RACIN AROUND TITLETOWN by Joe Verdegan

April 9th, 2003

A pair of state IMCA champs will be taking very different paths in their racing careers this season. After a grueling 70+ race night schedule chasing all over god's creation, Beaver Dam's Jay Schraufnagel will be sticking closer to home in 2003, choosing to compete at his hometown race tracks at Powercom Park and Dodge County Fairgrounds in his IMCA modified.

On the other hand, Schraufnagel's neighbor eight miles away in Horicon, Jeremy Christians, has already hit the road, getting six nights of racing in at some IMCA stock car specials in Alabama, Nebraska and Kansas. For Christians, 23 feature wins helped push him to track titles at "Big Beaver", Seymour Tri-Oval Raceway and Manitowoc County Expo Speedway. Manitowoc will not be hosting a weekly racing program in 2003, so Christians has hit the road the past few months trying to get more shows in. "I've gotta make up for the shows we'll be missing at Manitowoc," said Christians, on his cell phone en route to a race in Beatrice, Nebraska. "I think to have a shot at a national title you'll still need to get your sixty or seventy nights of racing in." Christians will run the same pair of '77 Chevelles that propelled him to success last season. Both cars sit atop Wolfe chassis'. "I've still got one car basically for half-miles and another one for the shorter tracks," said Christians, who's often a target for potential claimers because of his success. "I've got no problem with IMCA and the claim rule. That's part of the game. But the guys who've claimed me frequently over the years seldom are able to put the car back into the top four. They don't try to better themselves."

For the record, according to Christians, he's claimed four motors in his sixth year of racing in the stock car class. He's given up 19 motors. "The only beef with that really is that I basically am forced to build stuff a lot of times that could literally blow up at anytime, rather than spend a little more cash and build something that is going to last you for the entire season. I guess it's just part of winning. I've learned to accept it, I guess." For this season Christians has picked up Forest County Potowatomi Community. "I run a lot at the tracks up north and I've actually been working with them and talking with them for two or three years," said Christians. "This year Big Beaver is only running 10 nights. So on Saturday nights we'll pick either Shawano or Sturgeon Bay. We'll be at Luxemburg again on Friday nights, as well as Seymour on Sunday nights. And like last year we'll hit some out-of-state specials that pop up in Minnesota and Iowa." Christians has a total of 53 career IMCA stock car feature wins. He's looking to boost that total considerably this season. "Not having Manitowoc will hurt a little bit. The competition is not getting any easier. Every night in a feature field you can pick about 10 or 15 guys who can win pretty much anywhere you go."

While Christians will continue his we'll-race-anywhere-attitude in his orange, silver and black no. 99, Schraufnagel will be marching to a different tune this year. While he admits he has "no regrets" on running 70+ shows and scoring 26 feature wins in his modified, the intense schedule took a toll on his personal life as well as his pocketbook. "I blew up 12 motors last year and it cost me a lot of money," Schraufnagel flatly states. "This year I'm running Big Beaver and on their off nights I'll run Powercom on Saturday nights. Last year set me back financially and It's time to catch up a little bit." Part of the problem, Schraufnagel said, was his motor building program. "I pretty much blamemyself because I was putting so much junk under the hood, I went too cheap with a lot of stuff. I was afraid of getting claimed, so I wasn't going to stick a bunch of cash under the hood. Ultimately, I paid the price for that." Along with the blown motors came whispers among his competitors that he was using traction control devices. After all, Schraufnagel was chasing races four nights a week in a 2000 leaf spring Pro chassis, which some up north considered old and outdated. "Jay Flaig (IMCA representative at Luxemburg Speedway) and other officials down in Iowa had me pull my MSD ignition box apart three times. They found nothing. I had to laugh. Guys who were quick to claim cheater forgot that I'd been running the leaf spring cars for years and I was behind the wheel of that thing damn near every night of the week. I got a lot of seat time and like anything the more you do something the better you get at it. That's all it was."

Christians said he uses some vacation days to able to go racing as much as he does. "For me, the boss let me off at 3:30 p.m. each Friday," said Schraufnagel, who is a mason by trade. "From my driveway to Luxemburg it was exactly 120 miles. We had to have the car loaded up the night before. I loved racing up there but it's simply too much. I'm going to hit the $2,000-to-win modified specials up there in July. No weekly racing on Sunday nights, except maybe if we get rained out on Saturdays. Plus, my wife was getting real tired of it at the end. I was gone all the time racing somewhere." Schraufnagel says he'll open the season up with his old reliable 2000, leaf spring Pro chassis, the car that he won all the features with. "I've got a new 2003 Pro chassis I've got to finish putting together. We'll hit Shawano for the first couple of weeks if they are ready to run. Once the tracks open up close to home we'll stay nearby."

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Slowly but surely the race season is coming to life in the Midwest. Shawano Speedway is scheduled to open up. Tradition usually has IMCA modified car counts in the mid-60's for the opener, as everyone's eager to get a show in close to home. If for some reason weather would force Shawano not to open Powercom Park will host the Bumper To Bumper IRA Outlaw Series opener. With the UMP/WISSOTA style late models on the card as well that sounds like it's most everyone's "Plan B", at least on the dirt track scene. In addition to fans I'd bet you may see a number of Shawano Speedway regulars run Powercom to get a show in. The sprint car/late model doubleheader is a big hit, and IRA pres. Steve Sinclair will be doing that several times over the course of the summer.

On the pavement, 141 Speedway in Francis Creek will host a Saturday afternoon practice session. Dells Motor Speedway should have a solid field of cars for their Saturday night opener this weekend as well. And Rockford kicks things off with the new "ITEMS" (Formerly Re/Max Challenge Series) this weekend as well.