The Scoop
TIM CZARNESKI – COAXED BACK INTO RACING AFTER FIVE YEARS OFF
Posted on: Thursday June 24, 2021
Tim ‘CZ’ Czarneski is back behind the wheel after five seasons away from racing. His 16-year-old son Cole Czarneski coaxed dad back to the races last summer at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek, Wisconsin.
All it took was a little prodding from his teenage son Cole to prompt Tim ‘CZ’ Czarneski to come out of a five year hiatus from stock car racing.
The 41-year-old Denmark, Wisconsin racer has returned to IMCA modified racing since hanging up his helmet after the 2014 season. Now ‘CZ’ attends most races with his 16-year-old son Cole who is a rookie in the IMCA northern sportmod class in northeastern Wisconsin.
“I had not attended a race in more than five years,” Tim Czarneski said. “When our youngest son Reed was born in 2014, I sold all of my racing equipment. Our kids are multi-sports athletes, and we began traveling around the country and spent a lot of great time at ball diamonds meeting some great families. Baseball families are good people just like racing families are.”
The week leading up to 141 Speedway’s Clash At The Creek $10,000-to-win race in 2020 Cole approached dad about possibly attending the big paying special which is literally minutes down the road from their hometown.
“Cole said ‘Hey they are having that big race at 141 he brought me out there and we watched the races,” Tim Czarneski explained. “We stayed in the grandstands. After the races got done, we went down to the pits and Ricky Lemmen had a car for sale. I made him an offer and Ricky said ‘call me in the morning buddy’. We called in the morning and Ricky said ‘come and get it, it’s yours’ and we picked it up the car. We were racing again.”
‘CZ’ knew full well that Cole was sort of setting dad up because he wanted a crack at racing himself and that way his chances were better he’d be racing a car too. “I told my wife Leah that I really only planned to race once in a while,” Tim Czarneski admitted. “I told her I’d use one of the old job trailers. Well, that lasted two nights before I started looking for something bigger on the internet. We did find a bigger trailer. I wound up getting a (sportmod) for Cole too.”
When he raced one event ‘CZ’ always enjoyed attending was the IMCA Supernationals each September down in Boone, Iowa. “I called up Brett Root (IMCA president) and asked him ‘what are the chances that I could get my old pit spots down for the Supernationals?” Tim Czarneski asked. “Even though I hadn’t been there in five years. Brett said ‘for you CZ you can have your spots back. I told him I just bought a car. It was funny because our friends like Mike Mashl and others stopped going down there. When I got back into it the interest returned in getting back down there for that event.”
Tim Czarneski’s racing career began in 2005. “My son Cole was born on March 21 so that’s why I carry the number 21,” Tim Czarneski explained. “I started racing two weeks after he was born.”
‘CZ’ bought an old street stock of Charlie Kroll’s out of the barn and raced at Luxemburg Speedway and Thunder Hill in Sturgeon Bay. “We pretty much took the mice nests out of the carburetor and went racing,” Tim Czarnesk laughed. “Within five weeks we were leading the point standings for a bit up at Sturgeon Bay.”
Halfway through that season Czarneski was sitting at his parent’s tavern CZ’s Bushville Lanes in Denmark when friend and IMCA modified racer Eric Van Iten strolled in. “We were having a couple of drinks and talking about racing,” Tim Czarneski said. “Eric suggested that I should get into a modified. So that night I bought a car from Eric. We took it out to Luxemburg that next Friday night and barrel rolled it seven times.”
Not to be deterred ‘CZ’ awoke the next morning and called another friend who raced modifieds – Sean Jerovetz. “Sean told me he had a Harris chassis with only two nights on it,” Tim Czarneski said. “Sean said we could buy it and that he’d even leave his motor in for us to borrow and use for the weekend. So, we bought that car and never did miss a race. We even ran the next Sunday at Seymour. That’s how we fell into racing with those guys.”
Czarneski raced Harris chassis for close to eight seasons. In that time, he scored eight feature wins including a feature flag earlier this year at 141.
Fast forward to 2021. “We wanted to get a car for Cole and had Ryan Rosenow and Sean Jerovetz build a new Rage chassis sportmod,” Tim Czarneski said. “It’s top-notch equipment. We brought James Miller over and he does everything with these race cars and does a great job.” (Miller was a long-time pit crew member for Josh and Brandon Long).
Cole Czarneski will be a junior this fall who plays quarterback and cornerback for the Denmark Vikings football team. He’s also on the wrestling squad and anticipates grappling at either the 160 or 152 lb. weight class this winter. Unlike many other teenage racers Cole has no prior racing experience. No karts or anything of that nature. “I really like it at 141 Speedway for a couple of different reasons,” Cole Czarneski said. “It’s close to home and because it’s close to home we can get a lot of practice laps in here.”
16-year-old Cole Czarneski poses next to his IMCA northern sportmod at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek, Wisconsin.
Cole grew up around dad’s racing shop. “It was usually Nick De Grand and ‘Ram Rod’ (Scott Stein) who did a lot of the work on the race cars back then,” Cole Czarneski said. “I’ve got my friends Jonah, Max, Cody, Jacob and James who help out.” The teenage Czarneski’s goal by the end of the ’21 season is to capture a feature flag.
“Truth be told I enjoy watching Cole race more than I like racing myself,” Tim Czarneski confessed. “I’m here to have fun. Cole is here to win. I want to see him go the distance. If my 12-year-old son Brett wants to step up and race he can run Cole’s sportmod and Cole can move up to the modifieds.”
Seat time is big in the sport of stock car racing and Cole is racing at 141, Outagamie Speedway in Seymour, The Burg Speedway in Luxemburg, Shawano Speedway and pretty much anywhere else he can get some laps under his belt.
So, what’s been the biggest change since CZ last raced full time in 2014? “Now even the slow guys from when I quit are faster now,” Tim Czarneski pointed out. “When we pull out onto the track in 2021 95 percent of the modifieds that are out there all have a chance of winning that night. There is no room for error. There are nights where there are 55 or 60 modifieds at 141. It’s ultra competitive.”
On occasion ‘CZ’ gets a little help in the pits from an old friend – Tim Lautenbach. “In fact, the night I won the feature this year Tim was helping out,” Tim Czarneski said. “He doesn’t make it all the time, but he knows what he’s doing that’s for sure.”
With four boys ages 16 through 7 Tim and Leah Czarneski remain busy balancing their kid’s sports (they wrestle, play baseball and football), racing and running their businesses Pro 1 Properties and Pro 1 Trucking.
And the competitive nature the boys get from being multi-sport athletes does carry over into racing. “Heck we’re even competitive within our own family,” Tim Czarneski said. “I mean as a family we’ll even race to see who gets back to the car first if we’re out to eat or shopping.”
While the Czarneski’s are back ‘all-in’ with racing as often as they can the five summers away from the dirt ovals that were spent at the ball diamonds they consider time well spent. “I still plan on making a lot of baseball tournaments and then James (Miller) will bring Cole to the tracks,” Tim Czarneski said. “Cole wants it bad. He already had eight heat wins in his first 13 nights of racing.”
Cole Czarneski has scored eight heat wins in the first half of the 2021 season. (danlewisphoto.net)
Czarneski’s team sponsors include Pro 1 Property Services, Mathis Family, Jerovetz Motorsports Shock Services, Bob Cullen Racing, Concrete Finishers, CZ’s Bushville Lanes, Loopy’s Bar and Grill, Joski Sewer Services, Prestige Custom Cabinets, Pro 1 Transport, Tri County Heating, Professional Fabrications, Inc, Rage Chassis, Rookie’s of Denmark, Rage Chassis, Herman’s Construction, Northeastern Mud Jacking and Victory Sign.