An automaton racing track and betting parlor north of Sheboygan where custom-built racing machines compete on a half-kilometer dirt oval carved out of an abandoned dairy farm. The machines are small — roughly the size of large dogs — and fast, reaching speeds that make the dirt track a hazard for spectators standing too close to the rail. Races run in heats of eight, and the betting is furious: the odds shift in real-time based on track conditions, machine modifications, and the general mood of a crowd that takes its automaton racing extremely seriously.

The track is operated by the same family that runs the Boneworks fighting arena, the Lindqvist-Achebes, who have built a small empire on the principle that people will pay to watch machines do exciting things. The racing machines are built by independent engineers who maintain them like prize animals, adjusting gear ratios and suspension between heats with the focus of neurosurgeons. There are no rules about machine design beyond a weight limit and a ban on projectiles (learned the hard way), which means the field includes everything from sleek wheeled racers to bizarre multi-legged crawlers that take corners by gripping the dirt. The betting parlor is a heated barn adjacent to the track, with screens, odds boards, and a bar that serves exclusively local dairy products and hard cider, because some things about Wisconsin don't change even in the twenty-second century.