To say Brian Mullen has been the man to beat in local IMCA modified competition this year is an understatement. So far this year the Seymour speedster has 10 modified feature wins to his credit. Heading into this weekend Mullen has recorded a total of 98 modified feature wins in his career, meaning he could hit that century mark sometime very soon. "I don't think it's just one thing we can point to," explained Mullen, relating to his successful season. "We keep doing the same thing we've been doing every year. We put a ton of time into our maintainence programs and setups. In fact, of the six feature wins I have at Luxemburg this year I think I've thrown in six completely different setups into our car. It's what you have to do to make the cars go faster."

So far this year Mullen has scored six wins at Luxemburg Speedway, one at Seymour Tri-Oval Raceway, one at Thunder Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay and a pair of feature wins this winter down in Texas, including a $5,000 payday at Cowtown Speedway. Mullen currently leads the point standings at both Luxemburg and Seymour, which run weekly on Friday and Sunday nights, respectively. "Saturday is kind of our night off," said Mullen. "I run Powercom Park in Beaver Dam once in awhile. I'll be heading down there probably this Saturday night." Dirt tracks in this area differ in size and composition, depending upon how they are prepped. Some drivers prefer a wet, heavy tack surface with a lot of "bite" or traction, while others prefer a black, dry slick track which usually takes an expensive motor with a lot of horsepower out of the equation, forcing driver skill and chassis setup into the winning formula. Mullen prefers the latter. "Smooth and black works fine with me," said Mullen, who's scored wins on all sorts of track surfaces this year. "Luxemburg most of the time is not a big motor track. It usually winds up being hard and black. That's fine because there usually ends up being two good grooves that produce some real good side-by-side racing."

Mullen competes with a Harris chassis which is sponsored by McCoy's Harley Davidson, Prestige Custom Cabinets and Gene's Deep Rock, among many others. Next Wednesday night, July 30 McCoy's will sponsor the Luxemburg Modified Classic, paying out a cool $2,000 to the winner in the non-IMCA sanctioned event. Mullen won a $2,000 payday at Luxemburg back on July 4th. "That was a neat deal but I think without a motor claim on July 30th you'll get a few more of the big guns from around the state who don't have to worry about losing their motors," said Mullen. "My buddy Mike Sandholm from East Troy came up and stayed with me the weekend of that race. He wound up refusing a claim. He's coming back for the show on the 30th because it isn't sanctioned. I've talked to Jay Schraufnagel and Tim Lemirande, they'll be back, too. There'll be some other new ones coming probably as well."

Also on July 30 the IMCA-style stock cars will battle for a $1,500 top prize. On July 4 Gillett's Kyle Frederick led wire-to-wire to score the biggest payout in his career. Racing for the July 30 event begins at 7 p.m. The modified feature will be 50 laps, while the stock cars will run a 40 lap main event. Consult www.luxemburgspeedway.com for more information.

LUXEMBURG COIN TOSS - The Bank of Luxemburg will sponsor the kid's coin toss at Luxemburg Speedway this Friday night for a regular program beginning at 7 p.m. Street stocks will make their fourth appearance of the season.

LATE MODELS AT 141 - Super late models will make their only appearance of the season at 141 Speedway's quarter-mile, paved oval located in Francis Creek, WI Sunday night, July 27. "The Creek Classic 100" will feature a 100 lap feature running under the Wisconsin Challenge Series. Among the local drivers from the area to compete will be Two Rivers Gregg Haese, Kewaunee's Eugene Gregorich Jr. and Appleton's Rod Wheeler. Time trials start at 4 p.m. with racing getting underway at 5:30 p.m.

ANTIGO SPECIAL - There will be no racing at Luxemburg Speedway on Friday, August 1 due to the Kewaunee County fair. That evening Langlade County Speedway in Antigo will run an IMCA stock car special in a sanctioned event beginning at 7 p.m. A full regular show will also be run there. It will mark the first ever appearance of the IMCA stock cars at the half-mile, clay oval.

STURGEON BAY LATE MODELS - Interest continues to build for the first appearance of the dirt late models in more than twenty years to the Thunder Hill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay for a special Wednesday night program on August 6. The Forest County Potawatomi Dirt Late Model shootout will pay $2,000 to the winner, with bonus lap leader money and a hard charger award pushing to amount possible to win to a whopping $3,700.

Among some of the driver's who've committed to this event are Gordie Seegert Jr. of Oostburg, Kaukauna's Pete Parker, Shawano's Tom Naeyaert and Troy Springborn, Glenbeulah's Tim Buhler, Green Bay drivers TJ White, Greg Haney and Michelle Ploeckelmann. "We expect more drivers to commit in the coming weeks," said track co-promoter Bryan "Woody" Wodack. "Folks up here in Sturgeon Bay are buzzing about it. It should be a real big one." IMCA modifieds and street stocks will also compete that night. That event will kick off the Door County Fair.

MARS LANDS IN MINNESOTA - The Yellow Book USA MARS late model series will head west to the I-94 Raceway in Sauk Centre, Minnesota this Saturday night. Kimberly's Jeff Van Oudenhoven, driving for Green Bay's Mike and Patti Butz, leads the Lefhander Chassis series hard charger point standings heading into this weekend.