The Vault
MIDWEST RACING NEWS 2001 – CLASSROOM TIME FOR BERNA, FRANK
Posted on: Wednesday May 29, 2024
Racin’ Around Titletown Column by Joe Verdegan
(reprinted from Midwest Racing News March, 10, 2001)
Green Bay, WI – Who says you’re too old to go to school?
Eastern Wisconsin WISSOTA late model chauffeurs Ron Berna and Todd Frank recently took part in a dirt late model driving clinic put on by United Dirt Track Racing Association (UDTRA) hotshoes Dale McDowell and Ray Cook. The classroom portion was held at McDowell’s shops.
The on-track portion was held at the semi-banked 3/8-mile, clay oval located in Cleveland, Tenn.
For the 30-something drivers the theme hammered home in the schooling was this: Keep things simple.
“Rocket Ron” Berna (Gasroots photo)
“Those guys really emphasized the basics,” said Berna, a fifth-year late model driver from Green Bay. “They seemed to say it takes a good five to seven years to blossom into a good late model driver on the dirt.”
Berna got some ‘constructive criticism’ from McDowell right off the bat on entering corners. “For years my brother has been telling me I was always going into the corners too hard and I ignored him,” said Berna. “But when you hear it from a former Hav-A-Tampa champion like Dale McDowell tell you the exact same thing, it really hits home. I was actually turning faster lap speeds by slowing down my entry into the corners.”
A special two-seat racer allowed Berna and Frank to ride along with McDowell and Cook as they smoothly toured the oval.
“The big difference is between those guys who do this for a living and those of us who race for a hobby is consistent lap times,” Berna pointed out. “Each lap there is only about one-tenth of a second difference where with us there may be as much as three or four-tenths difference. They are masters of throttle control.”
For Frank, a fourth-year driver who studied engineering at Northwestern University, it was also a true back-to-the-basics lesson.
“It was obvious there’s no black magic or fine are to what these guys do,” said Frank. “I rode along with (Ray) Cook and I can tell you when he entered the corners it was almost as if he was driving on pavement. He was that smooth.”
A misconception about buying the best stuff out there was also addressed in the classroom. “I was really surprised with how similar his GRT was compared to mine,” said Berna. “He let us look underneath the cars and they are nearly identical to what we had.”
You’ve got to remember all the chassis builders and manufacturers are out there to sell,” said Frank. “Both Cook and McDowell kept telling us you don’t need to buy every lightweight or trick component to be fast. If you have a good maintenance program and know why you are making a change on the car that is key.”
Frank and Berna are operating out of the same shop this season. “I guess at the track you could almost call us teammates,” said Berna. “Right now we’ve got our own deals going on. We’re hoping that this season we can turn the corner. We won three titles in the modifieds at Shawano in the mid ’90’s and are ready to experience that same success in the late models.”
The plans for Berna including racing Friday nights at Langlade County Speedway in Antigo, Shawano Speedway on Saturdays and Sunnyview Speedzone Raceway in Oshkosh on Tuesday nights. “We may even try out Seymour Tri-Oval Raceway some Sunday nights once we see how things shake out,” Berna said.
Frank will follow pretty much the same game plan this year. “”We’ll work on being more consistent this year,” said Frank, a driver who dove into racing headfirst in the late model division late in 1997. “We’re running GRT chassis and so is Ron.”
Berna’s effort is backed by the family business, Action Auto Repair of Green Bay. Frank’s program is sponsored by ServiceMaster. Both are still searching for that ‘big’ sponsor.
Two of the newest WISSOTA late model drivers in the area this year will be Eagle River’s Pat Zdroik and Horicon’s Lonnie Hoeft. Zdroik, a former WISSOTA super stock champion and promoter of Riverside Raceway in Eagle River, has purchased a late model from Jimmy Watson of Greenfield, and plans to become a regular fixture at Antigo, in addition to floating around to some other WISSOTA sanctioned tracks.
Hoeft, from the Beaver Dam area, campaigned a Shawano Sportsman car weekly on Saturday nights. Hoeft was pretty much forced to compete at Shawano after the division he had been running at Beaver Dam, called open class, was discontinued last season. Hoeft plans on making Oshkosh his weekly stomping grounds.
More frequently race teams, from the regional and local levels are using their own web pages on the internet as a way to showcase their racing programs. We’ve seen some good ones and some not-so-good ones in our three-year ‘tenure’ on the web.
One that recently impressed me was that of Hales Corners Speedway (Franklin) United Midwest Promoters (UMP) late model driver Chris Carlson. The site, at www.chriscarlson.com provided lots of interesting reading, history on the team and even had some ‘tech terms’ that the non-racing person could easily relate to. According to Carlson’s web site the team once again plans on campaigning at Hales weekly, with a few big money shows thrown into the mix.
As a race junkie one of the things I appreciate with a team’s website is how frequently it is updated. Nowadays anyone can throw up a website. They’re a dime a dozen. But like a race car, a home or anything else you can usually tell pretty quickly which ones have been given enough ‘TLC’ and which ones have not. And by the way Chris, we hope to see you and your Milwaukee-area late model friends for the Monday, June 25 United Dirt Track Racing Association (formerly Hav-A-Tampa series) event at Shawano Speedway. Advance ticket sales have been brisk – it’s going to be big.
Steve Sinclair’s Interstate Racing Association (IRA) sprint cars will return to Shawano Speedway on Saturday night, September 8. Joining Sinclair’s winged warriors will be the local late models and modifieds. For the mods, the normal field of 50 cars is generally trimmed to half that weekend because of the IMCA Supernationals in Boone, Iowa.
The beauty of that class on that night is that lots of drivers who don’t normally get to trade paint in a feature race will get some seat time in the main event. Among the rookies who will compete in the IRA circuit in 2001 are second-generation drivers Jason Johnson and Billy Warren along with another 360 sprint car graduate Kurt Davis.
Sinclair has promised that there will be a sprint car on display at the first ever Shawano Speedway Bay Park Square car show Saturday and Sunday March 24 and 25 in Green Bay. There will be approximately 15 racecars available for show and tell that weekend. Drawings will be held for season passes, as well as tickets for the UDTRA event at Shawano on June 25. For more information call race director Mike Panure at (920) 336 9099.
The new Thunderhill Speedway (Sturgeon Bay) promoter is former IMCA modified driver Tom Stark. Stark, from nearby Egg Harbor, will partner up with another individual who reportedly has experience in operating a race track in another state. Stark beat out a handful of proposals to pave the third-mile, clay oval. One was from former Seymour and Luxemburg promoter Bob Heinritz. The other was from Dick Stahler of Pinnacle Marketing, the group that manages Road America (Elkhart Lake).