The Scoop
PONDERING THE FUTURE OF SHAWANO SPEEDWAY
Posted on: Friday April 4, 2025
A huge opening day crowd greeted enjoyed the opening night at racing at Shawano Speedway in April, 2021.
I don’t often opine on issues/situations in the local or regional motorsports world.
However, I feel I need to say something about the current quandary Shawano Speedway finds itself in.
Most of us “in the know” have seen what’s occurred at the half-mile, clay oval in recent years. Much of it is not good, and there is plenty of room for improvement in many areas.
The track surface has been subpar for a while now. The track needs clay. Desperately.
Fans don’t want to keep seeing feature winners coming from the first two rows week in, and week out. Although I’ve been an announcer and writer on local and regional racing, I am also a FAN and I too, want to see two grooves of racing and plenty of passing.
Dirt Kings late models prior to the green flag at Shawano Speedway in 2021. (Distinct Aerial Shotz photo)
A social media firestorm erupted this week when the Shawano Area Ag Society’s Racing Board (the board that oversees Shawano Speedway) put out a Facebook post requesting donations for clay to resurface the track.
I fully realize the finger pointing on this situation could go on and on. Could (or should) this have been addressed sooner? Without question!
Shawano has always been a unique situation from a promotional standpoint. The Ag Society has always had it’s thumb on the program, for better or worse. I had the privilege of announcing some great races at Shawano over the years, starting in the early 1990’s.
I recall days when early in the year, there would be enough IMCA modifieds to have two, and sometimes three last chance races. Some special events would often draw heavy hitters from WISSOTA country in the late model class, and for a while in the ’90’s. Shawano was the true “Big Man on Campus” on the local dirt track scene.
But the days of McBride, (Terry) Anvelink and Pete Parker putting on thrilling, door-to-door races and having hundreds of their own fans help pack the grandstands are long gone. We could debate shortening the track all day long (which I think long term would benefit the track for many reasons) but right now, the folks trying to right the ship are tasked with keeping the lights on for Saturday nights.
Shawano is the last of the county half-mile tracks I was blessed to grow up with. It was De Pere, Shawano and Seymour that took center stage and hosted the massive late model explosion that began in the early 1970’s. That era spawned some of the best racing around, and I was fortunate to have a front row seat to the action.
There are four “racing people” I’d call (for lack of a better term) who are STICKING THEIR NECKS OUT to keep this track alive and running. Tom Postl, Troy Springborn, Bob Schmidt and Cody Hudson.
Whether or not you like or dislike either of these four people isn’t the point here. They are taking on roles that NOBODY wants. That remains one of my fears about weekly racing in the next five to ten years. I feel it will be difficult to continue to find STAFF willing to make a weekly commitment to help put on a show. It’s a legit concern I have.
Could Shawano Speedway have handled a lot of things differently in recent years? Of course! But what good will finger pointing do when the track closes its doors? We all know once a track closes, it’s pretty tough to bring it back. (Look at Oshkosh and Manitowoc as two recent examples).
So before you are quick to hammer out some post bashing these guys for trying to save something, think twice. That’s all I’m saying. I’m a total, 100 percent free speech person. I don’t believe in censorship in any form. I’m just asking you to THINK TWICE before you want to bash the track – even though some of it may very well be justified. And in my opinion, Shawano has probably been beaten up as bad as any other track I’ve ever seen on social media (and yes I acknowledge some of it is most likely deserved).
And oh yeah, if you’ve experienced some great racing there over the years, whether you’re a fan or a driver, at least consider chipping in if you can. Granted, these issues should have been brought to the forefront a long time ago. But sometimes, when local government-type officials get involved, these things unfortunately take time. For better or worse.