The Vault
“GOLDEN BOY” ETTIEN RULED LUXEMBURG IN ’76
Posted on: Monday October 17, 2022
Brussels Irv Ettien dominated the modified action at Luxemburg Speedway in 1976. (Marv Bins photo)
“GOLDEN BOY” RULED LUXEMBURG by Fritz Van (article from Luxemburg newspaper in 1976)
Golden Boy Irv Ettien, the pride of Luxemburg, showed he “owned” his hometown track in 1976 as he captured the modified and late model championships by wide margins.
Despite the fact that he was hard pressed in every race he ran at the Luxemburg Speedway, he had that certain something that enabled him to win the close ones – the mark of a champion. Thus he was able to swamp his closest competitors in the point columns.
In the mods Ettien’s “green machine” piled up a 301-212 margin over “Broadway Joe” Haferkorn of Norway Mich. And in the late model sector the “Golden Boy” convincingly downed De Pere’s Rick Peters by a 182-131 tally.
Some of the most thrilling stock car races of the year were seen at the Luxer oval nonetheless. Haferkorn and his cohorts from Norway – Pat Temple and Ron Baciak, gave Ettien all he wanted each Sunday night – often moving in and out of the lead to the sheer delight of the wildly cheering fans.
On one occasion the popular Temple was pressing Ettien full throttle when his speedy machine hit a lapped car which had suffered a blowout. Temple’s vehicle flipped end-over-end five complete times on the front straightaway in front of horrified spectators in the stands. Fortunately Pat was not seriously hurt although he spent considerable time in two hospitals to observe head injuries.
Perhaps some of Door Counties up-and-coming stars could have given Ettien a better point battle had they run on a more regular basis. Gregg Curzon, Lynn Wolfgram and Reggie Cochart finished in the top ten despite running on a hit-and-miss basis.
In fact Cochart sent a thrill through the stunned crowd on the final night of the season. He took a lead on Ettien and held on all the way for a car length victory over the freshly-crowned champion. Many thought Reggie would stub his toe when he got into lapped traffic – a tactic at which Ettien excells but the Brussels youngster snake-hipped his way through the slower cars like a masterful veteran.
In the late model class Ettien was faced with more numbers. Whereas in the mods he had only three or four tough competitors, there were as many as a dozen of more fierce challengers in the late models. Chief among them was the aforementioned Peters, who had truly a great season in his own right, but there were many, many more which made for a truly interesting season.
Donny Mahlberg had a knack for landing the pole position and when he did, he was extremely difficult to catch and pass. The Two Rivers star landed third in the final tabulation.
Milwaukee’s Mark Eckert provided plenty of thrill also as did Green Bay’s Jerry Jonet, Theresa’s Steve Bergdorf, Omro’s Terry Baldry and White Lake’s Bud Lynn. All had their moments on the way to the coveted top ten.
One of the crowd favorites was Wayne “Big Daddy” Grosbier of neighboring Algoma. Big Daddy often took the lead or challenged for it but a series of tough breaks and car trouble and he wound up the year in ninth place.
On one particular night Green Bay’s Doug Larson came from the rear of the pack to stalk Peters like a cat chasing a mouse. But Peters was constantly able to hang on the inside of the curves and kept a car length lead on his dogged pursuer. Larson noticed Peters was leaving a little daylight on the inside on turn four, however, and on the very last lap the crafty veteran slipped his smooth 1974 Camaro to the inside of Peters and beat him by inches in a wide-open thrust at the finish line.
And such it was at Luxemburg in 1976. Truly some great shows even if Ettien did dominate the final point standings. Actually he did not open those big point bulges until the closing weeks of the season, thus keeping the suspense at a high level much of the way.
Promoter Jack Peters was certainly to be complimented for putting on some great racing shows at Luxemburg but he was not entirely pleased with the turnouts and the existing facilities. Suddenly one balmy August night, the affable Peters announced that it would be final night of racing for the season. He said he wanted to start getting the track and lighting in super condition for the 1977 racing season.
But that wasn’t the only surprise coming out of Peters office. During the off-season he announced he was cutting out mods completely and that he was switching to stocks in every sense of the word. Stock factory frames only; no headers allowed; engines to run stock intake and exhaust manifolds with no aluminum intake manifolds. Those are just some of Peters revamped rules.
As for the tires this year at Luxemburg, they must be 60 series passenger tires.
LUXEMBURG SPEEDWAY FINAL POINT STANDINGS 1976
LATE MODELS
Irv Ettien #2 182
Rich Peters #2 131
Don Mahlberg #17 123
Steve Bergdorf #0 113
Jerry Jonet #13 90
Terry Baldry #74 78
Mark Eckert #26 76
Bud Lynn #9 62
Wayne Grosbier #97 58
Joe Haferkorn #11 58
Dave Gulmire #11 58
Gayle Dillon #60 58
MODIFIEDS
Irv Ettien #2 301
Joe Haferkorn #1 212
Pat Temple #4 197
Ron Baciak #21 131
Don DeGaule #6 116