The Scoop
JUSTIN WOLLER – FROM C.W.R.A., TO DIRT, TO WIR’S “THURSDAY NIGHT THUNDER”
Posted on: Wednesday June 14, 2023
Merrill native Justin Woller has wound up living in the Fox Valley and racing his late model Thursday nights at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
Justin Woller’s road traveled in his racing career has been a most diverse one.
The 41-year-old Merrill, Wisconsin native, who first wheeled a super late model on the pavement at age 13, has gone from pavement, to dirt, and has landed back to the pavement racing in the late model class at Wisconsin International Raceway for the “Thursday Night Thunder” program under the direction of the Fox River Racing Club.
A huge influence in Woller’s racing career was his uncle Don Woller – a standout late model competitor in the Central Wisconsin Racing Association (CWRA) ranks for decades. “I actually first hopped into Uncle Donny’s pavement late model at (Golden Sands Speedway) in Plover when I was just 13,” Woller recalled. “Those were my first ever laps on a racetrack.”
Woller recalls going wheel-to-wheel against veteran Neil Knoblock and Andy Turzinski who was driving “Bobby T’s” late model. “That’s when the Bassuener family promoted the track in the mid-1990s and there were a lot of cars back then,” Woller said. “The CWRA was really strong back then. I remember just riding around and taking it easy. I was waiting for Neil (Knoblock) to blast around me, and he never did so I just took off. We were a little bit off the pace, but I guess I had some pretty strong laps for being in the car for the first time.”
When Woller was still a teen, Justin with Uncle Donny built a bomber type street stock that Justin piloted at State Park Speedway in Wausau on the track’s quarter-mile, paved oval. “We probably rewrote the rulebook at Wausau with those cars,” Woller joked. “We admittedly pushed the envelope a little bit with the rules. The year we built that car Donnie was getting out of late model racing. We spent every week in the shop it seemed building that car.”
According to Woller, with the bomber at SPS he set fast time every night except on two occasions. “I want to say I only lost four or five features that year,” said Woller, who would wind up winning the track title with a comfy several hundred-point championship point margin. “We did a lot of stock stub, street stock type racing back then and we got pretty good at it over the years.”
Diversity has remained a constant in Woller’s racing career and between he and his uncle Donny, the pair was always willing to try something new. When Donny took a season off, they built a truck for the Mid-American truck series on paved tracks across the Midwest. The pair even constructed a street stock-type truck for the big dirt half mile to run on Friday nights at the Langlade County Speedway in Antigo.
Woller raced this truck on both dirt and asphalt tracks.
Woller remained busy as he’d run that dirt truck with the street stock-type division on Thursday nights at Wausau, and then switch gears and tires and race at Antigo the following night. “I never had a real stout motor program to run Antigo and for as big as that track was you sure needed one,” recalled Woller, who would win with that truck on occasion at Wausau.
Later when the IMCA northern sportmod class was introduced at Antigo, Uncle Donny built a sportmod to race on the dirt. After Antigo closed and ceased to host weekly racing, he’d switch to racing on Saturday nights at Shawano Speedway.
It was Donny Woller who would turn heads in an event that has grown to massive proportions – 141 Speedway’s “Clash At The Creek.” In 2009 when the track was still paved, the first ever Clash featured IMCA sanctioned sportmods. With his pavement background and knowledge, Donnie Woller dusted the competition, lapping most of his fellow racers on the tiny, quarter-mile paved bullring.
As fate would have it, Woller was DQ’d in post-race tech, which handed over the win to Eric “Chummy” Arneson of Oconto Falls. “Yeah, I was pitting for him that night and I remember it well,” Woller joked. “They patterned the rules after Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Iowa which ran sanctioned sportmods back then. The 141 officials claimed we had too much left weight percentage in the car. I just think there was just no way they were going to let us win that race.”
Justin Woller had a stint with the dirt tracks, wheeling an IMCA northern sportmod. (J and S Designs)
Justin would wind up racing with a dirt sportmod himself in northeastern Wisconsin for several seasons.
So how exactly did Woller – with his central Wisconsin roots – wind up living in the Fox Valley and racing at WIR weekly? He followed a girl. Woller relocated 13 years ago after his girlfriend at the time was finishing up school at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. “I knew that stock car racing over on that side of the state was strong, so I thought ‘what the heck’ and made the move,” Woller explained.
Within the last five years Woller has raced four seasons in the late model class which competes on WIR’s half-mile. Woller’s car is a 1995 Lefthander that was originally bought brand new for Eugene Gregorich Jr. in his rookie campaign of late model racing. From there the car was driven by Jesse Oudenhoven, Taylor Vandermoss and another car owner who never raced it. “We’re still able to squeeze some speed out of this car,” Woller said. “My first ever asphalt late model was an old Joe Shear Lefthander which was chassis number 317. This one I’m running now is somewhere in the 500s. The cars are old but still good.”
Woller goes old school and tows his late model to WIR with an open trailer. He’s managed a 5th place feature finish and continues to work through the highs and lows of a racing season. “Chasing a championship can sometimes take the fun out of racing and we just show up each week and have some fun with what we’re doing,” explained Woller, who’s taking a week’s vacation during the summer anyways. “When you start racing for points it really can take some of the fun away from what you’re doing.”
Woller’s team members include Nick Kelly, Steve Arnold and Adam Strauch. “As a pit crew we’re lean and mean,” Woller joked. “We enjoy racing at WIR. We might work in a Norway (Speedway) trip again this year. We’ll see how the schedule works out.”
Marketing partners who help keep Woller’s 44 car rolling include Jaripeo Mexican Grill, Woller Racing Auto Repair, Joe’s Lawn Care, Bentley’s Restoration, 4M Machine, OCD Diesel, Racetech Chassis and 920 Wraps Shirts.