Off to the races: Checking out the tracks and speed demons who play there

Katjusa Cisar and Tamira Madsen  —  8/22/2008 9:38 pm

For some Wisconsin residents, the roar of the engines and the smell of the exhaust is an essential part of summer. Racetracks all around Madison draw hundreds of fans every weekend to watch stock cars, motorcycles, midget cars and even trailers whip around the track at blinding speeds.

77 Square sent two writers out last weekend to chronicle the racing experience from very different perspectives. Tamira Madsen has covered motorsports for 15 years, including the last seven-plus years for The Capital Times. Katjusa Cisar, on the other hand, is 77 Square's pop culture writer and a racing newbie who says she's not sure what year her car was made.

Here's what they found:

Friday Night at Madison International Speedway, 7 p.m.

By Katjusa Cisar

TOWN OF RUTLAND -- The pits at Madison International Speedway near Oregon smell like fuel and musky cologne. It's an unlikely stomping ground for a 12-year-old girl, but here she comes, swerving her three-quarter size late model off the track.

When Caylie Duncanson emerges from her vehicle, it's a little shocking to see her stand up straight. The seventh-grader from De Pere can't be more than a few inches north of 4 feet tall, and yet she's already an old pro at auto racing. She drove go-karts at age 4 and started racing at 5. Now she races at tracks around the country, chauffeured by her dedicated parents, Brenda and Sean.

What's this pre-teen doing driving a car? Because race tracks are private property, they aren't under the same rules as public roads and highways. At 14, she'll be able to race a full-size late model, the vehicle used in the top division for racing at MIS. "Late" model means the car is newer, but to the uneducated eye, they look like they're styled after the vehicle used as a time machine in "Back to the Future."

Hers is an expensive hobby -- a night of racing costs about $350 -- but her father said it's a sacrifice they're willing to make. "We don't have a cabin, we don't have a boat," Sean said. "This is her hobby."

Building a quarter-mile track inside the larger track at Madison International Speedway in 2005 has attracted young drivers like Caylie, according to Dave Grueneberg, general manager of the track. Bringing in younger drivers in turn brings in more spectators.

Attendance has been lagging at racetracks everywhere as a result of the downturn in the economy, and even MIS, which has been around since 1952, hasn't escaped this trend.

"It's hurt the blue-collar worker, and that's the majority of our crowd," said Grueneberg. He's always looking for new ways to attract new clientele. Besides building the smaller track for young drivers, MIS hosts trailer races two to three times per season. For these races, pickup trucks hauling trailers race around the track and try to knock each others' trailers off. The last pickup with an upright trailer still attached wins the race.

"Those bring in a different type of crowd," Grueneberg said. "There's a lot of people who just like to see stuff get wrecked."

The crowd on Friday evening was a mix of families and couples, with a surprising number of young kids in attendance. There's even a section of bleachers designated for families only ("No alcohol, no smoking, no cursing" reads the sign.)

The roar of the cars --like an incredibly loud swarm of mosquitoes -- can be pretty deafening, so many parents outfit their kids with headsets or earplugs. Even with plugged ears, the rumble of the cars booms in your chest, and watching the cars race past is a thrill for 5-year-olds and their parents alike.

Caylie Duncanson isn't the only young driver racing, but she's one of the few girls. That makes her more marketable, her dad said, and makes it a little easier to find sponsors. Still, she attends a Future Star Driver Development Program with other young drivers to help her navigate the world of sponsorship, media and the politics of the track.

This program has helped her learn how to develop a public personae and avoid a "vanilla wafer personality" off the track, "so I'm not so plain," as she puts it.

She's made a lot of friends through racing -- mostly boys, like Bobby Yonkee, an eighth-grader from Willowbrook, Ill., who races at tracks in Wisconsin and was visiting MIS as a spectator with his family last Friday. He started racing at the advanced age of 6 ("I tell my dad, 'You started me too late!' " he said) and dreams of eventually racing in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck or Sprint Cup series.

About her own future plans, Caylie said diplomatically, "I'm keeping my options open."

Saturday night at Dells Raceway Park, 8:30 p.m.

By Tamira Madsen

WISCONSIN DELLS -- Long known as a vacation spot filled with waterparks, resorts and a slew of outdoor and indoor activities, organizers at Dells Raceway Park are striving to make their facility a must-stop attraction.

If a recent Saturday evening of racing is any indication of the fun that can be had, Dells Raceway Park is quickly moving in the right direction.

The appeal of local short-track racing, when compared to the slogging pace of a NASCAR Cup race of several hundred miles, is the short races, trophy dashes and 10-lap qualifiers. The one-third mile asphalt oval at Dells Raceway Park was packed Saturday with competitive cars and drivers in limited late model, super late model, pure stock, super stock and bandit divisions.

Businessmen Joe Graziano and Lance Fielitz bought the track in February 2007, after former track owner Bryan Severson was sentenced and jailed for bank fraud. The co-owners have made many upgrades at the venue, including installing log cabin siding and facades on the buildings, a new grandstand, bleachers and concession facilities, and improvements to the pit and parking areas.

The concession stands offer an abundant array of food and drinks -- including chicken strips, funnel cakes and $3 beers -- and spectators bring blankets, stadium seats and lawn chairs to settle comfortably in the grandstands.

Graziano said plans are underway to offer other events at Dells Raceway Park. At the conclusion of the race season, a clay track will be installed in the infield so snowmobile, BMX bike and motorcycle races can be scheduled. The owners are eager to lure different groups of people to the track.

"We're trying to turn it into a racing-entertainment facility, as opposed to a Saturday night stock car track," Graziano said. "We're looking at tapping into the tourism market and the convention market by organizing driving schools and pit stop challenges, team-building kind of a thing for 30 or 40 people."

Mike Olson, who has worked with a series of three different owners in 18 years as track announcer, said there are between 800 to 900 diehard fans that make the track their regular Saturday night destination. The grandstands are packed with spectators of all ages and many families. Many of the fans are boisterous family members of drivers, clapping, yelling and trying to spur their favorite driver to victory.

Oxford residents Charlie and Karen Fisher are two of those faithful fans.

"I love the races," Karen Fisher said. "I love the noise, the smell and the racing. I like to see how drivers change from one year to the next and get better and better and better. Or worse, sometimes."

Sunday morning at Aztalan Cycle Park, 9:30 a.m.

By Tamira Madsen

LAKE MILLS -- Thousands of motorists heading east on Interstate 94 toward Milwaukee pass the Lake Mills exit on a daily basis and probably wonder the same thing: What's going on at the massive dirt track that's visible from the freeway?

The two red clay dirt tracks at Aztalan Cycle Park -- a 1.6-mile motocross course and one-quarter mile, red clay oval short track -- are tended to by the Aztalan Cycle Club, a members-only group that boasts more than 300 family memberships and hosts motorcycle races on weekends throughout the summer.

As a motocross spectator at Aztalan, your best bet is to wear good hiking shoes to find the best spot to sit or stand to witness up to 44 races on any given Sunday. Riders range in age from 4 to over 70, and compete in four-lap events in different age-group and cycle divisions. At Aztalan, the top professional cyclists reach speeds of 80 mph and conquer five laps on the 1.6-mile track in approximately two minutes.

It's likely you'll have to dodge some flying dirt if you wander too close to the action, and you might have dust in your eyes and taste grit in your mouth. But the exhilarating racing is worth the inconvenience and the occasional need for Visine.

Arguably the most spectacular and exciting part of the course is Pete's plateau, a steep incline which cyclists navigate in one of two ways. Safe riders gently roll over it and daredevil competitors speed up the plateau, sail 10 or 12 feet into the air, twist sideways and avoid their closest rivals at the bottom.

Motocross has a strong youth following at Aztalan, with interest nurtured and financed by family members, many of whom are former riders themselves. Several race divisions allow older riders to hone their skills and fuel their need for speed, including one division for cyclists age 50 and older.

Marshalyn Meehan, also known as "Grandma MX" to riders at Aztalan, celebrated her 55th birthday Sunday by competing in one of the women's races. Meehan was at the back of the pack during sessions, and as she rode past spectators at various junctures on the track, fans could hear the native of Woodstock, Ill., yelling advice and encouragement to her fellow riders, such as "give it a little gas" and "you can do it," above the engines.

After a 21-year career, Denny Boblin, 77, hung up his helmet seven years ago following an accident that left him with a broken collarbone and broken ribs at the bottom of the notorious plateau. The Watertown resident regularly attends races at Aztalan to watch son Tim compete, and while the agony of defeat sidelined Denny, he will never forget the thrill of racing.

"There's a lot of camaraderie coming here week after week and month after month," he said. "There's a thrill to this. When you get on that starting line, the thrill that you get out of that is amazing."

Sunday night at Angell Park Speedway, 7 p.m.

By Katjusa Cisar

SUN PRAIRIE -- Angell Park Speedway has an unassuming entrance off a residential street in Sun Prairie. Even Google Maps has a hard time finding it. But it attracts drivers from as far away as Australia and New Zealand, and NASCAR stars like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon visit once in a while.

It's an unusual track in many ways. Sun Prairie's all-volunteer fire department has been running the track since 1903, and it's the only weekly midget race track in the country. Midget racing has a devoted following, and many drivers get their start with midget cars.

Midgets look like go-karts on steroids: little 350-horsepower monsters that race in packs on a dirt track, kicking chunks of dirt 20 feet in the air and spraying the spectators. The flying chunks delight the kids, who jostle each other to pick up the biggest pieces as souvenirs. Older fans hold up Plexiglas sheets to protect themselves.

All are represented at Angell Park: elderly farmers, twentysomethings, toddlers and packs of teenagers. The drivers range in age from 17 to 70, and since the pits are in the middle of the track, they become part of the action even when they're not racing. Some spectators bring binoculars to watch the mechanics working on cars.

The track has a carnival atmosphere, and it's easy to see why people travel across state lines to watch the races -- they're loud, dirty and, let's face it, it's pretty exciting to watch a midget car round a corner sideways on two wheels. It's not unusual for cars to flip upside down.

Drivers say they love Angell Park because it's competitive and rough. A dirt track is more unpredictable than asphalt, so drivers and mechanics are constantly tuning the cars' weight and suspension to fit the track.

"Dirt is a loose product, so it's never the same two weeks in a row. It's all about making itty bitty adjustments, and that's why we run dirt -- it's never the same," said Harlin Kittleson, president of Badger Midget Auto Racing Association, the oldest midget organization in the world. Kittleson started coming with his dad to Angell Park in the '50s, and raced for 23 years. Now he helps oversee the pits.

Midget racing is big in Australia and New Zealand, and drivers from Down Under come to Sun Prairie for the 4- to 5-month summer season (when it's winter back home).

Wisconsin is to Australians what Florida is to Wisconsinites, jokes Steve Smith, a native of Newcastle, Australia. He stays for the summer in Milwaukee, where he runs a race engine shop. On Sunday nights, he works on the midget that his son, Matt, races at Angell Park.

Michael Pickens, 25, comes from Auckland, New Zealand every summer to race at Angell Park and his ultimate goal is NASCAR. He's been staying for the summer with another one of the midget drivers, 45-year-old Scott Hatton, in Roscoe, Ill.

"This is like my son here," Hatton says, giving Pickens a slap on the back. Hatton has been racing since the late '80s, and does it now just for fun. His aspirations don't go further now because of his age, he said.

Katjusa Cisar and Tamira Madsen  —  8/22/2008 9:38 pm