28 appearances, including one at Red River Valley Speedway, in the final season in which the circuit competed without roll cages.

With farming at Tri-Mack in East Grand Forks also being part of his busy schedule, Mack's racing schedule featured mostly local races in the first half of the 1970's, but he and Doug Howells remained the dominant force throughout the region in their familiar No. 4, winning six championships at Grand Forks, four at West Fargo, along with six North Dakota Super-Modified State titles. Mack also mixed in some snowmobile racing during his ‘offseasons.’

The latter half of the decade saw Mack rise to prominence on asphalt as well, picking up wins in Tampa, Florida and at the Minnesota State Fair. In 1978, arguably Mack's biggest accomplishment behind the wheel came when he won the Little 500 in Anderson, Indiana, spurring Indy Car hopes. Though he and longtime friend and competitor Hank Albers bought Art Sugai’s team upon his passing, they couldn't find enough sponsorship in the ever-changing Indy car landscape of the era.

Hank Albert (77) and Don Mack (4) battle during an IMCA Sprint show at Red River Valley Speedway in 1969. Mack won that afternoon.

After finishing third in the debut weekend for the newly formed World of Outlaws at the recently closed Devils Bowl Speedway in Texas in 1978, Mack and Howells continued to travel, becoming members of the original WoO tour. They were running in the top five in Outlaw points in May of 1980 before Mack retired to come back and work the family farm after losing both his parents in an automobile accident the previous year.

Mack's career spanned 22 seasons, garnering north of 400 feature wins, but as his National Sprint Car Hall of Fame biography states, "flipping only six or eight times." Mack spoke about this aspect of his career during a 2021 appearance on Grand Forks Best Source saying, “I bent up the axel once and was feeling pretty crappy about it, and Doug (Howells) said, “don’t worry, that axel has been in there for seven years!”

Though Mack's career behind the wheel had come to a close, the mark he left on the sport was only just beginning. The following year, he and Albers teamed up again, this time bringing the Outlaws to the Red River Valley for the first time. This began a 29-year tradition of the 'Greatest Show on Dirt' making its annual stop at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo, which was eventually broadcast on live television across the country in the back half of the 1990's.

Don Mack in victory lane with Steve Kinser at Red River Valley Speedway in 1994. Paul Arch photo.

At this point, Mack was also watching sons Todd and Don, Jr., better known as Sonny, follow in his footsteps, also becoming formidable forces in the local racing scene, while brother Linus won six of the final seven Grand Forks Speedway titles in which he competed for in his career which ended in 1985.

In 1990, Mack was inducted into the first Hall of Fame class at Grand Forks Speedway alongside fellow competitors Bucky Peterson, George Swangler, Harry Thurlow, Dave Skari and Skari's long time car owner Ambrose Spieker among other distinguished inductees. Mack was also enshrined in the Nodak Speedway Hall of Fame in 1993.

Mack used his promoting skills to bring money and talent to Grand Forks' Harvest Bowl Special which ran from 1994-98, which turned into the I-29 challenge in 1998. Mack brought in Mark Kinser, Johnny Herrera, Danny Lasoski, Terry McCarl, Doug Wolfgang, and Jac Haudenschild, just to name a few for the Bullring's autumn special.

In 1999, Mack's efforts to grow the sport continued when he joined the group alongside Wayne Anderson, Darren Evavold, and the Zavoral Family which renamed the Grand Forks Speedway as River Cities, spurring a multitude of improvements to the facility that continue to this day.

Mack's sixth decade of involvement in the sport saw him inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa in 2001. Mack also spent time helping with track prep at River Cities and appearing weekly on 'Let's Talk Racing' with co-host Duaine Sanden. In 2007, following a successful debut of the World of Outlaws Late Model series the previous year, Mack brought the World of Outlaws to River Cities Speedway with the series making annual trips to Grand Forks and West Fargo to this day.

Inside Track photo.

Mack watched the family name carried on in style in the second half of his life as Sonny and Todd combined to win 13 of NOSA's 22 events in its inaugural season in 1994. Todd's son Casey won the 2011 series title, winning 32 features during his career. Casey's brothers Cale and Cory, as well as Sonny's son Mitch also competed in Sprint Cars with Cory and Mitch winning two NOSA features each.

In recent years, Mack hung up his promoter hat, but wasn't quite done being recognized for his successful career with inductions in the Little 500 Hall of Fame in 2017 and in the inaugural class of the Red River Valley Racing Hall of Fame in West Fargo in 2020.

Mack was a welcome sight as a fan as recently as this past September when he made his final appearance at the track where he was dominant behind the wheel, and a driving force behind its success off of it. 

Memories of the laps he turned for some, and the events he promoted for all, will be remembered fondly as his legacy will last for years to come.

Rest in Peace, ‘Flyin’ Dirt Farmer’

Dennis Sokness photos, courtesy of Tom Cummings.

National Sprint Car Hall of Fame photo.