The Scoop
LITTLE BUCKAROO JR. MOTORSPORTS PARK – TRAINING GROUND FOR FUTURE STOCK CAR DRIVERS
Posted on: Thursday July 15, 2021
On Friday nights the village of Cecil, Wisconsin (population 635) lights up during the summer months.
The tiny community located in Shawano County is where Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park is located. For decades now the eighth-mile clay oval has been a training ground of sorts for the future full-sized stock car racers in northeast Wisconsin on both dirt and asphalt.
The facility is currently owned by Don and Jennifer Holtger. The couple purchased the track some years back. A club was formed called Hi-Go Karting Club and that club leases the facility from the Holtger Family.
Kart racers line up prior to taking to the track at Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park in Cecil, Wisconsin.
Under the current business arrangement Brian Ambrosius, a former local stock car racer is the president of the club. “Currently Don (Holtger) supplies the track prep equipment and the facility for us,” Ambrosius explained. “As the club’s president I’m in charge of promoting the track and handling a lot of the day-to-day operations. The Holtger family simply doesn’t have the time to do it so as a club we’re able to keep the program running out here.”
Ambrosius decided to sell his own stock car program off after his own kids got heavily involved into kart racing. “My sons Braxton Ambrosius, Gavin Ambrosius and my stepson Kaiden Frisch have been doing this kart thing for about four years now,” Ambrosius explained. “John and Cheryl Zegers had been running the club and had expressed an interest about getting out and handing it over to another couple. They asked me and my wife Kari (Ambrosius) to take it over and we decided to go all in with it since then.”
In a nutshell Little Buckaroo is a scaled down version of any local dirt stock car track and it’s run very similar. “We have a 16-date schedule of race dates,” Ambrosius explained. “We have sponsored nights and local billboard advertisers. My wife takes care of the all the financials and scheduling staff. She makes sure the concession stuff gets taken care of weekly and that the trophies are ordered among other things.”
Similar to local stock car tracks that have IMCA sanctioned divisions, Little Buckaroo also follows a sanctioning body. That sanctioning body is called the National Karting Association (NKA). They make up the rules and set up the respective divisions. “The last thing you want is for the parents or any drivers for that matter to make up the rules,” Ambrosius admitted. “So, this is one less headache we have to deal with.”
Seven-year-old Greyson Arneson works on his kart in the pit area at Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park in Cecil, Wisconsin.
The different classes include a rookie box stock (ages 8 to 10), box stock (ages 8-12), Junior II (ages 10-12), Junior III (ages 12-15), Sportsman (ages 12 and up) and Animal Pro (ages 15 and up). “We do have some adults who compete in the Sportsman and Animal Pro divisions,” Ambrosius said. “It still remains fairly affordable to get into karting. You can get your hands on a gently used box stock kart and get racing for around $1,500.”
With the Little Buckaroo race format a driver draws a number when they sign in. That number lines them up for first of two heat races with the 2nd heat race employing an inverted start based upon your first heat finishing spot. “The feature race is lined up based upon how you finished in both heats,” Ambrosius explained.
Drivers battle for trophies most evenings. On special nights often sponsors will kick in money so drivers who finish in the top three may have cash prizes up for grabs. A bulk of the teams that compete at Little Buckaroo are local – hailing from Shawano, Oconto and Brown Counties. “We do have some families who travel from as far away as Stevens Point, and Escanaba and Menominee, Michigan,” Ambrosius said. “But our fan and driver base remains fairly local.”
Brian Ambrosius’ duties with the track weekly entail everything and anything including cutting grass, and general maintenance on the grounds. “John (Zegers) still handles the track prep for us,” Ambrosius explained.
The track hosts weekly Friday night races with the exception being they don’t race on holiday weekends. “I did that on purpose,” Ambrosius pointed out. “One of the main reasons is we encourage our young racers to go do something different with their families on those holiday weekends. We don’t want our future racers to burn out. While we all love racing there are other things in life to enjoy and we encourage them to do that.”
For those folks who are on the fence about getting into kart racing Little Buckaroo offers kiddie karts they rent out for the night.
You can attend pretty much any short track in northeast Wisconsin (on either dirt or asphalt) and odds are good you’ll find a driver who got his or her start at Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park.
Just a few of the drivers who got their start there include NASCAR racer and short track ace Ty Majeski from Seymour, dirt track racers Joe Reuter, Jason Jach, Marcus Yarie, Jeffrey Teske, Jordan Bartz, J.J. and Jerry Vander Loop.
“When I raced there from 2010 to 2012 I think I went undefeated at Little Buackaroo,” recalled Bartz, now an IMCA modified racer locally. “We couldn’t race full time like we wanted but when we did show up, we would pull off the win. Winning there all the time was a good push as it gave me the confidence I needed to move forward to the half-mile at Shawano.”
De Pere, Wisconsin native Johnny Whitman is one of many local stock car racers who got their start at Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park in Cecil, Wisconsin. (Turn Two Photos)
De Pere native Whitman has scored multiple track titles at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek and earlier this year captured the $10,000-to-win Clash At The Creek. “One of the best memories I have from racing at Little Buckaroo is the first time we went there we ended up winning but they took the win away from me for rough driving,” Whitman recalled. “Jake Schilleman tried giving us the trophy, but my dad wouldn’t let me take it. One time my dad was out of town, and I wanted to race so my mom and I loaded her Yukon up with the go kart and we went racing there. I was only seven at the time. But it was fun. One of the best things I learned racing at Little Buckaroo was to stay smooth. Most of the kart racers who came from there run pretty smooth laps.”
Greyson Arneson is joined by his parents Lance and Emily Arneson in victory lane.
For other current racers like Oconto Falls Lance Arneson Little Buckaroo provides the perfect location for his seven-year-old son Greyson Arneson to learn the ropes of racing. “We are so lucky and grateful to have a place like Little Buckaroo to take our kids karting,” Arneson said. “Not only is it great for the future of the sport, it’s a great place for the kids to stay out of trouble and hang out on race nights. They have a blast with each other on and off the track. It teaches them a lot about responsibility, teamwork and learning all about mechanical things with the kart and engine, sportsmanship and it helps them develops character. They also build a sense of wanting to be competitive and realize very quickly that if they want to be competitive, they have to work on themselves and their equipment to do so.”
Each year Little Buckaroo schedules an alumni night where many stock car racers return to their roots – many of them putting their ‘big cars’ on display for the youngsters to see.
Admission for general spectators is $5.00. Pit passes are crew members non-members are $15.00. Members pay $12.00.
On Fridays at Little Buckaroo the pits open at 4:15 p.m. with spectator gates swinging open at 5 p.m. Hot laps are at 6:15 p.m. with the first green flag flying at 7 p.m. “Most nights are show is done between 9:30 to 10 o’ clock,” Ambrosius said.
Fans can check out the Little Buckaroo Jr. Motorsports Park Facebook page for further information.