The Vault
THE DE PERE-SEYMOUR PROMOTERS WAR OF 1975
Posted on: Wednesday November 12, 2025
BIG GUARANTEES HEIGHTEN STOCK CAR BATTLE by Jim Zima
(Reprinted from the Green Bay Press Gazette 1975 – date unknown)
The race for supremacy in stock car racing at the Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere and the Outagamie County Fairgrounds in Seymour shifted into high gear Wednesday as each promoter tried to outdo the other.
De Pere promoter Jack Peters joined forces with Jerry Scheriff, Appleton, operator of the Fox Valley Auto Auction on Highway 41 in rural De Pere.
While the two were coming up with a $3,600 guaranteed purse plus a $400 bonus for a $4,000 total for Sunday night races at De Pere, word leaked to Seymour promoter Paul Kaczrowski.
Kaczrowski, who is Peters’ brother-in-law, was quick to retaliate. Kaczrowski, who was an announcer for Peters at De Pere, declared he would increase his $2,800 guarantee on Sundays to $4,000 and that in addition, he would hold racing on Friday nights at Seymour, with a $4,000 guaranteed purse.
Peters had previously announced he would hold late model stock car racing on both Friday and Sunday nights. De pere had lost the bulk of the top drivers to Seymour on Sunday.
Prior to this year, De Pere had weekly Sunday night racing and Seymour, at one time or another, operated with little success on either Wednesday or Friday night.
Roger “The Bear” Regeth, standing next to car builder Mike Randerson, committed to Jack Peters program at the Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere in 1975 where he dominated weekly action en route to a track title. (Vercauteren family photo)
This season, Kaczrowski switched to Sunday in an attempt to generate more top drivers and bigger crowds for Seymour. He banked his track and offered a guaranteed big purse in order to lure the drivers.
With the guaranteed purse, Kaczrowski appeared to have won the battle, especially with De Pere announcing thhis past week that races would be held on Friday, too.
Then Scheriff, who owns Roger Regeth’s racer, decided to get in the act. Regeth, one of the best dirt track drivers in Northeastern Wisconsin and a former USAC driver, competed at De Pere for the first two weeks.
The Friday night program will carry the normal 50 percent of the gate purse with the guarantee being for Sunday only while Seymour has the guarantee for both events. Both Peters and Kaczrowski say that the huge purse is not a season long thing and that they will play it week by week.
Kaczrowski claims that many of his drivers have contacted him and said they will stay at Seymour and Peters claims that he and Scheriff have talked to many who say they will opt for De Pere.
Peters’ purse breakdown is $9 per point on a 400 point breakdown plus $200 to the feature winner, $125 bonus for 2nd place, $50 to the semi-feature winner and $25 to second place. Kaczrowski is offering a straight $10 a point.
Kaczrowski also has said that Wisconsin Rapids’ Dick Trickle will be competing at his track Sunday. Trickle is a former USAC rookie of the year and has some NASCAR experience but in the past has competed mostly on blacktop.
Kaczrowski, announcing his plans for Friday racing, said, “He (Peters) went to Friday and Sunday racing and I will announce the purse. I would have been satisfied if he would have stayed on Friday but they insisted on bumping heads with me on Sunday so I have no other alternative.”
Jim Zima was the long time beat reporter of the racing at the Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere, Wisconsin in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Along with the changes in purse, Kaczrowski has also claimed that the track record set by Regeth in qualifying at De Pere last week was not accurate, in effect charging peters with tampering with qualifying times.
An angered Peters replied to this saying, “He accused me of cheating two years ago. I have never and will never ask anybody to try and change a time”
The two have had trouble before and Peters recalls, “Some time ago I had to bar him (Kaczrowski) when he was announcing for me and owned a car which was driven by Dan Ambrose (another brother-in-law) because it had too big an engine to meet our rules.”