The Scoop
THE ‘BURG SPEEDWAY NEWS & NOTES FROM JUNE 12
Posted on: Monday June 13, 2022
Sturgeon Bay’s Cody Rass rode the high line to victory in the IMCA northern sportmod feature at The ‘Burg Speedway Sunday, June 12. (danlewisphoto.net)
It felt like a homecoming of sorts to return to The ‘Burg Speedway in Luxemburg, Wisconsin Sunday June 12 for the Rick Goral Memorial race.
I had the pleasure of working for Rick at the speedway for 10 years when he and Bobby Dorner ran the show on Friday nights from 2002 to 2011. 12 years later much has changed. The pit area was moved from outside turns three and four to adjacent to turns one and two.
The biggest change has been the night they now run which is Sundays. For years it was tradition for us to grab a perch plate at D & B’s Pub in Luxemburg before going to ‘work’ behind the mic at Luxemburg.
It was great to catch up with some racing friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. Todd “Felix” Dart was in the pits but his IMCA modified was in the shop resting for the Clash @ The Creek coming up at 141 Speedway.
Instead Felix was helping out his son-in-law Alec Wery in the IMCA northern sportmod division. Alec wound up sixth in the big show which was an entertaining one. We watched Sturgeon Bay’s Cody Rass hustle the outside line on a slick track to an impressive victory.
Former pavement racer Reagan May of De Pere appears to be getting a hang of this dirt track stuff. Reagan wheeled the Coleman Racing 119 to a solid fourth place finish in a pretty tough field of cars in the sportmod A main.
With every other racing program in the region getting washed out Saturday the pit area was swelled with 142 teams checked in for battle in the five divisions. In roaming around the pit area and chatting it up with some of the racers who’ve been in this game for some time I was once again reminded that weekly racing and chasing a weekly, grind-it-out every single week title is very much becoming a thing of the past.
Like most every race track these days The ‘Burg uses the popular MyRacePass app and the announcing/scoring tower is wired for sound. It’s handy and convenient for announcer Joe Orsini as he can sit there and literally get up-to-the-minute updates as to who’s checked in and in which division. It’s pretty slick all things considered.
The crew who’ve taken on the task of keeping the show rolling in Luxemburg deserve a pat on the back. Truth is the profits made running a race track at a county-leased facility (if there are any at all) are thin, at best. Especially compared to past promoters who only had maybe three divisions of race cars to payout versus five classes.
25 years ago teams also had many more crew members. I swung by Race Van Pay’s pit and found one crew member there – Uncle Steve Van Pay. I remember in the ’80’s and 90’s and beyond the Van Pay race team was a swarm of orange team uniforms. Like Steve said it’s pretty much ‘just family’ these days chipping in. It’s concerning to me a bit as to the future of this sport as we move forward.
So if you ever see Joe Orsini, Andrew Sternard, Jordan & Britney Parma or Lydia Kaye tell them “thank you” for their hard work and efforts. I believe they have one more year left on their agreement with Kewaunee County. What the future holds beyond that is anybody’s guess.
Racing has a rich and strong tradition in Luxemburg. Let’s hope that doesn’t end anytime soon.
One race you won’t want to miss will be the second annual Eric Van Iten Memorial race July 17. Last year saw one of the largest grandstands full of fans in track history and a monster car count to match. Make sure you put it on your calendar.