The Scoop
MAXWELL SCHULTZ – TWO RACES FROM THE FRRC SUPER LATE TITLE
Posted on: Wednesday August 25, 2021
‘Mighty Maxwell’ Schultz of Reedsville, Wisconsin remains in the lead in the super late model point standings with two points nights of racing left in the Fox River Racing Club’s ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ program.
Maxwell Schultz may only be 31-years-old, but he’s been involved in motorsports in some capacity for most of his life.
Entering the two final weeks of ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ action at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, the second-generation racer holds a 24-point lead over Pewaukee’s Grant Griesbach in the super late model point standings.
While Schultz has a pair of Red, White & Blue state titles under his belt the weekly, Fox River Racing Club title has eluded him on more than one occasion. He’s finished either second or third on a few different occasions and been snakebitten a time or two late in the year.
Schultz is back competing weekly after racing only handful of times in 2020. “I got married last year to my wife Jenna and life just got real busy for both of us,” Schultz explained. “We had run weekly at WIR and not missed a race for I wanna say 13 years or so.”
Schultz and his dad Bob Schultz made the mutual decision after the 2019 season they would take a much-needed respite from the weekly grind. In ’20 Schultz ran two Thursday night shows and the ARCA Midwest Tour’s Dixieland 250. “It was championship night last year we started to get the itch again and throughout the winter months,” Schultz explained. “We talked to our pit crew and we all decided to go back into it full bore this year. Because another thing is when you get married and maybe have kids someday you don’t know how much longer you’re going to keep doing this. We had the race cars. We had the time, so we decided to give it another run for the title in 2021.”
Schultz has been the class of the super late model field in ’21, netting seven fast times. Although he didn’t win his first feature of the year until August 19 Schultz has been able to avoid any major wrecks and shove his race car into their enclosed trailer each night in one piece. “When we raced just a few times last year it was nice not having the pressure of the points chase,” Schultz admitted. “But to be honest it’s also nice running weekly again. We’ve been a little off in the features (until August 19) but we found a part failure. Hopefully we’ve got it straightened out.”
Maxwell Schultz is interviewed by WIR track announcer Matt Panure prior to opening ceremonies for ‘Thursday Night Thunder.’ (Ricky Bassman photo)
Those seven fast times have helped Schultz propel to the top of the point standings. “They payout points to the top 16 with fast time paying 16 points, second gets 15 and on down the line,” Schultz explained. “That’s certainly helped us with the points deal. But in the feature races, we’ve sort of played it patiently to a degree.”
Schultz got his start racing at the age of 8 in the karts in Elkhart Lake. When he was 14, Schultz moved up to his first full-sized racer — a hobby stock at 141 Speedway when the track was still a quarter-mile, paved oval.
“Believe it or not, there are some things you can use from your kart racing that transfers over to the super late models,” Schultz said. “One thing I’ve learned in the super late model at WIR it’s all about momentum, just like a go kart.”
Ironically it was the track Schultz has turned most laps – WIR’s half-mile – where he suffered one of the most violent wrecks in his career. When he was 16-years-old Schultz was competing in a Mid-American stock car series race at WIR when his car vaulted into a violent series of flips on the backstretch of the D-shaped, half mile.
That scary wreck would have been enough to force many teenagers to hang up their helmet. Not Schultz, who had recently obtained his driver’s license prior to the wreck in 2006.
Schultz was also a rookie in the super late model division at the time, and as such his dad, Bob Schultz, towed their super model back to the “scene of the accident” that following Tuesday night for a practice session. Schultz got “back on that horse” so to speak and was able to very quickly erase the wreck and put it behind him, all at the young age of 16.
“It happened so quick it wasn’t anything like I had experienced before,” said Schultz. “It opened the world to me for stock car racing in a hurry. As a 16-year-old, it was on the back of my mind for the first few practice laps anyways. But we went on and lived to fight another day.”
One advantage Schultz has is he’s been wheeling the same race car since 2016 – a Lefthander chassis. “We got this car from Brett Piontek when he hung it up and it’s been fast ever since,” Schultz pointed out. “We haven’t had anything major go wrong with it.”
With just two nights of racing left at WIR, Schultz doesn’t feel the need to race any differently than he has all season long. “I guess the way I look at it the minute you start changing how you do things bad things seem to happen,” Schultz said. “We just want to stay on offense and keep digging and get what you can. It’s kind of like in football if you go into a prevent mode and then you’ll end up losing. We don’t want that to happen here. We want to try to win it and however it shakes out it shakes out. Yes, it would be nice to finally get (a weekly track championship). But honestly it’s not the ‘end all – be all.’ If we don’t we might come back and try another year.”
The team members who keep Schultz’s number 34 car on the track weekly include his dad Bob Schulz, Jason Behnke, Randy Simmons and Brian Stevens. “Jason has been with us since the beginning and Randy came with us when Piontek sold us the car,” Schultz said. “Jeff Vandermoss (former car chief for Matt Kenseth at the NASCAR Winston Cup level) helps us once in a while with tips over the phone. The all make it possible to be at the track weekly.”
Schultz’s team of marketing partners includes Krueger Bowling Services, J and J Service, Fox Cities Towing and The Big Kahuna.