Where Can You See Them Race?

The question everyone ask when we take these to a show or see us at a gas station are "Where do you guys race?"

Well wonder no more!

Here is our current schedule for 2017:

Modified Stock Car Club:

May 13 (Saturday) - Plymouth -- Orphan Mods

June 3 (Saturday) - Plymouth -- Orphan Mods

June 24 (Saturday)  --  Escanaba, Michigan -- Blast from the Past

July 1 (Saturday)  --  Wilmot Raceway -- with IRA Show

August 12 (Saturday)  --  Wilmot Raceway -- Badger Midgets Harry Turner Classic

September 3 (Sunday) -- Angell Park


Badgerland Vintage Racers:


WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
June 15, 2017 (Thursday)
Kaukauna, WI

UPPER PENINSULA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
June 24, 2017 (Saturday)
Escanaba, MI

NORWAY SPEEDWAY
July 28, 2017 (Friday)
Norway, MI

SANDS SPEEDWAY
July 29, 2017 (Saturday)
Gwinn, MI

PLYMOUTH DIRT TRACK
August 12, 2017 (Saturday)
Plymouth, WI

We also do several shows at different venues throughout the year. We are in constant contact with local tracks and adding dates throughout the season. Make sure you check the websites for updated schedules!

Vintage Modified Stock Car Club Facebook

Badgerland Vintage Racers Website

MSC Club Website

Badgerland Vintage Racers Facebook

MSC Club Facebook

Like our Facebook pages for updates!

SEE YOU AT THE RACES!

Darrin

The First Car We Got to Actually Race With

Let me preface this by saying that nobody from my family was driving this car when it rolled. A gentleman by the name of Merlin Armstrong was driving this car and he had owned it for many years. After this incident, his children convinced him that maybe it was time to sell. Merlin is an incredible mechanic and builder. He has some beautiful cars in his collection.

 After he recovered from his injuries from this incident, he fully rebuilt the car and put it up for sale. If our memories (my day, my uncle and I) serves us correctly, it was 2009 when we acquired this car.

 Along the way we came up with a picture of it from "back in the day":

When we first got this car, my dad was more than willing to let my brother and I jump in and spin some laps in it. It was my first time ever driving a car like this and I still remember the first time I took it down my uncle's driveway. 

That feeling was NOTHING compared to taking it on the track for the first time with a group of fellow racers. I still remember my first race at Norway Speedway with club. Talk about an adrenaline rush. 

These days my dad spends the most time in this one:

Last season I was fortunate enough to line up side by side with my dad for a few races. What a great feeling. There were even a few occasions where my brother was out there with us too. That is an indescribable feeling.

Until next time,

Darrin

Check It Out For Yourself From Inside the Car

This post is going to have a few of our races that can be found on YouTube:

This video is my brother Jeremy trying out the camera in his Milwaukee neighborhood.Not an easy task by any means: Camera Test

Here is a little test and tune session at Manitowoc Speedway: Test and Tune 75 Car

Here is my dad playing in the 66 (Orange Crate): Dad Test and Tune 

Here is a feature race from Norway, MI (asphalt) on 7/8/16: Norway Feature

Here is the following night at Escanaba, MI (dirt) on 7/9/16: Escanaba Feature  This one catches a 2nd lap crash that we try to avoid in our hobby.

He is a feature race from Plymouth, WI (dirt) from 8/13/16: Plymouth Feature   This one shows a nice last corner pass for a victory.

These videos are of my brother driving in races that we run with our club. On a good night, we will have 20 cars on hand. Slowly that number is climbing.



Jeremy has a few more videos on YouTube that can be found here: Jeremy YouTube Channel Feel free to take a look.

Talk to you soon,
Darrin

Badgerland Vintage Racers

Milwaukee Stock Car Auto Racing Association

Another True Survivor

This week I will tell you a little about a true survivor we have in our lineup. Back around 2010, my uncle had one of his cars at the ADAMM New Car Auto Show in Milwaukee. He was part of a display with a local car club. A gentleman name Jim Meyers came up to my uncle and said "I have one of these in my garage." After some brief conversation about it, we learned that he bought and drove a modified in 1971 and after the season, it was parked in a garage and left there since then. Jim had no interest in selling it at that time but my uncle gave him his number in case he changed his mind. The one thing we try to do is pay respect to a dying sport and preserve what is left to preserve. We don't do it to make money and I think our devotion to this proves that. After a few months, Jim called and said he would like to talk to us about selling and we set up a day to meet. When we went to look at the car, it was parked in the back corner of a garage. It had years of dust on it along with the clay from the last time it was on the track. We agreed on a price and loaded it up. I took it home and had it running that afternoon. First time it breathed life in many, many years.

This was a very unique looking car and Jim knew who originally built it. We were able to come up with a few pictures from the original owner's family.

The following year, we were able to get the car moving enough to be able to take it to the very show that started it all for us on the acquisition of this car.

We changed it back to the original look from when it was built. All that took was a new set of numbers painted on it. The Buick Nailhead motor still runs and once things slow down, we hope to have it at more shows and perhaps a few laps on a track again. This car is the most original one we have and we look forward to what the future holds for this one.

Until next time,
Darrin

Time to build a tribute car

I'm going to post a quick update of the most recent car we bought. We know what direction we want to go with this car. We want to make it a tribute to a local racer who ran a car with a similar body. We have to make quite a few changes to the car to do it justice. The biggest thing I had to do was make the frame white.

In order to do that, my son and I had to do some disassembly. We had to remove the side bars, front and rear bumpers and most importantly the body. Once we had the big pieces removed, I started unbolting parts I didn't want painted. Other stuff got covered in plastic. 

I covered the surrounding area with plastic to prevent unwanted over spray. I wiped down all the surfaces with mineral spirits and began the transformation. I started spraying the first coat on the frame. Between coats, I started some body work to patch a few holes.

Now that the frame is painted, I have started some reassembly, continued on with the body work, and gathered some resources for the tribute car. This project was how I spent most of my spring break from school and a recent surgery has slowed my progress. The biggest things now are making new side bars, front and rear bumpers, and painting/decals on the body. I will be meeting up with my friend Scott from Dynamic Signs and Graphics (http://dsgmke.com/) to handle the design. He really came through on the Coleman #40  and I'm sure this one will be great as well.

Race season is fast approaching and like most teams, we still have plenty of work to do.Once it's all complete, the final step will be learning how to dive this car. I never thought learning how to drive an automatic transmission would be tough. We can cover that a little in a later post. Thanks for checking the updates. Talk to you later,
Darrin

WHOSE CAR IS THIS?.......PART 2

So if you will recall, I left off my last blog with Gene Coleman coming to determine if this was his car that we saved from the crusher. We were wrong once before, and Gene was certain his car was destroyed so we weren't holding our breath. The moment he saw the frame he said "you have my car!" Mr. Coleman's first question was "what are you going to do with it?" We told him we would like to recreate it the best we can and he was happy about that. There were plenty of pictures floating around, but nothing of much detail. Gene let us borrow an exact replica of his car that was built by a fan and used to be a functioning remote controlled car.

We scoured the country looking for a 1930 or 1931 Ford Model A Coupe body. They are not very easy to come by and if someone was to find out you were going to cut it up, they are reluctant to sell it. My dad's cousin called out of the blue one day and heard of a Model A that was involved in a barn fire. After looking near and far, this one was located approximately 10 miles from our family farm up north and my dad and uncle hopped in the truck immediately to go get it. It was exactly what we needed. Let the building continue. Gene even checked the progress when he was available.

Skip forward to July of 2015. We were planning on leaving for the races in the U.P on a Friday morning. The car has not driven under it's own power since 1971, the body was still drying on Wednesday, and on Thursday some coworkers came over to help us put the body on.

Come Friday morning, I climbed in, fired it up, put it in gear and ran it down the driveway. First time any of us have ever drove it. I turned around at the end of the driveway, loaded it on the trailer,  and we were northbound. On Friday, this car was back on a racetrack that is had tuned many, many laps at in the past in Norway, MI. Once at the track, we wanted to get the car weighed. The person running the booth (Jason C.) told us about a relative of his that used to run an old modified. He asked if we had ever heard of Gene Coleman. The look of disbelief in his eyes when my uncle told him that his former car was on it's way to the scaled was priceless. When I saw Jason's face, I knew we did something right. I was able to turn a few laps and it felt great driving this piece of racing history. 

After the races in Norway on Friday and the races in Escanaba on Saturday, it was time to meet up with Gene at his shop ( http://www.colemanracing.com/ ) in Menominee, MI. We got a few pictures with Gene by the car and a picture in front of the actual shop it was built in back in 1968.

This car is a blast to drive and the history behind it speaks volumes about our passion for this hobby. We love taking this car along with our others to tracks and having some fun with some great people we share our love for this sport with. We hope our 2017 season is as fun as the last few have been. Until next time.........Darrin

WHOSE CAR IS THIS????

Today I am going to post a little about my favorite car. In June of 2010, my dad, my uncle, and I took two of the cars up to Escanaba, MI to their annual Fun Run. My uncle wanted to go because he heard there were still cars in the area and he wanted to spark some interest and see if any popped out of the woodwork. My friend Jason pulled us through the parade on Friday night and we ended at the fairgrounds where the car show would be the next day. Since they were going to have a few races at the track that year, they posted us right in front of the grandstand. The track had been idle for several years and they were just in the beginning stages of getting it going again.

http://www.upirtrack.com/index.html

While setting up on Friday, a local resident came up to us and said "I just saw one of these going to the scrap yard today." "WHAT? WHERE? WHY?" We found out where and were waiting with a trailer outside the front gate 20 minutes before they opened on Saturday morning. After a brief runaround with the workers and the owners, we were able to purchase the car. They don't sell racecars and we couldn't convince them that this technically wasn't a racecar. I took a picture and showed it to her and she said "You want to buy those pipes?" GASP!!!! "Yes, we want to buy those pipes!" So we loaded up and headed back over to the show.

Now the search was on for whose it used to be. There was plenty of speculation based on the few bits and pieces of body panels we dug out and threw on the frame. Most of the former racers figured it was Fran Ansell's car based on the style and body panels. We got a hold of Fran and within seconds of looking at it, he could tell that it wasn't his car. The search continued. My uncle spent many hours looking at former race programs until a steering component and sticker placement caught his eye. He asked my opinion and I agreed with him.

 After doing some research, my uncle was able to get in contact with Gene Coleman. The first thing Gene said was that car was junked and cut up a long time ago. My uncle still feeling confident, convinced Gene to stop and take a look next time he was passing through town. Mr. Coleman agreed. 

When Gene arrived at my uncle's house, he took one look and the car and said................................... to be continued.

Between my dad, my brother, my uncle and I, we have a total of 5 vintage modifieds. Three are set up for racing, one is a show car that we fully restored and race a little bit, and one is in the same condition it was when it came off of the track in 1971. We belong to two racing clubs and have about 10 dates on the schedule so far for 2017.

One club is Milwaukee Stock Car Racing Association or MSC for short.  http://milwaukeestockcar.tripod.com/

The other club is Badgerland Vintage Racers which is a newly formed club.
http://www.badgerlandvintageracers.com/

The blue 75 and the orange 66 are race ready cars. The green 40 was restored from a pile of scrap and has quite a bit of time and money into making it look the way it does.

This one was sold to us by a racer that last raced it in 1971. It is close to being a regular at local shows.

Here is a quick video of a test drive down the driveway:

These are the five cars we currently have. There was one that my uncle had that he has since sold. That one still comes to the shows we attend up north in WI and MI.

My next few entries will talk a little about the cars individually.Until next time.

Darrin

Let me take you back to Saturday, March 4, 2017

At 9:37 a.m., my brother Jeremy sent me a text with a picture of a vintage modified for sale on Facebook. I simply responded "That's pretty cool. And affordable."After a few text messages back and forth, I decided to contact the seller with a few questions on specifics. The car seemed like it would be a good fit for our clubs. I sent a picture and some specifics to my dad who happened to be eating breakfast with my mom at this time. The next free weekend I would have available to go would be in three weeks. Today was not the day to go:

• I was on call for work
• The car is 7 hours away (each direction) and 500 miles (each direction)
• It's already after noon on a Saturday
• I have to bowl in a tournament on Sunday at noon
• Bank was closed

Between my dad and I, we had enough cash laying around. He offered to drive on the way home. I got his blessing that the price was right.  My wife gave me the OK to go throough with this crazy idea. I called my uncle to see if his trailer was available. Found a coworker to take my on-call.

All the puzzle pieces fell into place so we decided to go for it. I picked my dad up, we went to my uncle's to get the trailer, and the three of us hit the road.

3/4/17 @ 3:00 p.m.: We began our journey to pick up the car

3/4/17 @ 9:30 p.m.: We arrive in Slayton, MN at the person who is selling the car's house (I made good time)


3/4/17 @ 11:00 p.m.: We have the car loaded and are ready to head back home:

3/5/17 @ 1:00 a.m.: We stop in Blue Earth, MN to fill up on gas and my dad takes over driving

3/5/17 @ 6:00 a.m.: We are getting closer to home. About an hour to go:

3/5/17 @ 7:30 a.m.: I arrive back at my house just in time to relax and bowl some of my worst games ever. It will be worth it and we can't wait to see what this car can do.
Next entry will be an update of our cars and clubs. Stay tuned!
Darrin

A Racing Family

My love for racing began when my dad started taking us to Hales Corners Speedway to watch my uncle race:

My dad used to race when he was younger at Hales Corners Speedway as well:

The day I met my wife, we went out with some friends to the Hales Corners Speedway as well. It was only fitting that seven years later, we get a picture there:

Sadly, the Speedway closed in 2003. Then, another uncle bought this:

This is where my love for the old ones began. In my next blog, I will talk about where we are now and begin to talk how we got here. Thanks for reading!

Darrin