The concept of the Dakota Classic Modified Tour started in a crowded hotel conference room at the Promoter’s Workshop in Daytona Beach, Florida in February 1990. The idea was a challenge from Dacotah Speedway’s promoter John Gartner (the Tour’s long time director,) to Nodak Speedway’s promoter, to cooperate in a big series of consecutive night races between several cities in North Dakota. The first DCMT was only a three race series between Mandan, Minot and Jamestown. This series, originally sanctioned with WISSOTA, proved that tracks in North Dakota could cooperate as a group to hold a large series of races that would attract the region’s top drivers.
     By 1991 the success of the small series was gaining the interest of many tracks in both North and South Dakota. A marathon 7 night series was next that attracted a great number of cars, but it was stretched out over  an geographical area that was too large and the number of races were too long.
     In 1992 the now familiar and very popular six date format was organized with drivers and fans making it a regular part of their racing season. Car counts flourished as payouts were improved and rules were standardized. The tour contracted with its first sponsors and drivers were rewarded with great prizes from national sponsors. Fans flocked to every stop on the series and racing was great.
     The years 1993-1997 were periods of consistent growth for the series. During this time a split came about with sanctioning bodies as IMCA entered the state. While car counts remained high as the series expanded into tracks in South Dakota, it became clear the future would be unsettled.
     In 1998 the switch made to IMCA sanctioning. While car counts were down in IMCA's first year, drivers entered from as far away as Tennessee, Ohio & Colorado. Fans loved the great competition, but it was clear additional rules would need to be changed to insure future growth.
     In 1999 the a rule structure was organized using a non-sanctioned format with specific rules that would allow nearly any sanctioning body to participate. Car counts expanded once again and the Tour became a national event that attracted some of the continent's best drivers each and every year.
     In 2006, the tour once again took on sanctioning and teamed up with IMCA to make it a tremendous success with some record numbers for car counts and some of IMCA's top drivers making the trip to compete on the tour.
    2007 marks the 18th Annual Dakota Classic Modified Tour, continuing to be the upper Midwest's longest running modified series.