The Scoop
A.J. DIEMEL – “YOU’ VE GOTTA HAVE DRIVE, PASSION AND COMMITMENT TO WIN”
Posted on: Tuesday October 26, 2021
Despite working full time in the racing industry A.J. Diemel still found time to climb behind the wheel himself in 2021.
When the Bonduel, Wisconsin native wasn’t building or fixing dirt late models and modifieds at MB Custom Race Cars in Menominee, Wisconsin, Diemel still found victory lane frequently – winning in both his own WISSOTA late model and the Dale White-owned WISSOTA modified.
As of mid-October, the 40-year-old Diemel competed in a total of 34 shows, scoring 13 feature wins between the two divisions. Among Diemel’s big victories this year included the Red Clay Classic at ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisconsin and the John Seitz Memorial for the third straight year at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. An impressive winning percentage of 38 percent.
Bonduel, Wisconsin native A.J. Diemel won nearly 40 percent of the races he competed in in 2021.
“Yeah, when you are working on race cars for a living you do need to get away from it for a bit,” admitted Diemel. “We bought a boat last year. On Sundays during the summer that’s our getaway. You need that day away because when you clock out at the end of the day you still must work on your stuff. You’ve still got to put the time into your own stuff, too if you want to win.”
Diemel hooked up with Jimmy and Chris Mars and moved to western Wisconsin nearly 12 years ago with his wife Meghan, who is the editor of WISSOTA’s “All The Dirt” racing newspaper. “I had owned my own business building modifieds called Tracer chassis,” Diemel said. “I’d work out of my dad’s (Donny Diemel) shop. But it got to the point where I either had to get bigger with that business or do something else. I think there may be one or two of those cars still floating around yet to this day.”
One of the factors that drew Diemel to go work for MB Custom Race Cars was at the time Mars, who was already an accomplished dirt late model racer, wanted to tap into the ever-growing business of building modified chassis. And it wasn’t the first time the paths of Diemel and Mars had crossed. “I went to college at UW-Stout (located in Menominee) and when I was in college I’d go and work for Jimmy in between classes and stuff,” Diemel recalled. “In fact, we still have a couple of students from Stout who happen to race, and they come and work for us on a part time basis. We stay very busy here and that’s simply the business side of things. It can be a tough balance sometimes as the wife works in the racing industry full time as well. For her it’s every weekend during the summer months pretty much.”
Diemel continues to carry on a true family tradition, one that included his grandfather Lyle “Pappy” Diemel who to this day is considered by many to be one of the true pioneers of the northeastern Wisconsin stock car racing scene.
“I’ve been involved with the sport since I was little,” Diemel recalled. “I remember when dad would help pit for Terry (Anvelink) and we’d take trips to Marshfield in the mid-1980’s when it was still dirt. I remember pulling engines at the track, driving back to pick up another one, all sorts of stuff like that.”
Diemel cut his teeth in the sport with his classmate – second-generation Nick Anvelink. The pair would obtain an older modified chassis and begin “cutting away” at the chunk of iron, trying to figure out how to squeeze out more speed from it. “That’s what we did back then, and we really didn’t have much of a clue as to what we were doing,” Diemel explained. “But we earned our stripes so to speak looking back on it all. We really did learn by trial and error. We weren’t born with silver spoons in our mouths and in my opinion we’ve both earned everything we’ve accomplished in our careers so far. I think these days a lot of that is missing. To go racing you need crew help and a lot of it. That’s a very big challenge in this industry these days.”
Diemel is fortunate to have a pretty loyal band of crew members who help him out with his racing operation. One loyal crew member who’s been there since day one has been his dad, Donny Diemel. “Dad has always been there to help and still is to this day,” Diemel said. Other crew members include Jamie Sevals and Lyman Smith. “When we pick a location to go race there are a lot of factors that come into play. Obviously, payout and how many hours away factor in. If crew help is able to go plays into that decision as well.”
A.J.’s dad and former racer himself Donny Diemel remains a loyal pit crew member of his son’s racing operation in 2021.
With Diemel and his wife both from the Bonduel area, the third-generation racer admits he does miss his hometown on occasion. “The Bonduel/Navarino area will always be considered home to us,” Diemel admitted. “But to build and fix race cars for a living out here it’s an opportunity for us to do something for a living that we grew up with. That part of it is pretty cool.”
Despite being just 40 years old Diemel racked up enough wins between the late model and modified classes to rank 9th in Shawano Speedway’s all-time feature winner list with 46 as of October, 2021. “Yeah, Shawano Speedway has been a track that’s been pretty good to me over the years,” Diemel said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to win the Seitz race three years in a row and the Red Clay Classic. And to win the WISSOTA Challenge Series was a feather in my cap. When I was younger that series was a pretty big deal. It’s waned down a little bit lately. Nowadays though we just always look ahead to the next race. If you sit back and look at what you’ve done sometimes you can lose focus on the task at hand.”
According to Diemel he feels fortunate to have started out in what was a very competitive IMCA modified class in the late 1990s. “When I was racing at Shawano early in the year, we’d get sometimes 50 to 60 modifieds a night,” Diemel recalled. “It was a big deal then just to make the feature. That motivated you to work your tail off and earn your stripes. And from there we worked our way into late models. These days a lot of these kids want to run just in the late models without paying their dues and hopping through the progression of divisions. It’s very difficult to find younger kids who want to put the time and work on their cars in the shop. You’ve got to have that drive, that passion and commitment to win. We always try to do things the right way and not cut any corners.”
Diemel’s team of sponsors includes Beltline Body Shop, White City Glass, Mars Race Cars, Olsen Custom Farms, T.L. Sinz Plumbing, Southworth Chevrolet Buick GMC, Keyser Manufacturing, Speedwerx, Wehrs Machine, CMD Race Shocks, Integra, Schill Construction Motorsports, Badger Excavating and JigE Signs & Graphics.