The Scoop
FROM SLINGER TO DAYTONA, 72-YEAR-OLD TOMCZAK STILL PUSHES ON
Posted on: Monday April 1, 2024
72-year-old Dave Tomczak of Franklin tests his Midwest truck during a shakedown session at Slinger Super Speedway. (seeking photo credit)
In a career spanning several decades, Dave Tomczak has wheeled race cars on both dirt and asphalt.
From the World’s Fastest Quarter-Mile of Slinger Super Speedway to the iconic high banks of Daytona International Speedway, the 72-year-old from Franklin, Wisconsin has competed at literally hundreds of race tracks in the United States and Canada.
And despite his age and a serious lack of pit crew help, this veteran racer and car builder continues to push forward in 2024. This essential ‘one-man-band’s’ latest project is working out the bugs in a truck he plans on racing with the younger pups in the Midwest Truck Series.
“My Dad Richard worked with Art Strom in the 1960’s,” Tomczak recalled. “Art’s son was Bill Strom and they were sort of an influence in how this entire racing addiction got started.”
As a youngster Tomczak tagged along with with Don Sorce Sr. But it wasn’t Hales Corners Speedway or even Cedarburg where Tomczak first jumped into the deep end of the racing pool. “The modified Sorce Sr. drove wasn’t legal at either of those tracks so we started out racing at Wilmot (dirt) and Lake Geneva (pavement),” Tomczak said.
The Milwaukee area modified scene was exceptionally tough in the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. “There were usually just two classes then the supermodifieds of that era and the sportsman cars,” Tomczak said. “Just those two divisions. The modified field was loaded with a ton of great drivers and some nights the sportsman division would have 80 cars. That one too, loaded with talent and a ton of really good drivers.”
Dave Tomczak’s first late model at Hales Corners Speedway in 1974. (RPM Photos)
The first time Tomczak donned a racing suit and helmet himself was in 1972. He bought a car from Oak Creek racer Jack Brewer. According to Tomczak it was a dirt car which he tried to make work on Lake Geneva’s pavement and he had little success early on. The price tag for Tomczak’s first ride? $1,500 and that was race ready.
In addition to Lake Geneva Tomczak ventured to Wilmot on occasion. Tomczak began networking with other racers in the greater Milwaukee area. By the time 1974 rolled around the modified scene began to fade away, replaced by the powerful late model division. The popular ‘pony car’ era was in full stride. Ford Mustangs & Torinos, Chevrolet Camaros, Novas & Chevelles along with Dodge Chargers and Dodge Darts made up the very diverse late model fields of the mid 1970’s.
Tomczak’s Dad Richard was a big influence on his son’s racing efforts early on. “Dad was a huge help as he hooked me up with with Sorce and Strom,” Tomczak explained. “Dad was very meticulous in his work and that rubbed off on me.”
It was an era where race cars weren’t mass produced (yet) and most race cars were built from the ground up by the individuals racing them. As the era of the ’70s wore on, Tomczak dug into the business end of racing and began building and repairing race cars for drivers. He even had employees at one time. He had to earn his ‘hustle’ to help pay for his racing addiction.
“Ed Howe was one of the first guys to mass produce stock cars over in Michigan,” Tomczak said. “So many of the chassis builders spun off of Ed Howe’s work. That is when drivers would start to get genuine technical support. There were some seminars and you could buy some books that would help. But it’s still nothing like today with the internet. Everyone has access to all of this technology.”
Tomczak fielded the first car at Hales Corners to run 180 degree headers. According to Tomczak it made his racer sound just like an Indy car with a totally different sound that had been unheard of up until that point.
While Hales Corners was pretty much Tomczak’s ‘home track’, that late model explosion that spread like wildfire across the state allowed Tomczak to travel to other tracks to race like Cedarburg, Wilmot and even an occasional Tuesday night visit to Leo’s Speedway in Oshkosh. Leo’s promoter was Leo Galica. His Tuesday night venue provided a truly diverse field of cars. The ‘stars’ of the north during that era were guys like Roger ‘The Bear’ Regeth, J.J. Smith, M.J. McBride and Roger Paul the “Flying Farmer.”
“I used to travel up to Leo’s with Bill Strom and we really loved running at Leo’s,” Tomczak said. “One of the things that was a common practice back then was switching tires from qualifying to when you’d race. Leo’s was always so tacky. That was always one track where you could race with your qualifying setup all night long. That track never seemed to dry out. It always stayed tacky.”
Galica also earned a reputation of promoting one of the tracks that boasted one of the top payoffs in Wisconsin in the 1970’s. Drivers earned a percentage of the grandstand ticket sales. With capacity crowds most nights, the Leo’s gig was a lucrative venue for racers. “Back then we’d always have to stand in line at the end of the night and wait to get paid right after the races,” Tomczak recalled. “Leo would often come up and thank me for coming and sometimes he’d slip me an extra $75 or $100. Leo was a good guy and a good promoter. He appreciated a team like ours coming up from the Milwaukee area on Tuesday nights to support his show. It was another incentive to tow up to Oshkosh on a Tuesday night.”
When he wasn’t racing Tomczak served as a college instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College where he taught welding and auto body. Tomczak continued to build race cars and once suffered a significant injury when a jack handle slipped and wound up poking a sizable hole in his stomach. “The jack valve hit me in the face and I got thrown across the shop,” Tomczak said. “I suffered vertebrae damage in my back and my teeth got smashed back real bad. The doctor told me if that jack handle would have stuck one inch over I’d have been dead.”
After spending nearly a year in the hospital, Tomczak would eventually heal up and he resumed his racing career which included both building and repairing race cars and driving himself, mainly on the dirt tracks early on. “My goals though were to run more pavement and eventually travel to the bigger tracks down south,” Tomczak said. Thing was in the 1980’s Tomczak’s priority was taking care of his customers first – the local drivers for whom he’d built their racers. Down the road some friends of Tomczak’s from the Chicagoland area convinced Tomczak to race in the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) series.
Tomczak’s racing career included a stint in the ARCA series. (seeking photo credit)
Tomczak had an inkling to hit the bigger iconic tracks like Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta among other places. ARCA would have allowed him to hit some of these tracks, in addition to some well known short tracks like Salem and Winchester, Indiana, Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) and Toledo.
In order to take care of his customers, Tomczak curbed his own racing efforts until the local season began to wind down. The months of September and October was when a bulk of Tomczak’s ARCA racing took place. The ARCA schedule was where Tomczak would pick and choose shows to compete in throughout the ’80s and into the early ’90’s.
“What I would often do was buy wrecked cars and fix them up,” Tomczak said. “I remember buying ARCA cars from Bob Brevak, Jerry Churchill and Bob Schacht. At one time I had three or four different superspeedway cars on hand. I’d also buy trashed short track cars. Fix them up. Run them maybe three or four times and sell them. That was part of that racing ‘hustle.”
The iconic 2.5 mile tri-oval that is Daytona Speedway is a place Tomczak raced at three times. His last appearance there was in 1989. “I had 10 guys with me and it was probably too much looking back,” Tomczak. “We were all bumping into each other in the pits.”
According to Tomczak, ARCA was what he deemed the ‘junkyard for Winston Cup’ at that time. It was common to have 80 ARCA cars attempting to qualify for roughly half that amount of starting spots. “The last time I went there I qualified 38th out of 82 cars,” Tomczak said. “That would up being my last superspeedway race and for good reason.”
While Tomczak initially thought he’d be a ‘lock’ to make the show, a bunch of regular ARCA drivers who were top points finishers from the previous year didn’t go as fast as Tomczak did. As a result Tomczak went from being in the show to being the 1st alternate. Yes even ARCA took care of its own.
So the team had to set up their pit just ‘in case’ one of the other teams couldn’t answer the bell. Tomczak never started that race and as such, it was the last straw for him. “I’d usually max out out a credit card just to get to Daytona,” Tomczak confessed. “Hauler and race car fuel. Motel rooms for me and the pit crew. My pit guys were typically volunteer but I paid all of their expenses. If we’d even get home later where they would have to miss a day of work from their real jobs I’d compensate them for that day. But that day did it for me. It just didn’t make financial sense anymore.”
Despite that, the Daytona experience was something Tomczak wouldn’t trade for anything. He met Cup drivers and crew members and became friends with some of them. He was able to purchase scuff tires from those teams. Sometimes he would even borrow their wheels for the race and have to dismount the tires and return the wheels after the race was finished. “Those were side deals with the crew chief as it was always cash and the money would wind up right in the pockets of the crew chief,” Tomczak joked.
At a rookie drivers meeting once at Daytona, Kyle Petty was one of the guest speakers. “Kyle was great and did a super job explaining to us rookies what was in store at Daytona,” Tomczak said.
While he abandoned the superspeedways, Tomczak focused his efforts instead on ARCA’s short tracks. Tracks in Toledo, Ohio. Salem and Winchester, Indiana. “We even raced up at Delaware, Canada and the Mile Dirt track in DuQoin, Illinois dirt,” Tomczak said. “That was very hot for a September race. That dirt dried out right away and my tires were squeaking just a few laps into the race. A big difference from Leo’s Speedway for sure.”
There were some other ‘hats’ in the racing industry that Tomczak had worn. When he worked helping other race teams he served as a dealer for both pavement cars (Dillon chassis) and Bullitt chassis (dirt). Tomczak also worked for NASCAR for a bit as a Winston Cup official and also penned a column for the long defunct Checkered Flag Racing News publication based out of Watertown, Wisconsin.
Dave Tomczak in victory lane following a feature win at Slinger Super Speedway. (Al Fortner photo)
Fast forward several years. After having his fill of ARCA Tomczak yearned for a return to short track racing. He competed in the short-lived NASCAR Elite short track series. The tour fielded perimeter-chassis cars similar to NASCAR’s Re/Max Challenge series. Tracks like LaCrosse, Lake Geneva and the Milwaukee Mile hosted NASCAR Elite shows. When that touring series fizzled out Tomczak fielded a short track car battling when his schedule and funding allowed in the Midwest Tour.
As a one-man-band Tomczak began to get frustrated a bit. It was tough to compete with little to no crew help against the better funded teams with two race cars tucked away with a big stacker trailer and 10 crew members scurrying around.. After selling his short track car he consulted with Joe Wood and Jason Schuler at Pathfinder chassis and decided to build a truck. “There are some cost savings going with the truck,” Tomczak said. “When I won years ago with my late model at Slinger I used an automatic transmission. So I’ve been experimenting with that in this Midwest truck. They are a little stubborn.”
The truck is Tomczak’s latest passion and challenge in motorsports. “(Racing) is all I’ve ever done,” Tomczak said. “It’s all I really know how to do. I never had time to go bowling. I’ve got a fishing boat that was my dads. My son loves to fish. When I’d race my Dad would take my son fishing. Family involvement in a racers life can be tough. You’ll often miss birthday parties and other events. I did. My ex-wife just didn’t like racing. And we were married 21 years. She came to my races maybe three or four times? This sport doesn’t come without it’s sacrifices.”
Tomczak would love nothing better than to groom one or two youngsters who have a passion for motorsports and show them the ropes. Tomczak’s several decades-long tenure in motorsports hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year he was inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame.
“If I can obtain some sponsorship and maybe a willing pit crew member or two I’d love to run the entire Midwest Truck Series this year,” Tomczak admitted. “I’d like to make the Icebreaker opener at the Dells on April 13. It’s a mix of us older racers who survived and some newer, younger drivers some of whom have access to some pretty deep pockets. But I have always loved tinkering with this stuff. I guess I’m not smart enough to get out of this crazy sport.”
Interested in helping a racing veteran like Tomczak? Give him a call at (262) 259 3753.