The Scoop
JEFF VAN OUDENHOVEN – WIR’S MULTI-TIME CHAMPION
Posted on: Tuesday June 8, 2021
WIR’s multi-time super late model champion Jeff Van Oudenhoven is in his 30th season of stock car racing.
Jeff Van Oudenhoven’s thirst for racing started to get quenched at a young age.
It all started when his dad Milo Van Oudenhoven would bring young Jeff down to all the races at the Milwaukee Mile beginning in the early 1970s.
According to the Appleton racer it didn’t matter if it was a USAC stock car race, Indy Cars or even ASA in later years. If there was a stock car race at the Mile, they were there. “My grandpa Pete Van Oudenhoven raced as did my dad,” the 51-year-old racer said. “We literally never missed a race down there. So even at a young age I was already starting to meet so many people in the racing community.”
Fast forward to 2021. Now in his 30th season of stock car racing, Van Oudenhoven’s resume boasts five ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ super late model titles at his home track Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Also included on that resume are three Red, White & Blue state championship crowns, a pair of ¼ sportsman titles and even some MARS late model championships traveling to out-of-state shows.
On Thursday June 10 Van Oudenhoven will be inducted into WIR’s Circle of Fame. That night will also be the “Red Race” in the prestigious triple crown series. A 45-lap super late model feature will be run.
Van Oudenhoven’s own racing career actually started out a pair of drivers he’d wind up racing against years down the road – Lowell Bennett and Rod Wheeler, both themselves WIR champions. “We knew Bob and Rod Wheeler and we always went down to the Daytona 500 with both of our families every year,” Van Oudenhoven said. “I helped out Rod in the shop for a year and then switched over and went to help Lowell. Both of those guys taught me so much about racing – about what to do and what not to do in certain situations.”
Van Oudenhoven’s racing career started in 1991. “Right before my first race I had really doubted myself like ‘can I really do this?” Van Oudenhoven confessed.
One of my parent’s friends Rick Marcx always told me as I was growing up ‘I’m gonna buy a race car someday for you to run,” Van Oudenhoven recalled. “And that first sportsman car we bought was one of Steve Smits’ out of De Pere. The sportsman class was still tough back then. We still had full semi features every night all the way through 1994.”
JVO bumped up to the half-mile and the super late models a few years later. “My first night we didn’t make the show, but I did wind up winning the semi-feature,” Van Oudenhoven said. “My second night out I was able to win the feature. I did that when I started racing the sportsman class too. I was ecstatic. I mean back then the race team we had was comprised of many of my high school friends. We were all just learning.”
In the ‘90s and well into the 2000s Van Oudenhoven had a few different beer sponsors supporting his racing effort. “Back then the beer sponsor rivalries between the Miller and Budweiser brands were pretty big,” Van Oudenhoven said. “Before I turned 21 we were sponsored by the non-alcoholic beer Sharps. After that we had MGD (Miller Genuine Draft) and eventually Miller Lite. Then the beer sponsors dried up.”
Over the years Van Oudenhoven copped his share of track titles and feature wins – but also had a few disastrous wrecks along the way. One of the worst wrecks JVO was involved with occurred at WIR in May, 2015.
JVO’s car, owned by Scott Vandenheuvel, was on rails that night. He won the ‘fast dash’ that evening and a week earlier had captured the season opening race at WIR. “Back then the car was the fastest I had driven in my career up until that point,” Van Oudenhoven recalled.
After tangling with another car coming out turn four in the feature, JVO’s machine clobbered WIR’s often unforgiving turn four retaining wall – hard. “I was knocked out cold,” Van Oudenhoven recalled. “I remember the car flying around and skating back across the track. I remember hearing the frame scrape along the concrete.”
The wreck knocked the wind out of Van Oudenhoven and he suffered a broken ankle as well. The crash sidelined Van Oudenhoven and his team the balance of the year.
After a year of rehab JVO came back with a vengeance and captured the track title, his fifth Thursday night crown. Driving for other car owners such as Mike Butz, Van Oudenhoven did some traveling in the MARS series and found success, winning at tracks like I 70 Speedway in Odessa, Missouri and the now defunct I 94 Raceway in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. “We won at Madison too,” Van Oudenhoven explained. “Matt Kenseth told me way back then to get over to MIS and run. We’ve run well there in the past so I guess I should have listened to him in the ‘90s and raced there a lot earlier.”
In addition to WIR’s ‘Red Race’ coming up June 10, a couple of other specials are on the 45 cars ’21 schedule. “We’re running at the Milwaukee Mile race on Father’s Day with the ARCA Midwest Tour (Sunday June 20) and we’ll also be running the Dixieland 250 on Tuesday night, August 3.”
As in past seasons the 45 team is bringing in a true ‘ringer’ of a crew chief in Menasha native Danny Stillman for those two special events. Stillman, who’s worked for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in the past is still living down south and working full time for a NASCAR Xfinity team.
Jeff Van Oudenhoven goes wheel-to-wheel with Grant Griesbach in WIR’s ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ action. (Ricky Bassman photo)
If you happen to stroll through the pit area on any given Thursday night one thing is for certain – the 45 team never quits. They crew members and JVO are always searching for ways to make the 45 car faster. “We all work hard at this and it’s an honor to race at WIR,” Van Oudenhoven said. “I sometimes put a lot of pressure on myself to do good. So, when Jerry Schneider called me and told me I was going into the track’s Circle of Fame it was quite overwhelming and an honor. To be in there with my dad is just really special.”
Van Oudenhoven’s pit crew consists of team owner Scott Vandenheuvel, crew chief Terry Korth, Bill Miller, Scott Seacotte, Jesse Ruttner and George Korth.
The team of marketing partners that support the 45 team all year long includes Badgerland Demolition and Earthwork, Appleton Sign Corp, Bay Area Granite and Marble, DC Auto and Custom Lifts, Total Energy Systems LLC, Viking Electrical Supply, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 158, Vandenheuvel Electric, Dick and Joan’s Supper Club, Quality Custom Metal Fabrication, Bartelt Construction, Coleman Racing Products, Al Gouleke Carbs, Timekeeper Distillery, Pathfinder Chassis, Five Star Racing Bodies, FRS Racing Shocks, HP Elite Racing Engines, Competition Specialists Racing Engines, Mike Butz Racing and a special thanks to Mike and Karen Clancy.