RACIN AROUND TITLETOWN by Joe Verdegan

Pete Parker

July 11th, 2002

After a slow start due in part to a pair of major abdominal surgeries this spring, Wisconsin's winningest dirtlate model driver is back on the winning track. Pete Parker scored his first WISSOTA late model feature wins two weekends ago. The two time national champion won the 20 lap feature at Langlade County Speedway in Antigo. Parker followed that up with a victory at Shawano Speedway the following night. He also won again at Shawano last Saturday night.

Normally Pete Parker winning a late model feature isn't that big a deal. After all, the Kaukauna driver has collected more than 400 victories dating back to the early 1970's. But during the off season there was a time when it was uncertain whether Parker may ever race again. Parker had his appendix burst. Incredibly, the driver who has a reputation for being tough as nails lived with the ailment an amazing nine days before he finally went to the doctor. "I felt like I had a really bad case of the flu," said Parker. "Once the flu symptoms were gone I had some pains in my abdomen. I don't care much for doctors but I had to go."

After surgery doctors discovered Parker's appendix had completely dissolved, and had some pretty serious infections. Weeks after a major surgery Parker suffered another setback with the removal of gall stones, which resulted in the removal of his gall bladder, too. After hitting the tracks a few weeks into the season, Parker still suffers from fatigue, and still deals with different amounts of pain. "It's really not that bad when I'm in the race car because the adrenaline is going so much," said Parker. "It actually hurts most when I'm on the road in the hauler. I just had a tube pulled out of my stomach two weeks ago. It's still a little sore." His title sponsor, Forest County Potawatomi Community, put no pressure on Parker to return to the tracks any time before he was ready. "They've been great about this whole thing," said Parker. "They knew it would be a few weeks into the season before I got going. They've been a great supporter of not only my program but stock car racing in general through eastern Wisconsin."

As far as his race car goes, there are still some bugs to be worked out. "I got a little lucky in those wins," Parker admitted. "We've still got a ways to go with the car. We're having trouble passing. There's not much passing on the area dirt tracks lately. You've got to be on the mark otherwise you'll be in for a long night." Parker, who builds racing trailers for a living through his business Reliable Welding, has always been more of a racer during the summer months. "We try to squeeze trailers in between racing," said Parker. "But we've been fortunate enough to have a flexible schedule to race pretty much whenever we want to."

When we look at the history of the eastern Wisconsin racing scene I find myself talking about the good ole' days when Roger Regeth and JJ Smith would lock horns at Shawano, Seymour, De Pere or Oshkosh on any given night to do battle. Roger Paul and Jerry Smith are couple of names that standout as well. While today's rivalries may not even come close to the "heydey" of the mid- 70's one thing is for certain: Competition at area dirt tracks today is as strong as it ever was. I'm not usually a big numbers guy. But last year I started tracking feature winners in some divisions at area tracks. Generally divisions that were able to race at more than one track weekly.

As we hit mid-July the IMCA modified division alone between tracks in Luxemburg, Antigo, Shawano, Sturgeon Bay, Seymour, Oshkosh and Manitowoc have spawned a total of 23 different feature winners. Can you imagine 23 different feature winners 25 years ago? Obviously with more than one division it can pump the numbers up a little bit. But the WISSOTA late model division has seen a total of 14 different drivers win this year. These numbers include Monster Hall Raceway plus Scott Cramer's win at Fox Ridge.

Again, think back not long ago. We'd never see numbers like that. IMCA stock cars, my favorite division on the dirt. With only five sanctioned tracks in the area (not including Dodge County Fairgrounds) there are still 20 different feature winners. Two numbers that impress me are Shawano rookies Greg Stelse and Corey Lemirande, who in their freshman seasons have each posted a pair of feature wins at Shawano. The bottom line, we've got it pretty darn good around here. Within an hour of Green Bay you've got eleven tracks to choose from, nine dirt and two asphalt. That's almost one-fourth of the state's 45 race tracks all clustered in our area. By the way, heading into Sunday night (7/7) Beaver Dam's Jay Schraufnagel posted the most mod wins with 12. Those numbers include the non-sanctioned mods at Oshkosh as well. Terry Casey has won the most WISSOTA late model features with five, with most of those victories coming early in the season. Jeremy Christians has the most IMCA stock car feature wins with nine (prior to 7/6). Freddy "Andretti" Davister has posted four wins at Luxemburg and Tom Leonard has collected the same number of victories at his home track Manitowoc Expo Speedway.

At Luxemburg Speedway Friday night Brian Mullen became the ninth different IMCA modified feature winner in as many weeks. He, Schraufnagel and Todd Dart pulled away and put on a clinic in the final laps, running wheel-to-wheel without banging. Good, hard, clean racing. Little Suamico's Danny Deau, who won the $850 for his IMCA modified feature win the week before, spent every dime of it on his race car. "It was gone by Tuesday," said Deau. "We hung a new body on the car. We bought new rims and tires. That pretty much ate it up." A true sign of the times. This is not a cheap game to play anymore. Davister has a knack for winning the big money street stock specials. Two weeks ago the hometown driver won $450, and last Friday he won $500 after bonus money was thrown in by the nightly sponsor and a local watering hole, which just happened to sponsor Davister. "I didn't make much hay last Saturday morning after we partied a little," joked Davister, who farms for a living.

Despite running big wheel races at intermission the show at Luxemburg was still wrapped up by 9:50, a total of two hours and fifty minutes to run a total of 96 cars in four classes. Not bad really. Next weekend the MSA 360 sprint cars will run a progressive show at the third-mile, clay oval in that organization's first ever appearance there.

Saturday night at Door County Speedway you could have thrown a blanket over the street stock feature finishers at the line. Aaron Thornton took advantage of Troy Muench's miscue in the final corner to snag a last lap victory.

While at Sturgeon Bay Saturday night I had a conversation with Allen E. Brown, who was hawking the 2002 edition of the National Speedway Directory. Brown, who lives in Michigan, has attended races in all 50 states over the years. "I just drove over from Grand Rapids Minnesota for a race last night," said Brown. The 544 page softcover edition is a must for the hardcore race fan. There are 1,423 oval tracks and drag strips up and running in the United States. I think it's safe to say despite 9-11 and all the speculation of a failing economy that the sport should remain healthy for some time.

Green Bay rookie Brett Piontek has put together some strong runs in his IMCA stock car. But his career on the dirt tracks may be a short lived one. "We're looking at either going with a mid-american stock car or a limited late model next year," said Piontek, who's 17-years-old. He's also the son of Randy Piontek, who's owned ASA cars over the years for drivers like Alan Kulwicki and Ted Musgrave.

A special Thursday night race during the Door County Fair has been announced. The August 8 show will feature IMCA modifieds and stock cars. Mods will run for $1,000-to-win while stocks will compete for $750-to-win. Just those two classes will be run, starting at 7 p.m. It will follow IMCA rules but will not have a sanction, and thus no claim rule. "We want to draw some of the bigger name modified and stock car drivers up to our track for this one," said fair board member Perry Popour. Among the non-regular drivers who have made an early commitment to this show are Brian Mullen, Mike Wedelstadt, Jay Schraufnagel and Norway, Michigan ace Joe Haferkorn, who used to compete at the track many moons ago in a winged modified. And, the Dodge County Fairgrounds special Sunday night, July 14 will feature WISSOTA-sanctioned late models on the half-mile paying $2,000-to-win. It will mark the first ever appearance of the late models at "The horsepower half-mile" and with the sanctioning a few western Wisconsin drivers have expressed interest in competing. The track is a big, flat half-mile with sweeping corners that remind a lot of the old Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere. With IMCA mods and stocks on the card and Seymour not racing that night because of the Outagamie County Fair a full pit area should be expected Sunday night for that program, which gets underway at 6 p.m. With $1,000-to-win in the mods and $800-to-win in the IMCA stocks, I think fields of close to 50 mods are possible, 30+ stocks and even 20 late models are realistic for this program.

It looks like the grand national sportsman division will get to run a special three race series at Powercom Speedzone in Oshkosh. A special three race series at the Tuesday night race track will run August 6 and August 20. That is one division that has always sported a fairly healthy car count despite not having a national sanctioning body. There are cars competing in that division this season that have been around since Steve Rudolph reopened that quarter-mile, clay oval in 1990 and launched the division, which would actually evolve into Gary Vercauteren's Planet Pages Mid-American stock car division in 1993