The Vault
Brett Van Horn – Sport Truck dominance
Posted on: Thursday January 14, 2021
In this week’s edition of “The Vault” on joeverdegan.com we go back to 2015. De Pere, Wisconsin’s Brett Van Horn was one of the hottest sport truck drivers on Thursday nights at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. This is one of my columns from that summer from the Green Bay Press Gazette. Thanks to Imagix Photography & Design for the photo. Enjoy!
De Pere’s Brett Van Horn has been a model of perfection so far in 2015.
The 22-year-old sport truck racer is batting .1000 at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna on Thursday nights.
So far this year he’s won all 8 features held and holds a commanding points lead in the division.
“You know I think we’ve actually been lucky on the track with stuff and our pit crew does a real good job of getting thetruck ready in the shop on Tuesday nights,” said Van Horn, who is in his fifth season of racing trucks weekly at WIR.
“I’ve had some close finishes though. I beat Kyle Quella by two thousands of a second one night and that was the closest finish I’ve had so far. He’s been fast and is always a threat.”
Another one of Van Horn’s chief competitors on a handful of Thursday nights is Green Bay’s John Roeser, a former champion at WIR. “He’s smooth, very smooth,” said Roeser. “You can have 1,000 horsepower but if you’re not smooth, you’re not going anywhere. Brett takes his time and picks them off one by one. Smooth is fast. It works for him very, very well.”
Van Horn has a team of crew members who wrench on the winning truck. They are Al Domke, Lee Ducheateau, Daryl and Jerry Carter.
Van Horn got into the sport of racing locally through family, like many others. “My uncle and godfather Gordie Sannes used to race here for years and I helped my cousin Neal Sannes for about 8 years on his pit crew,” said Van Horn. “My Dad’s buddy Lee (Duchateau) bought a truck and we team drove it for a year. Lee only hopped in it one time and I took over the rest of the year.”
Van Horn sports the number 36 on his truck. “Uncle Gordie was 37 and Neal is 38 so I decided to go the other way with my own number,” said Van Horn.
When it came to the trucks Van Horn admits he was more of a fan of them at first – until he started hanging around the race shop. “I actually started out doing things like bleeding the brakes and stuff,” said Van Horn.
The trucks for the most part are affordable to race and require very little maintenance. “Probably the biggest thing we do is keep them clean and keep the grease off of everything,” said Van Horn. The trucks themselves run on snowmobile engines. “You can run a set of tires all year so they really aren’t that expensive to run on a weekly basis.”
“You can get a fairly stout used truck race ready for around $3,500 or so,” said Van Horn. “There are enough of them around too.” Van Horn estimates the annual costs to maintain the race truck at $400. “That’s if you don’t wreck anything,” Van Horn pointed out.
When he’s not racing he works as an auto technician at Gandrud Chevrolet in Green Bay. Hunters Edge Archery is one of Brett’s main sponsors and also letters the truck for him.
The truck that Van Horn runs also has a sentimental value for him as well. “Myself, Robb Vandermoss and my Dad Bruce Van Horn built this truck from the ground up four years ago and my Dad passed away two years ago,” said Van Horn. “So I’ve definitely got a fan upstairs looking over me.”
WIR LEFTOVERS – Oshkosh’s Heather Wolfgram became the first woman in Fox River Racing Club (FRRC) history to win a Sizzlin’ 4 feature on the tracks quarter-mile.
Wolfgram led every lap en route to victory. The father-son duo of Lowell and Braison Bennett from Neenah also made history on the tracks D-shaped, half-mile. Lowell won the super late model feature while Braison won the late model feature. It’s the first time in club history a father-son duo won features on the big track. WIR will host the “White Race”, the second leg of the Red, White and Blue state championship series for super late models. Third generation driver Ross Kenseth has committed to run the White race. Slinger Speedway regular Steve Apel won the Red race on June 18. A kids coin drop will also take place, with racing getting underway at 6:45 p.m.
TUNDRA NOTEBOOK – Seymour’s Ty Majeski placed 12th at the TUNDRA super late model series event at Lacrosse Fairgrounds Speedway last weekend. De Pere’s Reagan May finished 13th while Reedsville’s Maxwell Schultz took 17th. The win was scored by local Skylar Holzhausen of Bangor. The next TUNDRA event will be held Saturday July 18 at Dells Raceway Park in Wisconsin Dells.
ARCA MIDWEST TOUR NEWS – The next stop on the ARCA Midwest Tour will be the Wayne Carter Classic 100 at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Il. Friday, July 17. On Tuesday August 4 the “Traditional Tuesday Biggie” the Dixieland 250 will return to Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. The event will pay $10,000 to the winner and already has commitments from second-generation drivers NASCAR star Johnny Sauter and Ross Kenseth. The raindate for this event will be Wednesday August 5.
SEYMOUR LUCKY 7 – The WDLMA late models will return to Seymour Speedway Sunday July 19 for the Lucky 7 Series. All other weekly divisions will also be in action. Racing gets underway at 6 p.m.
141 UPDATE – A special event the “Stan Gracyalny Chaos at the Creek” will take place at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek Friday, JULY 17. The following night July 18 will be Christmas in July and Fan Appreciation night. Racing gets underway at 6 p.m.