The Scoop
COLIN REFFNER – FROM DONUTS IN KARTS TO TUNDRA LATE MODELS
Posted on: Thursday June 9, 2022
Third-generation racer Colin Reffner of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin is a regular on the TUNDRA super late model series.
It’s not often when a young driver can have both a former ASA champion and a central Wisconsin racing legend in your corner on your super late model race team.
Yet that is exactly the case for third-generation racer Colin Reffner. The 28-year-old from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin has Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA) legend Tom Reffner as his grandpa and former NASCAR trucker and ASA champ uncle Bryan Reffner as his crew chief. His dad is Baird Reffner, an accomplished racer in his own right, is also a key member of Colin’s racing efforts.
Although Colin doesn’t race close to 100 times a year like his Grandpa Tom did in the 1970’s Colin is content with an 11 to 12 race schedule in his super late model. And more than half of his 2022 campaign includes chasing the TUNDRA super late model series.
“What we really like about the TUNDRA deal is six shows and you can race for a championship without killing yourself,” Reffner explained. “With the six race buy-in you get four pit passes for each show, tires and not every tire is a four-tire show. Stuff like that adds up. Granted there is nothing wrong with chasing races all over the Midwest. We would all love to do that. But this is a great fit for a team that doesn’t have a huge budget to work with and you can still run against some pretty good competition across Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.”
Colin Reffner found victory lane at Marshfield Motor Speedway in 2018. (TUNDRA series photo)
Reffner will return to Marshfield Motor Speedway Saturday June 11 for the Bev Aschenbrenner Memorial race. Reffner has had success at MMS before. “Colin won this race back in 2018 in very strong fashion,” said TUNDRA series promoter and announcer Matt Panure. “It was really a notice to the racing world at just how strong Colin’s program can be, and how committed he and his team are to success.”
For Colin Reffner he began making left hand turns as a little tyke around Grandpa Tom’s shop in Wisconsin Rapids. “I made a lot of laps around Grandpa’s shop when I was little and I guess that’s how it all got started for me,” Reffner joked. “I used to burn a lot of donuts in the parking lot of that shop. I remember that well. I was pretty young, but I do remember both dad and Grandpa on the frontstretch at Marshfield. Dad would race the car at Marshfield and Grandpa would race in Golden Sands Speedway weekly. That was towards the end of the 1990’s and I was probably five years old.”
Reffner’s kart exploits took him to the old Monster Hall racetrack in Unity (now called SK Speedway). “That was actually quite the hotbed for karting back then and we raced there for quite a while,” Reffner recalled. “And many times, we’d get done racing and drive home just in time to watch Uncle Bryan race on TV whether it was in ASA or the NASCAR trucks. Those were all great memories from my childhood.”
Fast forward to 2022. Bryan has been out of racing himself for quite some time but serves as the crew chief on Colin’s number 87 machine. It’s a chassis the Reffner family constructed in their own shop right in Rapids. “We’re fortunate enough to have our own jig in our shop and it’s a BAC-KAR one,” Reffner explained. “We design and build everything ourselves. It’s a pro and a con thing sort of. But it’s very cool to have a jig right in your shop. Our family has a lot of experience with the Back family and that goes back for many decades.”
Reffner wheels a homemade chassis built in their Wisconsin Rapids shop.
Tom Reffner won 67 features in 1975 and Colin Reffner readily admits it’s a great thing being able to have grandpa still around and in his corner. Innovation and constantly bouncing ideas around is a constant in the Reffner racing camp. “(Grandpa) Reffner is so smart and has one of the best racing brains around,” Reffner admitted. “He’s always there and seldom misses a race. Between Grandpa, my dad Baird and uncle Bryan I’ve got three pretty smart family members to bounce ideas off of. I’m pretty lucky in that regard. I mean I’ll never ever come close to winning as many races as Grandpa or Uncle Bryan did and honestly I’m o.k. with that.”
As a teenager Reffner confesses he once had ideas of wanting to race for a living. But at 28 he’s realistic about the entire thing. “I was old enough to remember traveling down to Indianapolis to Menard’s racing shop when Uncle Bryan raced in NASCAR,” Reffner recalled. “I’d watch him on tv and thought it was all pretty cool. But the truth is when you are 11 years old you don’t understand what it really takes to go racing for a living. Fortunately, I learned at a pretty young age that nothing is free and that if I ever wrecked a race car it wasn’t an automatic thing that there would be a brand new race car sitting there for you on Monday morning.”
With a loving wife and two young kids at home and a job as a machinist that he loves, Reffner is more than content with his life and racing for a living is simply not in the cards down the road. “I’m perfectly fine with our current race schedule,” Reffner explained. “With not racing any type of weekly grind we’re able to bring a competitive car at each show. Obviously, the disadvantage to that is less seat time. As you get older you become more realistic about things. I race against a great group of guys in the Midwest. If my racing career ended tomorrow, I just want to be remembered as someone who was fast and ran well. That’s about it.”
In addition to the full TUNDRA schedule Reffner has Oktoberfest at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway on his schedule for 2022 and a few other special events “to-be-determined.”
Pit crew members include Bryan, Baird and Tom Reffner, Cody Knutson, Scott Ciesielski and even one of Uncle Bryan’s former crew members Pete Waldvogel chips in on occasion. “Scott races his Mod 4 so I take his help anytime I can,” Reffner explained. “And Cody chips in and does just about any job we need same as dad and uncle Bryan.”
The team of sponsors who help support Reffner’s racing efforts includes DeBoer Transportation, Best Excavating and Trucking, D & D Amusement and Games, Five Star Bodies, Wehrs Machine, Next Home Partners, Mada Custom Apparel, Mid State Lock and Wegner Automotive Research, and FastSigns. “After our crash early on and shortened season a year ago their support means so much more this year to keep us running,” Reffner pointed out. “Honestly the car would not be on the track without their support.”