The Scoop
SHAWANO SPEEDWAY’S HOME RUN OPENER
Posted on: Sunday April 18, 2021
A huge crowed of close to 3,000 race fans jam packed the grandstands for Shawano Speedway’s season opening race April 17 (DIstinct Aerial Shotz photo)
Nothing – I mean NOTHING is better than opening night at any racetrack.
The business at hand for joeverdegan.com and work for the new book “5-10-32 – Parker, McBride & Anvelink” took me to the legendary Shawano Speedway and the Dirt Kings late model series opener.
Although not overly warm it was a sunny day and the fans showed up big time. Although I have heard no official attendance numbers I’d say a stellar crowd of 3,000 hungry race fans jammed the covered grandstand. Race fans were eager to emerge from their winter hibernation as social media pics cannot do the sport justice and as we all know NOTHING beats live entertainment and actually being at the track.
Shawano is one of the few remaining weekly short tracks that has kept their admission prices steady and affordable at just $10 for an adult ticket. Truth is you cannot find a cheaper date anywhere. Anytime. Concession prices remained very affordable ($13 for a six pack of beer that I gladly shared with Paul and Andrew Bauer once my “work” was completed) and all around it was a very positive vibe at the track Saturday night.
It was great to see Brad “JJ” Mueller tackle Shawano’s half-mile. Mueller confirmed my suspicions that he had not ever raced at Shawano and this was his first “kick at the cat” so to speak. Mueller placed a respectable 10th and is a regular at Plymouth Dirt Track which is 15 minutes from his home in Random Lake. “I was pretty happy with our finish,” Muller said. “I always tell everyone never underestimate the locals because nine times out of ten they will kick your ass.”
To back up what Mueller said seven to eight of the top ten late model finishers were what you could consider ‘locals.”
Mueller is a four-time champion at Plymouth and captured the Lucky Seven dirt late model crown in 2015. He’s also a three-time Slinger Speedway champion on the tar and placed second in the prestigious Slinger Nationals 2nd three times and every one of those bridesmaid finishes was to his good friend Lowell Bennett.
You can also catch Mueller at the world’s fast quarter-mile Slinger Super Speedway on the tar on Sunday nights.
We ran into Joel Bennett who arrived early with his two youngsters helping out on his pit crew. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Joel’s dad “Mr. B” Bobby Bennett who at 87 is currently experiencing failing health issues.
In light of the untimely death of Diamond Jim Letizia earlier in the week, Pewaukee’s Dan Schlieper, who raced dirt late models for a living for a bit hopped into Letizia’s car. Schlieper didn’t forget how to wheel his way around Shawano and battled his way into the A main through winning the B main and wound up placing 12th.
Dirt Kings late models prior to taking the green flag at Shawano Speedway. (Distinct Aerial Shotz photo)
The Dirt Kings race was won by Nick Anvelink. Anvelink has announced he had no real plans to chase a title anywhere, but sometimes early season wins and a strong start can point teams in a different direction.
Seymour’s Mike Mullen pulled double duty, driving both a late model and IMCA modified owned by Ricky Lemmen. Mullen scored the modified feature win and told me his plan in 2021 was to “hit and miss” big money shows in the area and not chase points anywhere in particular.
Ironically on a night where Mike won at Shawano his Dad Brian Mullen scored a podium finish several counties away at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek.
It was good to see a couple of old school racers still going at it. I haven’t seen Butch Thiel race at Shawano since the 1980s and New London’s Paul Thorpe took on a new project wheeling a late model. Thorpe, who started racing at Shawano in the hobby stock division in 1978, purchased the car used in Indianapolis and at 61 wanted to ‘try something new’ and he still has a pair of IMCA modifieds, one of which was being piloted by Brad Moeller. Look for a feature story on Thorpe in the upcoming weeks here.
When I go to Shawano one of the benefits race fans can enjoy is that a good number of the bigger haulers pit outside the track behind the grandstand. It gives fans and up close and personal look at the teams working on their racers. Teams with smaller haulers still pit in the infield but unlike 10 or 15 years ago there aren’t many visual blocks at all when you see the racers speed down the backstretch.
Kyle Frederick put his K and E Sales & Service ‘house car’ into victory lane in it’s maiden voyage in the first IMCA stock car heat. “This thing was just a sandblasted chassis a little over a month ago,” Frederick said. “We’ve got some tweaking to do on it but we plan on driving this car to all the big money specials in the area and possibly even Minnesota.” Frederick plans on racing his own car at Luxemburg Sunday nights.
We caught up with Matt Panure the voice of the Dirt Kings tour. Matt remains one of the busiest men in the business, announcing the ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ action at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna as well as running the TUNDRA super late model series on pavement.
Panure vows to start ‘slowing down’ one of these days but I’ve been down that road myself and I’ll believe that when I see it! Matt’s turned into a true pro at his craft.
All in all, it was great to catch up with some old friends in the racing community – some of whom I haven’t seen in decades. Shawano always seems to be a fun time and the fans always seem to be in a good mood. Seeing that huge crowd convinced me things are going back to normal around here.
In other news from the weekend – by winning the IMCA modified feature at 141 Speedway Saturday Luxemburg native Benji LaCrosse copped his 120th career IMCA sanctioned modified feature win. With the ‘W’ LaCrosse closes within seven features of fellow local modified legends Brian Mullen and R.M. Van Pay. Heading into this season Mullen and Van Pay remain tied in all time sanctioned Wisconsin feature wins with 127 a piece.
If LaCrosse’s early season win is any indication his odds of catching those two or perhaps even passing them up is a distinct possibility.
Race fans enjoying the opening night action at Shawano Speedway.
Get out and support your local track this year. Granted the online streaming and all that is fine if you really can’t make it. But I cannot stress this enough – there is NO SUBSTITUTE for live entertainment. Especially in the short track racing biz.