The Vault
1976 – DRIVER PROTEST CANCELS DE PERE RACES
Posted on: Thursday April 6, 2023
Roger Regeth (right) poses with car owner/crew chief Mike Randerson. (Vercauteren family photo)
(The following is an excerpt from the 2019 release “The Bird & The Bear.” You can order this book on this website by clicking on the “books” tab.)
DRIVER DISPUTE CANCELS RACE
By Dale O’Brien
REPRINTED FROM THE GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE JUNE 4, 1976
Red BeDell, promoter at Speedway USA at the Brown County Fairgrounds, continued to be stung by problems Wednesday night as his weekly stock car races had to be canceled due to a driver walkout.
The opening two weeks at the race track were plagued by a dry, dusty track and poor attendance. What eventually led to the cancellation of Wednesday night’s program was the track condition, but, ironically, the track was wet, not dry.
But the whole disagreement boiled down to slightly different matters to different drivers. Some said it was track conditions alone while others said BeDell was unfair in giving every car one time trial. Still others talked about a guaranteed purse.
BeDell, on the other hand, felt the track was not too wet and if it were properly run in, would have been excellent. He also said he had been fair and everyone had received one lap as agreed.
Time trials were originally set for 6:30 p.m., but only a few vehicles from the pits came out and attempted to pack in the muddy oval, despite pleas from officials in the pits and the track announcer.
For the next hour the same picture continued, a few cars and trucks sliding around the track. During that span several drivers seemed to be reluctant to bring their cars out because of the high investment in the racers.
One car owner looked at the grandstand, which contained what appeared to be a small crowd and said “I’m not taking my car off the truck until I see how many people are here.”
Then, around 7:30, BeDell called a drivers meeting in an attempt to get more cars to run in the track. There, Roger Regeth, track champion at De Pere the past three seasons, made reference to the small crowd and asked why BeDell didn’t offer the drivers a guaranteed purse.
BeDell said that his guarantee was 50 percent of the gate receipts and then asked how many drivers wanted to race that night. After a vote, it was decided the races would go on, with each driver getting one time trial, beginning at 8:00 p.m.
After several cars had already timed on the still slippery track, Regeth made his attempt and spun out. When he was told that the spin counted as his one lap.
A group of drivers then got together and most began loading their cars on their trailers, including Regeth.
“They have to give us one lap to qualify,” said Regeth. “The track is rotten. I spun. Medina (Jerry Smith) spun, a lot of other spun. If they don’t give us one lap we’re gonna load up.”
Gene Wheeler, owner of J.J. Smith’s racer, which had made it around the track and turned in the quickest time, also had his car loaded. “It isn’t fair to the rest of the guys. At least they could have had one lap,” Wheeler said.
Minutes later, BeDell came over the loudspeaker and said that the program was canceled and that everyone would get a full refund.
“Yesterday Roger Regeth approached me” BeDell said. “And he wanted to help me in any way he could (in making the track successful).
“Then tonight he wanted a guarantee. He felt it was wrong that the county gets a guarantee (BeDell guarantees Brown County $1,500 each race program in his lease with the track).
“As a result, the track wasn’t packed. If it were packed, you would have seen a track record tonight.”
Asked about next week, BeDell answered “I don’t know about next week and they (the race car owners and drivers) don’t know about next week and, unfortunately, Joe Race Fan doesn’t know, either.”
