The Vault
BOB ABITZ – THE “FLYING PROFESSOR”
Posted on: Monday April 14, 2025
Bob Abitz
Bob Abitz has been fortunate enough to play the short track racing game on both sides of the fence as a driver and a tech official.
What’s even more amazing is he acted as both a driver and tech inspector at the same time for some years which is almost unheard of in modern times.
“The Flying School Teacher” taught collision repair and other automotive specialties as a shop teacher at Freedom High School. “The district hired me in 1972,” recalled Abitz, who was also a racer at the time. “I began racing at WIR that same year with a Plymouth Roadrunner. I’d race for those first Red, White and Blue shows we had.”
As a shop teacher Abitz exposed his students to many different disciplines in the automotive industry. They would rebuild engines. They went to frame shops in the area and learned how to fix cars. “I’ve had students I’ve taken under my wing and a lot of them served on my pit crew along the way,” said Abitz. “I mean I had some kids who had not been out of Outagamie County. They got to go with me to races all over the Midwest, including Illinois and Indiana. For them racing was an extension of the school. I never had any beer with us either. Just soda.”
Abitz was asked by WIR owner Joe Van Daalwyk to write the rules for the Red, White and Blue series when it was created in 1972. “Joe says to me one day “I’ve got to find you a sponsor,” said Abitz. “He came to me and said “I’ve got Old Style beer to sponsor your race car. It’s a $5,000 deal.”
As a high school teacher there was no way Abitz could take that sponsor money – which was a whopping amount for that time period. Abitz refused to take a dime of that sponsor money. “I think for that reason Joe just thought the world of me after that,” said Abitz. “Every other driver would have jumped at the chance.” Years later Old Style would appear as sponsors on cars driven by Jim Sauter and Rod Wheeler.
On the track in the early to mid-1970’s WIR was struggling to get late models. One of the reasons was many other paved tracks in the state had their own individual “wrinkles” in their respective rulebooks which discouraged drivers from other tracks to tow to Kaukauna. “I remember Rich Somers from Stevens Point and I were two of the very few late model drivers who made it to WIR every Thursday night that year,” said Abitz. “That year the rules in Wisconsin you could have called them “every which way but close.”
Clem Droste was president of Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA) which sanctioned races at tracks located in Wausau, Madison, Wisconsin Dells and LaCrosse. “Sunday was always open for specials that year and theoretically you could race six of the seven days of the week with the specials,” Abitz pointed out. “In ’75 we were starting to draw guys like Larry Schuler and Roger Regeth to WIR on a weekly basis. That was the type of caliber of cars that started coming there weekly.”
After the season when the off season meetings commenced in the fall, talk of rules changes began to surface. “There were a lot of leftover guys from the Apple Creek days with their cars and I suggested we needed to change our rules to adapt to other tracks,” said Abitz. “A few guys asked why?” The answer was simple. So we can race someplace else if you do want to chase other tracks.”
Roger “The Bear” Regeth stood up at one of the meetings. He said “Abitz, why don’t you start writing the rules.” “Clem and I got together and started to blend the rules with CWRA,” said Abitz. “I even got Slinger to go with it sort of. Lake Geneva was also interested in what we were doing at the time.”
In 1977 and 1978 different tracks ran different tires. McCreary, Firestone, Hoosiers were tire brands all run by different ovals. “By ‘78 we had a uniform tire rule in Wisconsin,” Abitz proclaimed. “You could go anyplace and run the same tire. Before that I had to have a three tire rack to go race elsewhere because of all the different tire options we had. It was crazy.”
The process of blending the rules with other tracks took some legwork. “Chuck Ippolitto, Jim Salentine and I would make trips over to Adams Friendship in Central Wisconsin to go to those CWRA meetings,” said Abitz. “We’d see what they were doing and then we’d have our meeting and decide what we were going to do.”
With Abitz in Joe Van Daalwyk’s good graces, Abitz suggested to Van Daalwyk they he start running a Fall special. With the weekly racing done at most Wisconsin tracks it would draw drivers from several Wisconsin and Midwestern tracks. “We started running those races after that,” said Abitz. “But those bigger specials sometimes didn’t come without their problems as far as tech inspecting.”
Meanwhile Abitz was experiencing some sour luck with his own racing program. “I raced on a budget and was doing engine rebuilds in the winter time for money,” said Abitz. “I had x amount of money I spent on racing for the full season and we stopped when the money ran out.” In 1982 Abitz was at seven blown motors with two different engine builders by July 1. “I said that’s it, we’re done.”
Mike Lemke would assist Abitz in getting another motor together. When the final checkered flag flew in 1982 Abitz race car had chewed up and spit out a total of nine engines. Lemke would start assisting Abitz with teching cars and continues to do that to this day.
Some of the problems Abitz ran into for the bigger races when we he was still racing the RWB sometimes would be if there was another driver who finished in front of him who would get disqualified. “Remember I was still racing at the time,” said Abitz. “A few years down the road Bill Oas was a driver from Minnesota who was running the Red, White and Blue series in 1982. One of the Bilstein shock absorbers that he was running you could only run those in ARTGO. We said you couldn’t run them for a weekly show to keep the cost down. I missed the feature. I’m coming up to the semi feature. He’s gliding through the corners. I’m bouncing through the corners. I’m studying the car. When we got to tech after the races and that’s when we discovered he had the silver Bilstein shocks. I went and got Dick Trickle and told Dick “you have to disqualify him because he’s got illegal shocks.” I couldn’t do it obviously because I finished one spot behind him. He got the transfer spot until he was disqualified. So I wound up getting the transfer spot instead of Oas. That’s why I had to call Trickle over to be impartial.”
Hence, Oas learned an important lesson that when you travel to an new or unfamiliar track the first thing you have to do is run your car over the track scales. Always run across the scales and always know what the rules are.
“Truthfully it was a very hard thing to do both tech cars and race,” said Abitz. “These front running guys are running across the scales. I could see all of their percentages they were running, which is really key to knowing what their hot setups were. They had confidence in me so I could ride both sides of the fence. Abitz hung up his helmet in 1983 quit racing and devoted his full attention and effort to becoming a tech inspector.
Soon Abitz wasn’t handling the tech chores just at WIR, but other venues as well. “After I sold all of my own racing equipment I got calls from John McKarns from ARTGO and Donn Oliver who was the president of Norway (MI) Speedway,” said Abitz. “Both wanted me to work for them. And I did.”
It didn’t take long and Wayne Erickson from Slinger Speedway was calling, also soliciting Abitz and his skills.
Abitz has seen his share of tales with catching drivers trying to sneak one by the Flying School Teacher. “I remember one night I saw Augie Derenne get his car towed off on the hook after a bad wreck,” said Abitz. “I saw he had an aluminum block motor in it. I told Augie “you know when you get this thing fixed you really should get rid of that aluminum block motor.”
Or the time a Red White and Blue race was red flagged because of a rain delay. “The cars are all parked on the track and no crew members are supposed to be out there,” explained Abitz. “All of a sudden I look towards Scott Hansen’s car
It looks like the car is moving a bit. I look at his car and Richie Wauters (NASCAR truck owner and Hansen crew chief at the time) is underneath the car trying to adjust the coil over shocks. That was a big no no.”
One night Waupaca’s Tom Haen got caught not once – but twice in the same night with illegal carburetor. “Tom looked exceptionally fast that night, much faster than he was normally running so I looked under the hood and we got him once,” said Abitz. “Sure enough he bolted another illegal carb the next time out. We got him again.”
Carburetors were the place where crew chiefs like Richie liked playing the cat and mouse game most. “Guys like Richie keep us on our toes,” admitted Abitz. “Richie and I are still friends. The drivers said if we had a disagreement one day, the next day it would be a clean slate. Every day is a new day. I still try to live by that.”
Abitz would later go to work for NASCAR in the ReMax Challenge series. “Looking back over the years with things like the 9:1 compression rule we implemented to me it kept a level playing field,” said Abitz. “That was my big thing. We tried to keep the rules in check so the little guy at Kaukauna could compete with the Scott Hansen’s and the Terry Baldry’s. So at least when they rolled out they at least know they had a chance to win.”