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Appleton, Wisconsin racing legend J.J. Smith had to forge paperwork and say he was older than he was to kick off his racing career at the long defunct Apple Creek race track. Read on about this legend who was a force to be reckoned with on dirt and asphalt for several decades across northeast Wisconsin!

Al Golueke was a man whose passion for stock car racing started as a kid at the Brown County Fairgrounds in De Pere in the 1960's. Always known as an innovator during his racing career, we caught up with Golueke in the summer of 2020 at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.

Bob Menor is one of the few drivers from Wausaukee, Wisconsin. Known as "The Ranger City Racer" Bob had a successful career on the dirt and asphalt starting out racing at tracks in Crandon, Eagle River and Norway, Michigan. Bob would later in career focus on the pavement exclusively where he won his share of races and titles at Norway, and also ran at WIR in Kaukauna and even a short stint with ASA. We caught up with Bob as he was on his tractor working at his home this summer.

Nobody in the history of Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna has won more super late model track championships than Omro's Terry Baldry. Joe Verdegan got the man of few words to open up about his highly successful racing career.

Nobody wore the black hat and played the villain role at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna better than Appleton's "Hot Rod" Wheeler. Check out Rod's interview with Joe Verdegan during the summer of '20.

This week's "On The Record" features longtime midwest late model racer "The Junkyard Dog" Larry Schuler.

Terry Anvelink put the small town of Navarino at the forefront of the Northeast Wisconsin racing circles.

With a career that started in the mid '70's "The Navarino Nightmare" won his share of races and track championships.

Listen to learn more about this drivers near four decade racing career in the dirt late model circles.

Our "On The Record" segments aren't just for retired race car drivers. On occasion we'll feature retired race track promoters like long time Wisconsin International Raceway owner Roger Van Daalwyk.

Get the inside scoop from the man who took over as general manager of the Kaukauna, Wisconsin oval and dragstrip right out of high school halfway through the 1972 racing season.

Rudolph, Wisconsin's Tom Reffner is a central Wisconsin short track legend.

In 1975 Reffner won an incredible 67 feature races all across the Midwest, often racing four or five nights a week. Reffner also won the first ever ARTGO Challenge Series event.

Listen to our interview with Reffner we conducted in the summer of 2020.

It was May, 1970. The Beatles “Let It Be” was one of the top songs on the pop charts. Richard Nixon was the president and the president and stock car racing was the thing to do in De Pere at the Brown County Fairgrounds.

We at joeverdegan.com were able to unearth some true treasures – two reel-to-reel recordings of full nights of stock car racing on the dirt half-mile located just a few minutes from Green Bay. We believe the announcer back then was Paul Kaczrowski, who would later go on to become a very successful race promoter in his own rights.

The races that year were promoted by Jack Peters of De Pere. The two nights of racing we’ve posted are from the season opener on May 3, 1970 and May 17, 1970. This was an era where the coupes were beginning to die out and De Pere was running what were called “quasi-late models at the time – mainly ’57 Chevys and ’63 Fords and what not.

The May 17 race is significant as we believe this was the first time J.J. Smith came up from Appleton in his ’67 Plymouth. The first true “late model” and this race at De Pere, where J.J. appears in his car number 29 kicked off the late model revolution which mushroomed in popularity week-by-week at the half-mile dirt ovals at not only De Pere but Shawano and Seymour as well. All three were county grandstands and most often all three were full to capacity.

So sit back, click on the link and imagine yourself sitting in that big old concrete, covered grandstand listening to those raced cars and listen to Paul Kaczrowski call the action!