The Scoop
MY MEMORIES OF “THE BEAR” – THE LAST OF THE “REAL RACING VILLAINS”
Posted on: Tuesday April 12, 2022
Roger “The Bear” Regeth poses with a copy of “The Bird & The Bear” and his faithful pooch Maggie who never left his side at home.
It was not long after the 1st of the year when Roger Regeth called me and broke the news that he had leukemia.
Truth be told Roger seemed to take the news in stride and we chatted on the phone regularly. If his health was declining rapidly he certainly didn’t lead on much. But less than a week before his passing I got the call where Roger bluntly said “I ain’t gonna make it buddy. My organs are starting to shut down.”
It was at that point I realized we were going to lose a local motorsports icon. Nobody and I mean NOBODY played the role of the villain better than Roger Regeth did in the local racing circles. His aggressive, no-holds-barred style of racing often pissed off his competitors and the race fans loved to shower “The Bear” with a chorus of boos.
Roger poses with another Shawano Speedway multi-time champion – “Rocket Ron” Berna at NEW MOTORAMA in Green Bay.
But either way track promoters loved it because “The Bear” filled the grandstands. I watched Roger Regeth in the mid-1970’s when I was a kid, and it was later when I got to know him well in the early 1990s when I began announcing at Chilton Speedway (the old Calumet County Fairgrounds). Roger had come out of a “semi-retirement” of sorts and dominated action in what (at that time) was a new division called the grand national sportsman.
The concept was a street stock type car on racing tires. The division quickly became an affordable substitute for late models or sprint cars, which had grown to be pretty expensive cars for promoters to field.
It was in 1992 when Regeth won 17 of 20 features at Chilton’s tight, racy quarter-mile bullring. One night though, late in the year Regeth took out the local favorite Tom Schmitzer. That move drew Regeth a black flag from starter John Paul. In my near 40 years of announcing I’ve never seen the entire grandstands full of fans stand up and cheer so loudly for a driver he had been “ejected” pretty much for rough driving.
It was later in 2015 when I began to write books – and Regeth has his own chapter in “Life In The Past Lane – a history of stock car racing in northeast Wisconsin from 1950-1980.”
I got to become friends with Roger as the years marched on because Roger would wind up in the first four of the seven books I had published, including the 2018 release “The Bird & The Bear” which features Roger and J.J. Smith.
We’d travel to book signings all over Wisconsin and when you get a lot of “windshield time” like we did you really start to forge a true bond. Truth be told this “Villain” on the race track I came to find out was truthfully a very giving person who had a hand in helping quite a few people getting their racing careers off the ground.
After Roger’s racing career wrapped up he continued to speed behind the cockpit after his racing days were over with. “The Bear” wheeled the Les Stumpf Ford pace car for many years at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. When I started announcing at WIR in the mid-90’s I tagged teamed with another announcer. I’d interview the heat winners in the “X” of the figure 8 track.
One night we had a yellow and before the field fired back up “The Bear” hollered out the window “Wanna go for a ride?” I hopped in the pace car and Roger had that thing going 91 mph down the backstretch of the half-mile. I was interviewing him with the wireless mic the whole time. The entire time Roger had a shit-eating grin on his face!
Years down the road when we were doing some book signings, we managed to land a gig on a half hour television show on CW 14/Fox 11 with Robert Hornacek to talk about “The Bird & The Bear.” I asked Roger before we started taping ‘do you have your ringer turned off on your cellphone?’ “Bear” promptly replied ‘yup.’
Roger poses with CW 14 Focus host Robert Hornacek (right) and motorsports author Joe Verdegan (left) during a television taping promoting the book “The Bird & The Bear.”
Well, a good halfway through the show you can hear Roger’s ring tone going off in his coat pocket. Nobody missed a beat – not Roger, Robert H. nor myself. We had a good chuckle about it afterwards.
Roger resided in the Fox Valley (namely Kimberly) from the early 1970s on. But what most folks don’t realize is Roger actually lived near the Milwaukee Mile during his youth years. Roger cut his teeth on the ultra-tough, Milwaukee area sportsman circuit in the 1960s where he was the first ever overall Milwaukee area champions.
One other interesting fact about Regeth was that he was almost always a hired gun. And he seldom turned wrenches on the cars. Whether it was a USAC stock car ride or driving for any of the car owners of the Fox Valley in the 1970s – Regeth’s talent alone earned him seats in some top-notch rides.
One of Roger’s skills was obtaining sponsors – even before securing sponsors was ever really “a thing.”
He was well ahead of his time. Roger loved telling stories and as such, was the near perfect interview for any book. And away from the track in his later years in life Roger had a fierce protector in his dog – his beloved Maggie. Whenever we’d pull into Roger’s driveway Maggie would always be in the window – anxiously awaiting Roger’s return.
There will never, ever be another driver of Roger Regeth’s caliber IMO who wore the black hat and played the role of “bad guy.” It was an honor and privilege to have Roger’s friendship and I feel blessed to have been able to share the colorful stories of his racing career. Godspeed my friend.
This book is available for purchase at this website. Simply click on the “books” tab on the upper left corner.