The Vault
2005 – ‘ROCKET RON’ BERNA WINNING WITHOUT A BIG SPONSOR
Posted on: Tuesday March 26, 2024
“Rocket Ron” Berna in 2023. (Gasroots photo)
(The following is the Green Bay Press Gazette Motorsports column I penned from July 13, 2005)
BERNA MAKING DUE WITH LESS – MUCH LESS by Joe Verdegan
I guess you could consider it a real David and Goliath story.
Despite having a fraction of the resources his foes have, Green Bay’s Ron Berna has learned over the years to make more with less. This past weekend the WISSOTA late model driver got a big boost, scoring feature wins at Langlade County Speedway in Antigo and Shawano Speedway. He scored a fourth Sunday night at Seymour Speedway. What’s more, it was a double pay night at Antigo. “We wound up with $3,300 for the weekend,” said Berna. “That’s not too shabby. That’s more than I’ve got in total cash sponsorship in the car this season, so we’re real happy about it.”
Despite not having the deepest of pockets, Berna has consistently stepped to the plate with his late model this year.
He currently sits fourth in the Tri-Track Challenge series, which combines a driver’s top eight finishes between Antigo, Shawano and Seymour. “We’re one of probably two guys in the top ten who don’t have a casino or Seubert (Calf Ranches) on the side of our car. I guess we take a little pride when we win and we don’t have quite what they’ve got. We don’t have a big fancy hauler bought for us. We built ours on our own. We’re used to getting by with less, in all honesty.”
Berna also scored a popular win last month at Shawano, winning an Australian Pursuit race, in which racers start single file and are out of the contest once they are passed. “I won 1000 silver dollars and I’ve still got them sitting at home,” said Berna. “This Tri-Track deal is paying out a pretty good payout this year, so instead of traveling around to places like Cedar Lake and Jim Falls in western Wisconsin like we did the past couple of years, we decided to run here instead.”
Berna has a new MasterSbilt brand chassis, constructed by professional dirt late model driver Jimmy Mars in Elk Mound, WI. “We actually started out the season with last year’s car, but we crashed the second week in Shawano,” said Berna. “We did not plan on finishing that new car until much later in the year. But the crash kind of pushed us along a little bit. We didn’t have much of a choice.”
One reason Berna has been faster the past few weeks is that up until a few weeks ago, he was one of the few late model drivers who was running a cast iron motor. “Merle Childs in Shawano builds our motors and he got us our aluminum motor a few weeks ago and it makes all the difference in the world,” said Berna. “Plus we’re starting to get the hang of that car. Sometimes you’ve gotta get some races under your belt before you start figuring things out.”
Running the three straight nights a weekend grind can take a toll on both the car and it’s team members. “We have to work on the race car literally every night,” said Berna. “On the weekends you are always getting ready for the next race. And during the week you’ve got enough maintenance to keep you busy. We’ve been running well so it’s not so bad. Guys are still fired up. But when you hit a dry spell that can be a real drag, especially as hot as it’s been out.”
Back in the mid-1990’s, Berna was the kingpin of IMCA modified racing at Shawano Speedway, where he won three straight track championships. He’s been racing late models for nine seasons now. That elusive late model track title has done just that – eluded him so far. “We’ve been close a few times at Antigo and Shawano but we’ve never been able to finish the job,” said Berna. “Right now we’re I believe second at Shawano and 4th and 5th at Antigo and Seymour. The last two years we really wouldn’t chase the points. But with the point fund and this tri-track deal, it made us take a second look and we’re in this deal all the way.”
In the next week or two the Tri-Track Challenge will take a page out of NASCAR’s manual, and juggle the point standings to allow the top six in points a shot at the overall title, which pays a guaranteed five thousand dollars in cash to the winner, plus many other bonuses. “We want to be in that top six, and hopefully we’ll have a good month of August to keep things rolling.”