The Vault
1975 – A “DUST UP” AT DE PERE
Posted on: Sunday January 11, 2026
STOCK DRIVERS IRK FANS
(motorsports editorial piece from Jim Zima reprinted from the Green Bay Press Gazette June 2, 1975)
There were time trial problems at the Indianapolis 500. where several drivers were disgruntled because they felt they didn’t get a fair shake.
And there were problems at the Pocono 500.
In both cases, race drivers were unhappy but in neither case did drivers pull their racers out onto the track and try to halt the race while the fans were sitting in the stands.
Unfortunately, this latter maneuver was the case at the Brown County Fairgrounds Sunday night when Kaukauna’s Pete Parker pulled his racer onto the track, blocking it, and demanded another chance to time his car.
This was just another case, like pro football, where professional sports people show a complete lack of consideration for the fans who foot the bill for them.
Parker may have had a legitimate gripe but his action punished the fans who were patiently waiting for the racing to start and the fans in no way caused the problem.
The problem arose because a record number of entries, 66, were on hand. Further complications arose because of two injuries in the pits, which forced both ambulances to be away from the track at the same time.
Time trials were halted until one of the ambulances returned from taking the pitman to the hospital, a period of 25 minutes.
Time trials are normally ended at 8 p.m. but officials, because of the ambulance delay, extended them 25 minutes. Despite this, Parker and several other cars managed to get in only one lap instead of two before the cutoff, causing the rhubarb.
Another driver who was complaining and had his racer loaded and ready to pull out was Wally Jors of Fond Du Lac. In Jors case, he didn’t arrive at the track until 7:30 p.m. and my opinion didn’t deserve a second attempt.
Time trials start at 6:30 p.m. and if he would have been on time maybe he would have had his two attempts.
Another problem is that when time trials start, many drivers feel the track is too slick and want to wait until more cars have been run on it. If this is the case, then it is strictly their problem and they should have no gripes.
When a fan comes to a race which is advertised as starting at 8:15 then that’s what he wants to see. The bulk of the fans have to go to work on Monday morning and they don’t want to see the races drag on close to midnight.
The payoff to the drivers has been over $3,000 in recent weeks, but if the drivers continue to antagonize the fans, the attendance will drop and with it the payoff.
Time trials have been moved ahead at De Pere this week to avoid the problem. But I feel officials should cut them off no matter what at the designated time. If a drivers doesn’t get his two trials in, that’s one of the breaks of racing and he should accept it. The USAC championship car drivers at Indy and Pocono, with a lot more invested, objected and didn’t like it but they raced as scheduled.