RACIN AROUND TITLETOWN by Joe Verdegan

COLWELL QUICK LEARNER IN IMCA STOCKS

In local short track circles it's tradition for the feature winners from the previous week to have the honor of carrying our nation's colors during the national anthem Jamie Colwell will take old glory for a ride tomorrow night at Luxemburg Speedway. It's quite a feat when you consider Colwell, a 21-year-old rookie in the IMCA stock car class, had honest intentions of hanging up the helmet over the winter. I set a goal to carry the flag sometime this year," said the Greenleaf driver. "But I didn't think for one that it would be this soon. And I didn't think that it would happen at Luxemburg, either."

After toying with the idea of running a different class on dirt and even the pavement, it looked like brothers Colwell would be retiring from racing last fall. "My brother Jesse is going to get married so he was going to quit, so I was going to quit as well," said Colwell. The brothers raced together the past couple of seasons in the street stock division, both driving to track titles. "We decided instead we'd just both build one car and concentrate on that. I drive the stock car and so far it's worked out pretty well."

The brothers picked up a '76 Nova from Nebraska and immediately began thrashing on the machine, converting it into an IMCA stock car. "It's good to get cars from down south because the frames are generally in real good shape and there's no rust on them," said Colwell. "It's a little more expensive to run than the street stock. Since we run the half-mile at Shawano and the third-miles at Luxemburg and Manitowoc there are more gears, different shocks and stuff we've got to have. It's a tough class and there's a lot more side-by-side racing in the IMCA stocks than in street stocks."

So far Colwell has made a quick impression in the area's most competitive dirt track class. In addition to the feature win at Luxemburg Friday, Colwell has nabbed three top four finishes at Shawano and has posted four top four finishes at Manitowoc, where he's second in points. "When Manitowoc's track is prepped right it's really fast," said Colwell. "I seem to run best there. It's got some pretty steep banking there. That's why the feature win at Luxemburg surprised me. It's the most competitive on Friday nights. You can win a feature one week there and be loaded up the next week. It happens all the time. I like running Luxemburg when the track gets black and slick. The car seems to run well on the slick at Luxemburg for some reason."

In addition, brother Jesse has returned to racing Darren Otto's IMCA modified Sunday nights at Seymour. "Three nights a week is keeping me real busy again. Right now we're looking at probably running in this class for the next three years. After that you just never know."

MULLEN REPEATS AT "THE 'BURG" - After nine straight weeks of not having a single repeat winner in the IMCA modifieds Seymour's Brian Mullen became the first "repeater", capturing his second straight 25 lap feature at Luxemburg Speedway Friday night. After having a week off the street stocks and bombers will return to Luxemburg tomorrow night on Bumper to Bumper Automotive night. Trackside driver introductions will take place for the IMCA modified feature. Racing gets underway at 7 p.m.

NASCAR STARS AT SLINGER - Slinger, Wisconsin's quarter-mile, paved soupbowl of a racetrack will host the prestigious Slinger Nationals Tuesday night, July 23. Several Winston Cup stars will be on hand racing in the 200 lap main event. Among the stars are Matt Kenseth, Ken Schrader, Dick Trickle, Scott Wimmer and Green Bay native Scott Hansen. Spectator gates open at 3 p.m. with qualifying races beginning at 4:30 p.m. Racing events and an autograph session are to follow. For more information check the track's website at www.slingersuperspeedway.com.

LATE MODELS NOT AT OSHKOSH - A planned late model special Tuesday night, July 23 at Powercom Speedzone in Oshkosh has been cancelled.

WHITE RACE - Round II of the 31st annual Red, White and Blue state championship series for late models will take place this Saturday night at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna. Twin 50 lap features will be held for the Planet Pages MARS late models. A 30 lap mid-am stock car feature will also take place. Preliminaries and Figure 8 racing will also take place. Gates open at 4 p.m. with racing getting underway at 7 p.m.

BEAVER DAM SPECIAL - Oostburg's Gordie Seegert Jr. passed Random Lake's Scott Cramer with 10 laps to go to win the 30 lap WISSOTA late model feature Sunday night at the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Beaver Dam. While several area IMCA modified and IMCA stock car drivers headed south to test the "horsepower half-mile" it was hometown driver Jay Schraufnagel winning his 18th feature of the year in the mods and Horicon's Jeremy Christians showed the visitors the fast way around the oval en route to his 12th IMCA stock car victory of the year.

STURGEON BAY SPECIAL - Door County Fair officials have announced that a special Thursday night programAugust 8 will take place at Door County Speedway in Sturgeon Bay. A $1,000-to-win IMCA modified feature will take place. IMCA stock cars will battle for $750-to-win. Racing starts at 7 p.m. The show will be a part of the Door County Fair that runs throughout that weekend.