RACIN AROUND TITLETOWN by Joe Verdegan

February 19th, 2003

Green Bay native Scott Hansen is about to write the next chapter in his career in motorsports. The 47-year-old short track veteran has sold his home in Milwaukee and moved to Kingsport, TN. Hansen will oversee a fledgling ASA racing team, with 22-year-old driver Ian Huffman from Altona, Fla. "I'm basically the team manager, crew chief and mentor for Ian and this whole deal," said Hansen from the team's shops in Tennessee. "The team owner, Bob Harshbarger, flew us down here earlier in the month. My wife Nancy and I thought about it for three days and we put our home up for sale in Milwaukee. It wasn't an easy decision." Huffman's racing experience is limited. According to Hansen he's run "some short track stuff" in and around Florida. "I've got a two year contract with them with this ASA deal," Hansen explained. "And after that they'd like to move up to the Busch series. The plans call for me to move right up with them. We'll see how things go."

In addition to Hansen and Huffman they have hired Green Bay native Randy Wesolowski to work full time on the team. "We'll look at hiring some local help for some of the shows when we roll into town. Otherwise, I've got some old friends I can call to see if they can help with pit stops on race weekends." For the first time since 1975 Hansen has no concrete plans to get behind the wheel himself at all this year. "When I committed to this deal I told them I'd give it 100 percent with no other distractions. I've talked to Gerry Gunderman about running the MARS race at the Milwaukee Mile and Jeff Victor (Victor Ford) wants me to do some more stuff next year. I'm getting paid to do a job here and I've got to focus on that. So as of right now I've no plans whatsoever to do any racing myself this year." Hansen and Huffman hope to finish constructing their first car within the next week or two. "We want to test somewhere on the way down to Lakeland (Fla.) before the opener in late March." Huffman's racer will sport number 03 and will carry The Medicine Shop as the primary sponsor.

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It's no secret that a new chassis, whether it's a modified or late model, can often take several nights of racing to get "broken in" and get the bugs worked out. Fortunately for Brian Mullen nothing could be further from the truth. Mullen took his brand spanking new Harris modified down to Texas earlier this month and came home with the biggest win of his career - a $5,000 prize in the February Fast 50 at Cowtown Speedway (yes, that's the real name) in Kennondale, TX. "We had a power steering problem on opening night," said Mullen. "But after that the car was super fast. It's not often you get one that fast right out of the box. But we've got one here." Mullen, from Seymour, led all 50 laps on the third-mile, clay oval. "The track was a lot like Powercom in Beaver Dam," said Mullen. "There were probably 60 modified drivers there. Some big guys, too. Wayne and Adam Larson were there. So were Wayne Brooks, Eddie Martin and George White. A lot of those guys race for a living so it was neat to beat them. I've won some big races in Wisconsin at Shawano and Chilton, but this is probably the biggest of my career."

Mullen spent almost two weeks racing with his boss Mike Mashl and IMCA modified rookie Benji LaCrosse at a pair of different tracks. "My brother Scott came and joined us at Superbowl Speedway in Greenville, Texas during the last weekend," said Mullen. "Mike finished 18th over at Cowtown because he broke a tie rod. Benji looked real good in his car for a rookie. He's going to have a great year, I think." LaCrosse is racing Mullen's chassis from last season. Mullen figures he got roughly 150 laps on his new car. It's an advantage to get that seat time before the season back home begins. Mullen, Mashl & Co. aren't done yet. "We'll be running some specials in March at West Plains, Missouri and in Nebraska, too. We might do more traveling this year. We'll see how we do in March. That will tell us a lot."

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Mullen, Mashl and LaCrosse weren't the only ones getting some early seat time in the warmer climates. IMCA mod drivers Mike Wedelstadt, Julie McDermid and Brad Rohloff all competed at Florida's dirt tracks. WISSOTA modified driver Craig Thatcher from western Wisconsin scored wins down south. And, Kaukauna's Pete Parker picked up a late model win in Okeechobee, Fla. Jimmy Mars also picked up a win at East Bay.

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Green Bay's Eddie Muenster is on the mend following back surgery last month. Apparently this winter Eddie aggravated an old motocross injury suffered many years ago. "They removed some chips and they say I've got a compressed disc," said Muenster, who missed a few weeks of work and was laid up on the couch for sometime. "It's a good thing this happened during Speedweeks so I had something to watch." Eddie and his crew will begin putting together the IMCA modified he'll compete with to defend his track titles at Luxemburg Speedway and at Shawano Speedway. He'll once again be racing his asphalt late model Thursday nights at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.

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It looks like Gregg Haese may be shopping for an asphalt late model ride this year. After driving for Jim Seidl last season with Go Wireless sponsorship, the company has drastically slashed it's sponsorship, leaving Haese without a ride. Brad Mueller will still fly the Go Wireless colors but will be limited to competing Sunday nights at Slinger.

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We should know by April 1 if racing will continue on a weekly basis at Manitowoc County Expo Speedway next season. At the off season awards banquet, it was announced that the Expo needed to raise $35,000 - the amount of debt the race track incurred this season - if racing was to continue.

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After several seasons of sitting on the sidelines Plymouth's Jim Pitzen will return to the Saturday night limited late model wars at his home track. Pitzen, a former EWSC sportsman champ back in the day, will wheel a brand new car at the Sheboygan County Fair Park in Plymouth.

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Forest County Potawatomi has added Tigerton's Gary Kasparek to their long list of driver's they'll be sponsoring this season. Kasparek, who's raced everything from ice cars, trucks and street stocks on dirt and tar, will wheel a WISSOTA street stock Friday nights at Langlade County Speedway in Antigo.

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It's taken decades but the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay has finally recognized that auto racing is America's no. 1 spectator sport. The museum will host a traveling exhibition called: Racecar: Science of Speed. Included in the exhibit will be several items, including different types of race cars, along with interactive exercises designed for all ages. "We realize the exploding popularity of NASCAR and an exhibit like this is long overdue," said Marilyn Stasiak, public relations coordinator. "We will incorporate some local flavor into this exhibit as well during the course of the year." The exhibit will run from Memorial day weekend through Labor day weekend. A car show in early June is currently in the planning stages.

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And last but not least how about that thrilling Daytona 500 on TV? I'm not even talking about the rain delay. NASCAR continues to miss "the big picture". I mean c'mon, smaller fuel cells to force more pit stops? It's pretty sad when a bulk of the lead changes there during Speedweeks happen after pit stops. They should take a serious look at maybe softening the tires, doing anything to make the cars so aerodynamically sensitive. The truck race proved that. That snoozer of a race just reinforces what I've preached for years. You could attend races at your local Saturday night short track all season long for what some of those new, trendy NASCAR "bandwagon" jumping race fans (many of whom have never seen a local race in their backyard) pay to go to one Cup race a year.