The Vault
AL GOLUEKE – THE MAIDEN VOYAGE IN 1975
Posted on: Wednesday March 26, 2025
Al Golueke poses next to his Chevrolet during his rookie year at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna in 1975. (Vercauteren family photo)
GOLUEKE MOLDS A RACING HOBBY by Mike Juley
(reprinted from the Daily News Sports, 1975. From the Jack Peters collection)
The fever began six years ago in Kaukauna at the KK Sports Arena, and as far as Al Golueke was concerned, he was hooked.
Some day, he vowed, he would be racing alongside Ernie Derr, Dick Trickle and Don White at the Kaukauna track in a bright colored stock car of his own. Just like it was back in 1969.
Now, after six years of waiting and nearly a year’s work in his garage, Golueke’s dream will come true.
Well, almost.
He won’t be driving a slick, low slung, 1975 model, complete with pit crew, $12,000 budget and monstrous eight cylinder engine.
Instead, emerging from his garage next month will be memories of sock hops, malt shops and hot rodding. A Chevrolet, just like it was back in 1956.
A new division of racing, called hobby stocks, will begin this year at several tracks in northeastern Wisconsin, including the Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere. It will give amateur drivers like Golueke a chance they wouldn’t normally receive.
Golueke’s ticket into the hobby stock car class was $500, a lot of reading, a few connections and the urge to race. “I got a good deal on a car, and with me doing all the work on it, it’s pretty cheap,” said Golueke. “I couldn’t afford a late model, that’s for sure.”
Jack Peters of De Pere and Charlie O’Brien of Shawano, both racing promoters, recognized after last year’s season a huge gap between the talents of late model veteran drivers and rookie drivers.
The reason: few if any rookies could afford the high costs of racing, and few had the talents to draw a sponsor willing to pay $12,000 in expenses.
The solution: create a less expensive racing division for older cars (1957-64) and allow them to race during, but separate from the regular late model program.
Since Golueke’s 1956 Chevrolet is too old to compete at De Pere and Shawano, he will have to change the body to a 1957 Chevrolet. And until he changes the body, he will be racing at Sturgeon Bay and Francis Creek – and at Kaukauna.
Finally.
“I’m not really scared,” said Golueke, who has never driven in a race. “I guess I’ll just take it as it comes, sort of like on-the-job training. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about racing and I’ve talked to a lot of people. You’ve got to have connections. You can’t go into something like this blind.”
De Pere and Shawano will run one heat of 14 hobby stock cars during each late model racing program. Nearly 20 drivers have already indicated they will compete in the hobby stock class. A separate night program at each half-mile dirt track will be run if a larger number of hobby cars enter.
De Pere is scheduled to open racing May 4 and Shawano will open May 10.
The hobby stock rules, as drawn up by Peters and O’Brien, strongly recommend that total expenditures on each car remain less than $1,000. A purse of $100 will be offered for the one race each night, with $40 going to the winner.
Nothing to get rich by, admits Golueke, but then again, hobby stock car racing is not meant for the rich.
“I’ve been working on the car almost every night since June, probably three or four nights a week,” said Golueke, a student at Green Bay East High School. It takes time to build one of these things to do it right.
“I’m not worrying about accidents or anything like that. I’m just going out and having some fun, and staying away from the guardrail.”
Sounds like a veteran already.