The Scoop
BRUCE WHITE – NORWAY SPEEDWAY’S IRONMAN
Posted on: Friday March 5, 2021
Kingsford, Michigan’s Bruce White has made nearly every single race at Norway (MI) Speedway since he began racing in 1971.
We all know there are two guarantees in life – death and taxes.
At Norway (MI) Speedway there is a guarantee that on Friday nights the fans will always be able to see the familiar orange and white number 23 super late model piloted by Bruce White.
The Kingsford, Michigan native has been a fan favorite for years at the paved, third-mile oval for decades. For a guy who has only missed two races since his career started in 1971, no other racer can even hold a candle as to putting the most left hand turns around Norway’s bullring.
“The races I did miss I thought I was in love and went out of town,” White chuckled. “Truthfully, it’s a little selfish. But racing is all I’ve done for these all of these years. It’s a big part of my life.”
White declined to reveal exactly how old he is – only to say he’s still younger than his good friend and former racer Bob “Ranger City Racer” Menor of Wausaukee, Wisconsin. “I still chat with Bob on the phone at least once a week and talk about racing in general or him helping me out with some setups on my late model,” White explained.
Over the years White has been a Norway Speedway staple and he’s done it in recent years on the tightest of racing budgets. “This year I’ll be racing that same Lefthander chassis I bought from Mike Butz back in 2000,” White said. “I have no complaints with that car whatsoever. The frontend geometry on that car has stayed the same all these years.
White has gotten used to squeezing out the most of his equipment. “This will be the eighth season in 2021 I’m running that same crate motor I bought from Rick Stanchina for $3,500,” White explained. “We recently changed valve springs for the first time in six years. We’re gonna tweak some things on the car and see if I can hit that (rev limiter) chip a little bit sooner this year.”
In asphalt super late model racing a team’s tire bill annually can get quite costly at $137 per tire. “Managing tires in racing is never easy that’s for sure,” White admitted. “Tracks and clubs everywhere are trying to figure out the best way to do things. At Norway with the exception of opening night and specials it’s two tires a night for the most part. That way compared to just one tire a night it does give the traveling guys somewhat of a fighting chance anyways. On those four tire nights it seems like the bigger motors have an advantage. My favorite saying is ‘when the tires wear out the talent wears out.’”
According to White, the crate motor remains an affordable option for drivers looking to move up to run a super late model at Norway’s third-mile track. “I do think that the crate motors and open motors can both be run and co-exist,” White explained. “With a crate motor the odds are pretty good that somebody could jump into a gently used late model car for around $15,000. Like anything in racing you can spend a lot more if you wanted to. It makes it an affordable option though and I firmly believe we need that.”
In 2020 White finished sixth in the weekly point standings. “The last race of the year we overheated,” White recalled. “When we came back out my spotter told me on the radio ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news was I was six laps down after pitting. The good news was I was turning in laps of 14.4 during the feature, which were as fast as anybody in that race.”
With that said, White confessed his ‘achilles heel’ with his racing program at Norway is qualifying. “Fast time pays out 16 points weekly,” White said. “On average some nights when car counts are higher I time in 10th or maybe 12th. This year we’re going to try some different mock qualifying setups in practice to try to make sure we get in that fast dash every week.”
One of White’s career highlights was when he tied the legendary Dick Trickle in time trials one year at a special event Norway in the 1980s. “They gave Dick the fast time because I believe he timed in first,” White said. “I remember Mike Randerson coming up to me in the pits afterwards and telling me what an accomplishment that was. That was pretty cool.”
White’s familiar orange paint scheme hasn’t changed much at all over the years. Here he poses in the pits at Norway Speedway in the late 1980s. (Photo courtesy of Tribute to Norway Speedway facebook page)
White grew up in Kingsford and chose the number 23 after he saw a car with that same number sitting outside of Kacker’s Sinclair service station. “When I was young Ron Paquette was someone I followed a lot,” White said. “My first car was a ’64 Pontiac. I also ran number 23 in the sportsman class. One time to make it to the races I pulled the motor out of my GTO street car and put it in the race car. I blew it up in five laps. The wife was on vacation. I had to quickly put a six-cylinder motor back in the GTO in so she wouldn’t know!”
When White’s career started in the early ‘70s Norway was still dirt. “We’d even race at Eagle River quite a bit when it opened in ’75 and Crandon had an oval track too,” White said. “Years later when we went late model after Escanaba and Norway were paved, we’d travel to Wisconsin and race. I remember we towed down to the Milwaukee Mile with a wrecker and open trailer. When the crew and I walked out of the wrecker and took a look around I said to them “boys I think we bit off a little more than we could chew here.” It was huge – looked like an air force base! In practice guys had their windshields caving in and roofs were flying off. I remember passing Bobby Iverson and J.J. Smith down there. But the engine blew up in the 3rd practice session.”
White recalled an 11th place finish at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna in the ‘80s against a pretty stout field at WIR. “It was one of those Spring Openers and guys like Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace were there,” White said. “I’ve raced against Dale Earnhardt and Alan Kulwicki at Kaukauna too. For us we were considered little fish in a big barrel so we were thrilled with that.
I recall racing side-by-side against Mike Mattson for many laps one night in the feature at Norway. Mattson had his exhaust pipes running straight out of the car. I started getting sick to my stomach from the noise. It was so loud. My eyes were watering from it and I had trouble seeing. I threw up and still finished the race. I pulled on the scales. At the time my crew chief Dion always would drive the car from the scale back to our pit because that was the only time he could get behind the wheel. That’s one time I told him “don’t worry I’ll drive it back” because I had made a mess!”
White has served as president for the Dickinson County Racing Association (DCRA) on a couple of different occasions. “You take the good with the bad with those deals and that includes listening to some bitching from time to time,” White admitted. “But it comes with the territory. I had to put my time into that and serve. To me, being a racer on the board isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
In 2021 White will be helped in the pits by long time pit crew member Dion Tarsi and Tarsi’s son Jake Lucas. “Dion’s been there for more than 30 years and Jake is a pretty smart guy who enjoys this racing stuff greatly,” White said. “I told Jake five years ago I’d let him race the car some time. He’s been a big help.” Danielle Clark also helps keep White’s number 23 racer up and running.
In terms of sponsors White said Saloon No. 2 in Spread Eagle is all he’s got so far for 2021. “I’m always looking for sponsors even if somebody was to buy a set of tires,” White said. “We’re at the track every week.”