This is the story of two race tracks in the Badger State that are trying to come back to life after being closed. Both have new owners after sitting idle, both started out with much enthusiasm and good ideas, yet both fell into the trap that seems to consume this sport. And that is the notion that to survive as a facility, it is necessary to get into a scrape with your nearest track neighbors, rather than trying to work together.
The Tomahawk Speedway is an old facility, having been around since at least the 1960's . I remember first attending a race there in the early 60's, having been in Tomahawk for an Easter get together with family friends and finding out that they were racing an Easter afternoon matinee. I talked my parents into dropping me off at the track and I spent Easter afternoon watching the races, rather than sitting around eating left over ham.
Tomahawk was a blacktop track then, and many of the best drivers from the old Central Wisconsin Racing Association were racing that day. It was the first time I got to see such big names as Marv Marzofka, Jim Back, Marlin "Shoes" Walbeck and others race. In fact, one of the drivers on hand that day was Dave Marcis, but in my youthful ignorance, in my driver's list for that day, not knowing any better, I spelled it "Marcus."
Anyway, Tomahawk had a successful program for years but gradually it went downhill. Race cars were scarce and fans even scarcer. They tried running lesser divisions as the premier class but that didn't work and eventually the track closed, where it sat vacant for several years.
Enter Ron VanDusen, a successful businessman in Tomahawk and Eagle River. He had the chance to buy the track for a reasonable price, and he did so. The catch was that he was a dirt racer himself and his plan was to cover the blacktop with dirt.
He did this, sanctioned his programs with WISSOTA for a couple of classes along with running some of the local nonsanctioned classes, and took off as a promoter. Now Tomahawk is a fairly small town, and there aren't many other cities of size within reasonable driving distance. He got race cars, but not a lot of them as there just weren't the racers in the area any more in the numbers that there had been once, a situation that many tracks similarly face.
He soldered on for a few years but he grew tired of the hassle of promoting and put the track up for sale. With no one jumping on board to buy it, the track has now sat idle for about two years.
The second track in this story has been known by several different names but most people would know it best as the Monster Hall Raceway near Unity Wisconsin. First built by a partnership of three people, Jerry Weigel eventually became known as the face of the track and the person that did the most to keep the track running. They had some good years, but gradually they hit the same roadblocks that affected Tomahawk as the car counts started to slip after the boom years of dirt track racing settled into a more "try to survive" mood, and in fighting between the track principals saw Weigel move from the area, buy some land and build his own race track, the Eagle Valley Speedway near Jim Falls Wisconsin which he still operates.
Monster Hall went up for sale and eventually a gentleman from the Twin Cities purchased the track. He was an absentee owner and promoter and after several fitful starts and stops of the track, it closed up shop early last year and its future was uncertain.
Flying the face of what has been happening at many tracks of late however, both tracks surprisingly came up with new ownership this Summer. Tomahawk was purchased by a member of the Bartelt family, a family that has been involved and participated in racing for a long time in this area.
Monster Hall was purchased by Scott Duval from Bloomer, a racer who has raced everything from Street Stocks to Modifieds and Late Models and is well known in the area.
I have known Scott Duval for many years as he has raced at many of the area tracks while I have not as yet met Mr. Bartelt I have certainly heard of him previously and have seen him race on occasion over the years.
Both tracks, once the new owners came on board, rushed to make improvements so that they could get their first shows in yet this year. Duval made the rounds of the area tracks, talking to drivers and laying out what was his plan for his new acquisition, which he has named Spring Lake Speedway and Event Center. He posted a date for his first race and then published it extensively, passing out flyers and getting a face book page up and running.
Bartelt ran his first race in mid September, and friends from the area told me that he advertised the event well and worked the local markets to make it a success. He had a good field of racers on hand, many more than had been at any event for a long time previously at this track and had a huge grandstand full of people. It was a highly successful event. They then decided to build on this success by having their first, two day show yet this Fall.
Here's where things started getting sticky. The date they chose, with many dates available on the calendar given that most of the other tracks in the general area had already wrapped up their seasons, was the same date that Spring Lake Speedway had long been advertising for their opener!
Duval told me that Bartelt called him and asked Scott to change the date of his race, something that he obviously couldn't do based on the advertising that he had already done.
So, from that point, the battle was on, one that probably benefited both the drivers and fans, at least for the short term. As the battle took place on facebook, each track tried to "one up" the other and things such as sponsors increasing the purse, contingencies, continues track improvements, fan giveaways, and creature comforts such as heaters for the fans, plastic to cover the backs of the grandstands to break the wind etc were volleyed back and forth.
The last straw hit just a couple of days before the race. Tomahawk, who's program was scheduled to be a two day show, facing a bitterly cold weather forecast for Friday night, condensed their program to a one day show on Saturday, so both tracks were going head on fully from start to finish. Keep in mind, in a highly rural area with limited population, these tracks. are only seventy seven miles apart according to Rand-McNally.
While I did not attend either show, reports for this event were positive from both tracks. Both had well over one hundred cars in the pits and full grandstands of fans. Each track had some issues that most likely were due to new people in key positions and perhaps just not being fully prepared for what they received in terms of spectator turnout. These are things easily correctable for the future.
Neither track has officially stated what they plan to do next year in terms of classes that will be raced, what night they will race on , what sanctioning body, if any they will use etc. All these things will play a part in what the relationship between these two tracks will be in the future. And without the luxury of having ample race cars due to no other tracks still racing this late in the season and fans from a wide area looking to get one more race in for the year, drawing crowds and racers will be much more challenging next year, when the newness of the places wears off. Common sense would tell you that two tracks this close together would likely share race cars and fans, but common sense is not a commodity often in great supply in racing.
For the short run, it appears that both tracks have gotten off to a good start. However, the long term is what separates those tracks that survive from those that either turn to dust or go on the market for sale within a couple of years. What happens to these two tracks will continue to be an evolving story.
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