The Scoop
FINAL SCOOP OF ’24 & A LOOK TOWARDS ’25
Posted on: Friday December 27, 2024
Green Bay’s Al Golueke was a standout in the sportsman class in the late 1970’s. (seeking photo credit)
As we begin to close the curtain on the 2024 season, we can sit back and reflect upon another season of Wisconsin stock car racing.
One thing was for certain – especially in the past few months was that we lost a good number retired racers in our motorsports community. It really puts things into perspective on how valuable our time on this earth is.
Among the most recent folks who’ve passed is Green Bay’s Al Golueke. Al’s been a staple of the local racing scene since he built his first Chevy out of his garage in Allouez in the mid 1970’s while he was a high school senior at Green Bay East.
Everyone knew Al. Many of the younger racers may know Al as the “Carb” guy. In recent decades, Al’s passion was building and maintaining carburetors for racers on both dirt, tar and even drag racing. But Al was a true innovator, having been competitive racing in the ultra-tough sportsman class in the ’70’s and ’80’s in the Fox River Racing Club’s (FRRC) action on Thursday nights at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
Thing is, Al was very competitive running a six cylinder motor against the bigger, beefier V-8’s. A life long bachelor who you could almost say motorsports was his “better half” if you will. Rest in peace, Al.
Golueke didn’t have a bad bone in his body. Another one of the true good guys who made this world a better place.
What’s impressive in 2024 is how quickly tracks and series have put out their schedules for the following year. In today’s society with virtually almost everything at our fingertips, for better or for worse its the society we live in these days. Long gone are the days of waiting for your monthly copy in the off season of Checkered Flag Racing News or Midwest Racing News in the mail to get your racing news.
As we move into the 2025 season, the focus on many driver’s commitments have shifted from battling for a weekly track championship to chasing high-dollar, specials. It looks like cold, hard cash and contingencies trumps a championship jacket and a trophy at the end of the year.
Terry Van Roy gives his trophy to a young race fan after a win at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna in 2016. (danlewisphoto.net)
TVR RACE – When 141 Speedway in Francis Creek recently announced they would no longer host the grand national division weekly many who own that class of cars began to wonder about what would happen to the Terry Van Roy Memorial race? The event, which honors the longtime division competitor who was a staple in the division, was run at 141.
One of Van Roy’s longtime pals, former racer and current technical inspector Ron Kohl, spearheaded the move for the TVR race to Gravity Park USA in Chilton in 2025. As it stands, just two tracks remain that will host the division weekly – Gravity Park and Plymouth Dirt Track. There will likely be a handful of special events for the grand nationals at other tracks.
OUTAGAMIE SPEEDWAY – Outagamie Speedway in Seymour recently released their 2025 schedule. On that docket are once again a number of late model specials, along with IRA and MSA sprint car and Dirt Kings late model tour dates. The season opening event at Seymour will be Friday, April 25 with both the MSA 360’s and late models joining the IMCA modifieds, northern sportmods and Unified Dirt street stocks. Yours truly will be on the mic for a number of events at Seymour in 2025 and as always, we’re looking forward to it!
SUPER SIX – Back to Plymouth for a second. The Super Six Series for dirt late models will take place once again at the third-mile, clay oval. The first two Saturday nights will be May 3 and May 10, respectively.
ODDS AND ENDS – Suamico’s Jamison MacDonald will have a new G-Force IMCA stock car at his disposal for the 2025 season. Eddie “Eagle” Anschutz has taken on a new challenge in ’25 – moving up to the rough-and-tumble IMCA stock car division. Eddie currently stands at 92 career wins. He’s won track titles in both the Unified street stocks and IMCA hobby stocks over the years.
The TUNDRA super late model series recently released its 2025 schedule. The season opener, as in past years, is slated to take place at WIR in Kaukauna Saturday, May 17 with the Spring Classic. Five dates are on the docket, including traditional stops at Marshfield, Dells Raceway Park and Golden Sands. Check tundrasuperlates.com for additional info.
TNT Speedway in Three Lakes has a special ice race slated for January 4 run with the Tilleda Thunder Ice Racing Group. Hopefully, Mother Nature can cooperate and this race will be held at the high-banked, third-mile clay (but ice for that show) event. Eagle River Speedway has announced it’s season opening race for 2025 will be on Saturday, May 24 with a raindate of Sunday, May 25 being used if needed.
Regular, weekly Tuesday night action will kick off on June 10 with the annual “School’s Out” promotional night. In the karting circles, Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park in Cecil will switch to Sunday afternoons with a 2 p.m. start time for its karting program. The track has run on Friday nights the past several seasons.
Shawano’s Tommy Rindt will have a busy 2025 season at hand. The second-generation racer will be a rookie in the late model class at Shawano Speedway in addition to running his sportmod as well. Rindt plans on wheeling that sportmod weekly at Eagle River Speedway in Tuesdays in pursuit of the track title at the northwoods oval.
2024 MSA sprint car champion Ben Schmidt of Plymouth will return to the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, OK in January, 2025. Schmidt’s last appearance at the annual indoor biggie was five years ago. Look for a story at joeverdegan.com on Schmidt’s return to Tulsa in the coming days.
At any rate, get out and support your favorite race track in person whenever possible in 2025!