The Scoop
A Return to Seymour
Posted on: Monday September 21, 2020
On Saturday September 19 I was able to return to a place where my racetrack announcing got launched way back in 1983. Seymour, Wisconsin at the Outagamie County Fairgrounds.
The race track itself has changed over the years as have the folks running it. But the 2020 edition of the Fall Brawl went on at the Outagamie Speedway powered by EWSC (Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car) for the most part without a hitch.
In the Green Bay area racing circles, it’s a well known fact that years ago the track at Seymour – just 15 minutes west of Green Bay, was struggling. Seymour was a third-mile, clay oval without a promoter.
Ironically around that same time the long time EWSC group, which for decades hosted races most notably at Plymouth and in the 2000’s Manitowoc County Expo, was a club without a track to run after Expo’s track was sold off to make room for a Meijer Foods store.
Fast forward to 2020 and the group has been able to keep the lights on after switching from the long-time traditional Sunday night show to a Friday night program for weekly racing.
I had been to Seymour in recent years, but it was only for book signings. I was impressed with the facility improvements that had taken place. Newer, bleachers were added to the pit area along the backstretch. A new concession building in the pit area was also a welcome site. In all they’ve spiffed that place up rather nicely!
230 cars in seven divisions packed the pit area, and it was good to catch up with a lot of old friends I haven’t seen in a while. As I wandered the grounds, I recalled the old days when the track was a half-mile. I was lucky enough to also call races there when it was the old Tri-Oval. That was a track layout some drivers either loved (Pete Parker loved it) or despised it (Terry Anvelink was not a Tri-Oval fan).
Seymour’s Mike Mullen was able to double up on feature wins in the IMCA modified and Dirt Kings late model tour events. Luxemburg native Benji LaCrosse continued to prove why he is one of the best wheelmen in the biz on dirt tracks as he piloted Joe White’s IMCA stock car into victory lane.
Eddie “The Eagle” Anschutz chalked up another feature win in the Unified street stocks. The victory was number 69 on his career for the former Wisconsin IMCA hobby stock champion. The Unified street stock class is certainly a success story as the division was on the brink of collapse not that many years ago.
Eagle is normally “the voice” of EWSC on Friday nights but he called upon one of his pit crew members and announcer from ‘The ‘Burg’ Joe Orsini to fill in behind the mic along with the young up-and-coming “Chatty Madi”.
I had some great conversations in the pit area with some of the late model teams and what the state of that class is.
And what can be done to draw new blood into it. Many in the division were quick to point out that some modified teams likely outspend some of the late model teams. And I looked at Kyle Raddant grinding his tires behind his unique looking race hauler. Most teams pointed to the 03 as a success story of someone who has won this year in that division while racing on a budget.
Perhaps one of the most impressive drivers not only at Seymour Saturday but all season long was Seymour’s Jayden Schmidt. He snatched his 15th IMCA northern sportmod feature win on the season. I’ve written about Jayden’s accomplishments earlier this year and I’m here to say if I was a car owner of a modified or late model I wouldn’t hesitate to hire him as my driver.
The kid is humble, comes from a good family and is smooth as silk and likely one the top drivers in the division in the Midwest. I know he’s got an offer on the table to run a top-flight IMCA stock car in 2021 and his race car has already sold. It’ll be interesting to see what he does in 2021.
In the funny department I ran into the Froelich’s Shawn and Dad Jack Froelich whom I’ve known for a long time. “I’ve been doing this (racing expletive) more than 50 years,” Froelich exclaimed. “With the money I’ve pissed away on this sport we could already have had a nice cabin and nice chunk of land up north. A state-of-the-art motorhome. Instead we keep coming back to this!”
Froelich’s sentiments on the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on racing echoed throughout the pits with many a race team Saturday. This sport is addicting. It’s like a drug. There’s just something about stock car racing that keeps you coming back. In some capacity. Year after year after year. I’m guilty of that too!
I stopped in at the parts trailer provided by K & E Racing Parts. Ed was formerly Gold Star Racing Supplies. We talked about the changes in this sport in the last 10 to 20 years and where things are heading. We also chatted about how the racing parts game has changed, and how so many more folks these days are purchasing their stuff online. Talk about rolling with the changes!
I caught up with some folks who you will either end up reading about or listening to on this website in the coming weeks and months. ‘The Navarino Nightmare” Terry Anvelink provided us some great material for “On The Record.”
There will be feature stories coming up down the road on Glenbeulah, Wisconsin’s Tim Buhler. The Dirt Kings late model veteran has 98 career feature wins as this column goes up. You can soon read about him along with Eric “Chummy” Arneson whose back and stronger than ever in the IMCA stock car class.
Beaver Dam’s Jesse Krahn, who despite having a racetrack darn near in his back yard traveled for some tough competition on Saturday nights at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek where he won the division crown.
Shawano’s Jeff Curtin has been put into a car owner role due to an injury a while back and has a “hired gun” from Illinois racing for him Justin Reed. You read about all of them here in “The Scoop” in the near future.
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read this. The number one gripe I’ve received in recent years from race fans is that when I’d post a link to a story for either of the two Gannett Media newspapers I used to write for they weren’t able to view it unless they bought an online subscription.
But we’re rolling the dice with this website and changing things up a bit. The content here will be FREE to view. We are hoping there will be enough traffic to this website eventually that potential advertisers see a VALUE to the product we’re putting out.
So with that being said, I’d like to give a shout out to our earlier marketing partners who’ve jumped on board right outo of the box: Coleman Racing Products of Menominee, Michigan, Eagle River Speedway, Woody’s Signs of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and our webmaster Chris Budzban and budzodesigns.com. Give them a shout out or your business whenever possible and tell them you saw their stuff here at joeverdegan.com. I’m always up for ideas so don’t hesitate to reach out at jverdegan2@gmail.com.