The Scoop
GEORGE HENKEL – STILL HAVING FUN RACING AT 66
Posted on: Wednesday September 3, 2025
At 66, George Henkel still enjoys racing at his home track The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
George Henkel’s first race car was actually a vehicle abandoned by a carnie after the Door County Fair in 1977.
Henkel, now 66, was 18-years-old and working at a local service station when he’d chum around with the Sternard Bros. George’s dad, George Henkel Sr., would help the Sternard’s out, and as a teen, they allowed George Jr. to pack the track at the Sturgeon Bay oval at the Door County fairgrounds that year.
It was late in the 1977 racing season when Les, Pete & Gene Steranrd all agreed to let George Jr. make his racing debut. “I got in that car, and it still had a radio installed inside of it,” Henkel joked. “When I’d pack the track, I’d turn the radio on and listen to music.”
Before he climbed behind the wheel late that night in the ’77 season, Henkel asked the Sternard Bros. ‘How should I drive this car?’ “They just told me to hold my foot to the floor and let the transmission do the work for me,” Henkel recalled.
Despite bouncing the car off the frontstretch retaining wall, Henkel managed a third place finish in his maiden voyage behind the wheel in the hobby stock class.
George Henkel poses with one of his early rides. (Bob Bergeron photo)
After his race, Henkel returned to working at Roy’s Shell Service. A wrecker call came in for an abandoned vehicle in a nearby restaurant parking lot. “Turns out that one of the carnies had just abandoned this car,” Henkel recalled. I was working at the service station. Roy’s Shell Service. The carnival had left town, as they had just held the Door County Fair at what is now termed John Miles Park.”
Henkel’s boss, named Roy, jumped in his wrecker and picked up this abandoned car – a ’66 Chevelle. After Roy stripped the car of the parts he wanted, Roy told Henkel ‘the car was his’ and that ’66 Chevelle became George Henkel’s first ever race car.
“I brought it up by the Sternard Bros. Shop, and I had a motor and a transmission laying around,” Henkel recalled. “They put a roll cage in it for me. I installed the motor and transmission, and I was all set to go racing for the 1978 racing season.”
Henkel was 19 when he started his first season of full time racing. That’s why Henkel chose that number for his stock car.
George Henkel at speed at The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay. (Seeking photo credit)
Henkel continued to race, and during the ’80’s, the Sturgeon Bay oval would close and reopen on occasion. It was in the mid-1980’s when nearby tracks at Seymour Speedway and 141 Speedway in Francis Creek started a hosting a new division to the area – the IMCA modified. The new, open-wheeled class peaked Henkel’s interest.
“My friend, Harvey Traeder, was a local tech inspector later on, but he owned a modified in the mid-1980’s,” Henkel said. “I ran a car for him a few times. We went down to race at Seymour’s half-mile. We ran pretty good down there.”
Henkel shared the wheel of Traeder’s ride with Sturgeon Bay’s Bob Brunsbach. “Bob was a friend of Harvey’s who was a modified driver who came up from Wilmot,” Henkel said. “Bob didn’t want to race on a regular basis, so that’s how I got into that class essentially.”
The IMCA mod was still very new to the area in the mid-’80’s. “Initially, the rules for this type of car were more like WISSOTA,” Henkel recalled. “But I think it was Kelly Hafeman who got involved, and he convinced everyone that the direction we needed to go in locally was more towards IMCA. And that sanctioning has stuck at most of the area tracks ever since.”
Over the decades, Henkel has seen it all. Tracks close. Tracks open. Independent promoters take over. Clubs take over. “The only track that really stayed open this whole time was Shawano Speedway,” Henkel pointed out. “Shawano has always survived for some reason.”
The Sturgeon Bay driver has always called his hometown oval as his “home track.” The name may have changed over the years. Door County Speedway. Thunder Hill Raceway. The Hill Raceway. No matter what the moniker is or was, Henkel said the circular-shaped, third-mile clay oval has always remained a true driver’s track. “I’ve had a lot of success at Sturgeon Bay,” Henkel said. “It’s a track where you have to keep your equipment well-maintained, and keep a level head. Sometimes that can be hard to do, but you have to simply stick with it.”
Over the years, Henkel has been a consistent frontrunner. Henkel’s first ever feature win came on August 12, 1978. One season later, he was able to secure a trio of victories, and wound up being the track’s IMCA modified track champion in 1999. Henkel currently sits at 17th in all-time wins, tied with Green Bay’s Randy Back at eight modified victories.
According to Henkel, the track was even tougher to drive in the 1980’s. “Turn four was not as rounded as it is now, and that frontstretch wall came up on you very fast,” Henkel said. “It’s a lot more forgiving now coming out of that turn.”
In recent years, The Hill Raceway has run more of an abbreviated schedule, opting not to race every single week. “Now that I’m older, I don’t mind this shortened schedule at all,” Henkel said. “I’m glad they don’t run every week.”
For many years, Henkel amassed a good number of his feature wins at the Sturgeon Bay oval racing the IMCA modified division. In 2025, the track only hosted a couple of modified shows, with the non-sanctioned sportmods racing in place of the “A” mods. “My boy Gary Henkel races, and we’re having a lot of fun racing against each other,” Henkel said. “If Sturgeon Bay still ran the “A” mods, I’d likely still be running one of those.”
Before he raced himself, Gary Henkel was helping out other drivers in the pits. “I thought maybe I should get a car again, so we have something to do together and race together.”
George Henkel (left) poses with his son Gary Henkel in front of Gary’s sportmod at The Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay.
George let his son Gary race his car one year. “Gary learned a lot of stuff, including quite a bit about fabrication,” Henkel said. “The following year he got his own race car. He paid for it. He still maintains his own car, and takes pretty good care of it. Then, I got myself another car. As for me, once I am in the car, I still have that competitive fire in the belly. I think I’m still competitive.”
According to Henkel, the modern day sportmods are faster and harder to drive. “It seems like everybody can drive good these days,” Henkel said. “Back years ago, you had fewer top drivers per se. Now, it’s like the margin of error is closer. It’s a lot tougher to win these days, because the cars are more complicated. If you’re setup is off even a little bit, you’re not going to win. It’s as simple as that.”
The Henkel racing team mirrors many other modern day race teams, and that means having a very small pit crew, if any at all. “For our team, it’s pretty much just myself, Gary, and my wife Julie,” Henkel explained. “We used to have a pit crew of six guys, but things sure are a lot different these days. Both of our race cars are maintained in the same shop, and I think that’s pretty neat.”
Henkel’s team of marketing partners includes Action Realty, Cornerstone Suites, Hammertime Carpenter Expert, Brauer Construction, NAPA Auto & Truck Parts, Henkel Flooring, Coyote Roadhouse, Onsager Trucking, B & B Dairy, KBD Apparel and racing In Memory of Valmy Happy Hour – Kirk Volkmann.