The Vault
CHAS VAN OOYEN – 2017 OUTAGAMIE CHAMP
Posted on: Thursday April 8, 2021
Chas Van Ooyen comes from a racing family that has been involved in the sport for many decades. (Van Ooyen family photo)
For Chas Van Ooyen, his IMCA stock car title earned at Outagamie Speedway in Seymour two weeks ago was a long time coming.
The Appleton driver had come oh-so-close in past seasons at the third-mile clay oval located at the Outagamie County Fairgrounds. Four years ago the second-generation driver placed 4th in the final points. Van Ooyen posted 3rd and 2nd place finishes the past two years, respectively. This year Van Ooyen, who was tied up with Horicon’s Jeremy Christians and Hortonville’s Justin Jacobsen in a season long points tussle, wound up placing 10th in the feature on the final night and wound up beating Jacobsen by six points.
“We’ve been trying for the last four years to win this deal out here,” said Chas Van Ooyen. “Jeremy (Christians) and Justin (Jacobsen) were tough all year and remember you’ve also got three former national champions (Rod Snellenberger, Travis Van Straten and Brandon Czarapata) who race there too. The field doesn’t get much tougher for the IMCA stock cars than it does on a Sunday night at Seymour.”
When spring rolled around nobody was sure if there would even be a season of racing at Seymour. The promoter from 2016 pulled out leaving the track without anyone to operate it. That’s when Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car (EWSC) came into the picture.
By chance EWSC was a racing club without a track to promote. The weekly program at Manitowoc County Expo was wiped out after 2016 when a portion of the Expo grounds was sold to Meijer Foods. With literally weeks to get a program up and running, the club at EWSC stepped up to continue Sunday night racing at Seymour. Most of its members who do the heavy lifting putting the program on all live along the Lakeshore.
“EWSC did a fantastic job keeping racing alive (at Seymour),” Van Ooyen explained. “It’s my home track and we have always supported racing here. When you consider that weeks before the season began they took that deal over with hardly any prep time to running a solid show at the end of the year. It’s pretty impressive. It’s funny because when the season started some club officials said they weren’t used to getting as many race cars as we were getting on a Sunday night. It’s a good problem to have I guess.”
Van Ooyen finished every single race all season. “One of the biggest reasons I think we were so well prepared were the hours we put in on the car in the shop during the week,” Van Ooyen explained. “We’ve got a pretty big pit crew and Wednesday nights is pretty much our designated shop night. We go over the entire car and usually after work on Monday or Tuesday I can take care of some of the minor stuff on the car.”
Van Ooyen came out of the street stock ranks, where he competed for several seasons at Seymour and also at the former Calumet County Raceway in Chilton where he was a track champion in 1996. “When they started that street stock class at Chilton we were almost half the field most nights,” Van Ooyen said. “It was a lot of fun racing that little bullring. The track always seemed to stay tacky almost every night.”
The Chilton track, which was located at the Calumet County Fairgrounds, hasn’t hosted weekly races for several seasons now.
Running just on Sunday nights freed Van Ooyen up to other things with his family during the weekend. “My wife Rhonda and I have two kids (daughter Ericka and son Kegan) and we always put them first and we do other non-racing related stuff too,” Van Ooyen said. “Both kids help me out in the shop and in the pit area on race day. I alternate taking one of the kids with me into the pit area each Sunday night. I get some funny looks from other teams when they see my seven year old son jacking up the race car. But they both grew up with this sport and they love it.”
They love it so much that Van Ooyen is considering having Ericka take some practice laps at race tracks in the near future as according to Van Ooyen she has “the itch” to go racing herself. “She’s expressed a true interest in racing herself so we’ll see where things go,” said Van Ooyen, who wouldn’t commit one way or another to defending his Seymour title in 2018.
Van Ooyen is blessed with a large pit crew comprised of both family members and friends – most of whom been involved in racing for several decades. “We’ve all been doing this a pretty long time so we’ve got it down to a science almost,” Van Ooyen said. His pit crew consists of Dave Olson, Tim Heinrich, his son and daughter, wife Rhonda, Dad Charlie Van Ooyen, Uncle Joe Van Ooyen and Bill and Harley Diederick. Van Ooyen’s marketing partners include Bay Tek Games in Pulaski, Valley Gasket, Woodke Trucking and Dirt Works.
DIRT KINGS CANCELED – The Dirt Kings late model race that was scheduled for Oshkosh Speedzone September 23. The Speedzone Fall Classic will continue with modifieds, stock cars, grand nationals, street stocks and four cylinders. A “test and tune” practice date is slated for Friday, September 22 with a rain date available Sunday September 24.
BOONE LEFTOVERS – Green Bay’s Troy Jerovetz placed 11th in the IMCA Supernationals stock car main at Boone (IA) Speedway last weekend. Appleton’s Brandon Czarapata finished 19th. The race was won by Harlan, Iowa’s Mike Nichols. Green Bay’s Vince Engebretsen finished 28th in the sportmod A main, which was won by Iowan Brian Efkamp.
No local drivers made the big dance in the IMCA modified division for the first time in several years.
PLYMOUTH VICTORY – Green Bay native Jared Siefert won the B modified feature at Plymouth Dirt Track Saturday. Siefert also placed 4th in the late model main. Green Bay’s Chris Engels finished ninth in the late model feature, which was won by Random Lake’s Brad Mueller.
PONTBRIAND WINS KINROSS – Norway, Michigan’s Joey Pontbriand captured the super late model feature win at Kinross (MI) Raceway. The track is located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula less than 15 minutes from the Canadian border. Gwinn, Michigan’s Daryl Britton took second while Niagara’s John Ostermann placed third.
STRELKA WINS – Freedom’s Brent Strelka scored a clean sweep in the limited late model division at Marshfield Motor Speedway last weekend. Strelka is a regular on Thursday nights at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
SERVICES HELD – Services were held Friday for Appleton’s Jeff Wohlrabe. The 43-year-old Figure 8 driver lost his life in a crash at the “X” at WIR last Friday during the track’s annual “Eve of Destruction” event. You can click on the link https://www.youcaring.com/jeffwohlrabefamily-944658 to donate to Wohlrabe’s family to assist them with various expenses.