The Vault
1976 – MCBRIDE SCORES FIRST SHAWANO FEATURE FLAG
Posted on: Saturday May 3, 2025
Hometown driver M.J. McBride picked up his first feature flag of the 1976 season at Shawano Speedway. (Gary Vercauteren photo)
FIRST FEATURE OF SEASON FOR MCBRIDE AT SHAWANO by Pete Vercauteren
(reprinted from the Midwest Racing News June 17, 1976)
(SHAWANO, WI) June 12 – With passing held at a premium, M.J. McBride used a wait-and-see approach to garner his first 20-lap late model feature victory here Saturday night at the Shawano County Fairgrounds.
McBride also claimed top honors in the fast heat and earned enough points to advance from fifth to third in the point standings.
Dave Valentyne pushed the Country Kitchen 1973 MUSTANG off the outside polie in the main and held the 14-car field at bay for 14 laps until McBride finally found his opening.
McBride, starting from the seventh slot, picked his way through the competition as the dry, slick track nearly eliminated the outside passing groove.
The Shawano racer slipped outside of Herb Iverson’s 1975 Camaro down the backstretch in the third lap to take third. Al Presteen, running second to Valentyne from the start of the race, went high exiting turn two in lap eight and McBride and Iverson both dipped inside and immediately challenged for the lead.
McBride went for the number one spot down the back chute on lap 10 but ran out of track and Valentyne held on to his slim margin. Consecutive spinouts by Presteen and Roger Paul in laps 12 and 13 brought out the yellow flag to hold the field in tight formation.
When the green was again displayed, McBride chose the outer route but could not find enough bite coming off the south turn to overtake Valentyne.
However, as the pair bolted off the north turn, McBride dropped to the inside and took over the lead as they crossed the finish line. Iverson and J.J. Smith also found the inside path by Valentyne but McBride was long gone and won over Smith by two seconds.
Dave Bjorge, hauling all the way from Austin, Minn., claimed third as he caught Iverson three laps from the checker. Iverson placed fourth and led Jerry Smith and Roger Regeth to the line.
Valentyne slipped to seventh after driving one of the best feature events of his career.Regeth saw his feature win streak snapped at three by McBride, but was able to retain his position atop the point standings.
Denny Utke brought the semi to a suddent halt on the seventh lap when he nearly flipped his 1973 Cougar on the front stretch coming out of the north turn high, the Kimberly veteran got up on two wheels and performed a high speed balancing act before finally stopping on the track. He escaped injury with the exception of a thorough shaking. Marcus Brei of Neenah won the event.
SUMMARY
20 LAP FEATURE – M.J. McBride, Shawano; J.J. Smith, Appleton; Dave Bjorge, Austin, Minn.; Herb Iverson, Escanaba, MI; Jerry Smith, Medina; Roger Regeth, Kimberly
15 LAP SEMI-FEATURE – Marcus Brei, Neenah; Denny Teschke, Bonduel; Jerry Reichenberger, Oshkosh; Bobby Bennett, Greenville; LeeRoy Raddant, Shawano
10 LAP HEATS – 1st) Frank Oudenhoven, Appleton; Dave Gulmire, Green Bay; Dave Laurent, Oshkosh 2nd) Butch Wittmann, Appleton; Al Lundberg, Racine; Wayne Roffers, Green Bay 3rd) Teschke; Bennett; Brei 4th) McBride; J.J. Smith; Bjorge
8 LAP BONUS HEAT – Tom Greenlee, Loves Park, Il.; Bob Kleinschmidt, Oshkosh; Roy Powless, Oneida
Fast Qualifier: Tom Steuding, Altoona 25.023