The Vault
TITLETOWN’S RACING CHAMPION – SCOTT HANSEN
Posted on: Friday December 16, 2022
This book is available for purchase at this website. Just click on the “books” tab and click in “Wisconsin International Raceway – Where The Big Ones Run.”
(The following is a chapter titled “Titletown’s Racing Champion) from the 2016 release “Wisconsin International Raceway – Where The Big Ones Run)
When it came to the late model class in the 1980s it was a second generation driver from Green Bay who took WIR’s half mile by storm.
Scott Hansen won five straight late model titles from 1985 to 1989. As a kid he was introduced to the sport of speed tagging along with his Dad Rollie Hansen, who flagged at local dirt tracks. “I remember a lot of Dad’s flagging and Dad had some real close calls,” recalled Hansen. “My sister and I went to Luxemburg with the coupes. They had a big wreck down the front stretch. Dad flagged right on the track – that’s just what they did back then. My Dad’s guardian angel that day was the water truck. He dove under the water truck when some race cars came barreling his way. I witnessed a lot of it and he flagged right on the track.”
When Hansen decided to get into racing in 1975 he received full support from his parents Rollie and Rose Hansen. “They were very supportive of it but didn’t contribute at all financially – just time,” said Hansen. “They let me use the garage space for the car.”
The first car Hansen bought was from fellow racer Tom Steuding in Altoona, in western Wisconsin. “Dad had a friend who had a plane and we actually flew there and bought the car,” recalled Hansen. “It was an old Chevelle. They put up with all of us guys coming and going at all hours of the night. They followed me around the country through all of my racing.”
Scott Hansen’s 1st race car in 1975 at Leo’s Speedway in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. (Vercauteren family photo)
The local dirt tracks of northeastern Wisconsin is where Hansen got his start. “Red BeDell really helped me get started,” said Hansen. “He must have saw something in me. He sold me my first ever cheater set of tires. I guess there was a tire rule back then. Red was also the first guy to show me what stagger was when I had no clue what that was with tires.”
Hansen’s career started out rough. During his very first race at Seymour Speedway in 1975 Hansen crashed through the turn one guardrail, luckily winding up between an open space between two parked spectators cars. “I remember I drove the thing back into the pit area but the car was in pretty tough shape,” said Hansen.
The learning curve was a tough one for Hansen early on. He struggled in his first two seasons in 1975 and 1976 on the half mile dirt ovals at De Pere, Seymour and Shawano. “Heck I’m pretty sure on Saturday nights I made more money shooting pool at the Staircase bar in Bonduel than I normally made racing at Shawano on Saturday nights,” joked Hansen.
In 1977 Hansen’s Uncle Curt Hansen purchased a Boyce Trackburner chassis from Gene Wheeler – and then things improved. “We had some success then with that car – some top finishes that year,” said Hansen. His first big win came that year with that car that was still in primer, at Luxemburg Speedway. He won $1,000 in the Midwest Open. “We had a big orange bus for a hauler and the trophy was so big we had to lay it down in the hauler to bring it home,” said Hansen. “We had trouble just getting to the race that day. We had to have Bob Menor, who also had a bus for a race hauler, push my bus up a hill on the highway on the way to Luxemburg that night. It was crazy.”
Hansen began dabbling in the pavement at WIR, beginning with the Red, White and Blue races. “We’d race those specials and that’s how and when we got our feet wet at WIR,” explained Hansen.
Scott Hansen with his dirt late model at Seymour Speedway’s half-mile in 1982.
Hansen would continue to play on both the dirt and asphalt up until the 1982 season. Little did Hansen know a meeting at a car wash of all places would eventually give Hansen the break he needed to go full time on the pavement. “After the Shawano races Saturday nights we’d bring our race car to this car wash at the corner of West Mason and Fisk streets on Green Bay’s west side,” said Hansen. “Well Steve Marler was a local insurance agent. He had sponsored some race cars and he would take his Mercedes to get it washed there. His office was by the car wash. He saw me one day and said “you know I really don’t like all this dirt and clay when I’m trying to wash my car. What’s it going to take to keep you guys out of here?” We struck up a conversation and before you know it, my crew guy Richie Wauters was persistent with Steve and finally Richie convinced Steve to buy me an asphalt late model.”
In the 1983 season Hansen embarked on his first full time season running Thursday nights at WIR. “I can’t thank Steve enough for what he did for us early on,” said Hansen. “After I had run for Marler for a couple of seasons I had an interview with Budweiser. They were looking to sponsor someone at Kaukauna. Terry Baldry had won the track championship and got the sponsorship from Pepsi,” said Hansen. “I finished second to Terry and Budweiser wanted to sponsor someone on Thursday nights. I didn’t have a car at the time. When they came to interview me I had Tom Haen’s car and hauler in the shop. I told them “this is what we have going. “Once I got the sponsor money I turned around and bought out Bob Menor’s racing operation. I basically sold the people at Budweiser on sponsorship when I didn’t even have a nut or bolt of my own.”
Hansen goes wheel-to-wheel with Allen Check at WIR in the mid 1980’s. (Kurt Luoma photo)
The sponsorship was a good one. “It was $15,000 cash, which back then was huge,” said Hansen. “Before that my biggest sponsor was $1,000 from Roger Hansen and Sons Livestock, and I thought that was a real big deal. All I had to do for that sponsorship was run the 13 of 15 Thursday nights. It was the biggest sponsorship deal of the time back then in 1985.” Half of the cash came from Anheuser Busch headquarters out of St. Louis while the other half came from Green Bay beer distributor Dean Distributing.
The deal also, as expected, came with an unlimited supply of beer. “It truly was an endless beer scenario,” joked Hansen. “They gave me some Budweiser at the meeting. I told them “boy this is really rough stuff.” They let me have Bud Light in the cooler instead. Jimmy Dean said they at their museum they had a Scott Hansen racing shirt on display as some of the things they’d sponsored at that time. That’s pretty cool.”
Hansen’s sponsorship with Budweiser lasted four years.
As a neophyte on the pavement, Hansen solicited the help of one of the best to get started on the right foot. “Dick Trickle had the mindset similar to (Crew Chief) Howie Lettow in that he’d rather have a competitor running well and to not be a hazard on the track,” explained Hansen. “When we got the asphalt car myself, Richie Wauters and Jeff Vandermoss drove to Trickle’s shop in Wisconsin Rapids. While Dick and I drank a 12 pack of Pabst Richie copies all of Dick’s setups and such from the tracks out of Dick’s notebook. Dick was more than willing to share a lot of his secrets with a new guy like me. That’s almost unheard of these days. Dick was a class act top to bottom when it came to that. Everything is under lock and key these days.”
Being from Green Bay, Hansen started out as an outsider. “(Dave) Valentyne, JJ (Smith), Lowell (Bennett) and (Terry) Baldry were great racers on the dirt too,” said Hansen. “But they were part of that Fox Valley clique and were the top runners there at that time.”
It was another driver outside of the Fox Valley who would give Hansen some of his stiffest competition through the ‘80’s. “Bob Iverson had come down every week for years from Michigan and he was tough – real tough,” said Hansen. “We had a great rivalry and truth is, you won’t find a nicer guy than Bobby. We had dog fights every single night. Terry Baldry was a close second. He’s a great racer and a nice guy. But you know where nice guys finish in this sport. Terry finished second to us a lot back then.” (Baldry would go on to win an unprecedented 12 FRRC championships years later –more than any other driver in FRRC history),. The success rate was from one end to the other. “The big reason for our success was great equipment and great people,” said Hansen. “That’s why I was successful.”
In 1990 Hansen moved down to Milwaukee. “Howie Lettow called me for an interview,” said Hansen. “They wanted me to race for Baker Motorsports in 1989,” said Hansen, who won the ASA rookie-of-the-year title in 1989. Hansen’s first full time year of racing was 1989. Hansen ran full time on the ASA series and special events around the country.
While driving for Jerry Gunderman’s All Star Racing team in 1995, Green Bay native Scott Hansen scored 27 wins out of 68 races. A whopping 40 percent winning percentage. (Dave Drews photo)
“Racing for a living was fabulous. I wouldn’t have change anything,” said Hansen. “It starts with people. I surrounded myself with people who would not only work for free on the car, but when it came to partying we’d do that too.”
Over the years Hansen won some big races like the Dixieland 250 at Kaukauna, the Rockford Nationals at Rockford Speedway and his first ASA win at the Milwaukee Mile. “There were so many victories,” said Hansen. “In 1995 we won 29 out of 67 races. We’d go to Phoenix and the guys from Goodyear Tire would have pools and they’d get pissed if they didn’t get to pick us in their pools.”
“(Car builder) Mike Randerson was huge and a great help to my career too,” said Hansen. “Guys like Mike and Howie (Lettow) were great. Surrounding yourself with key people is what life was all about and I still try to subscribe to that in life after racing.”
In 1997 Hansen got the call to move down south to Charlotte, North Carolina – the hub of NASCAR. “I was out of a job,” said Hansen. “I got into an argument with Jerry (Gunderman, car owner) and it was an argument over a pit stop. I thought I was smarter than the rest of the world. Kenny Schrader and I were both racing at Madison one night. I said to Kenny “whenever you’re looking for something to do keep me in mind.” I got my head back on my shoulders and went back to Gunderman for a year first which was the best thing I ever did.”
Hansen wound up racing a NASCAR truck for Schrader. The move down south was far from peaches and cream.“ The truck series for me was a downside to the highlights of my career to be honest,” said Hansen. “The engine program was going through something different. I wasn’t accustomed to radial tires at the time. Had I had a Hendrick or Roush truck maybe things may have been different. Who knows. I wasn’t able to bring any of my own people down. I like Kenny Schrader. He’s a great guy and a friend but back then he didn’t spend any money on the truck program. I mean I had more horsepower with those V 6 engines in ASA then that truck had at the time.”
Another thing that didn’t sit well with Hansen was the political climate with NASCAR. “Politics and Scott Hansen don’t get along well in that industry,” quipped Hansen. “When things don’t go well I want to speak my mind like a Tony Stewart. I really wasn’t having any fun down there and a little after a year I was done. The truck thing for me just wasn’t very fun.”
It was also during his stint with the trucks that Hansen suffered the worst wreck of his racing career at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “The right front tire blew and I hit the wall hard going into turn three,” said Hansen. “I was knocked out cold for the first time in my life. It was a very hard hit. I never experienced that before.
In 2000 Hansen returned to race for Milwaukee-area car owner Don Fanetti. “We won our last race at the Milwaukee Mile where I won my first race so that was sort of a fitting end to the career that had come full circle,” said Hansen. “It was time to bow out and try something else for a living.”
Hansen, now 61, has owned his own trucking company based in the Milwaukee area since 2004. “I have no regrets at all. It was a great ride.”