Scott Owen, Special to the Leader
I want to start off this week’s column by congratulating Brandon Nygaard on a hard-fought first career feature win Saturday at the Shawano Speedway.
Now to the next matter at hand. Many a Saturday night, I see numerous people get up and head out of the grandstands before the start of the night’s Mighty Four feature. I understand that they are considered a “starter class,” they may run the slowest lap times of the five divisions and they don’t have the irresistible rumble of a V8 engine, but they put on some great side-by-side racing each week.
I must admit that when the decision was made to add this front-wheel-drive, four cylinder class to the weekly program, I was a bit of a skeptic as far as them putting on a good show. The division ran a handful of races during the 2012 race season to gauge interest among racers and to see if the cars could race competitively on the half-mile oval. In 2013, Gleason racer Kasey Gross became the first official Mighty Four champion at the Shawano Speedway.
Last year, Josh Slewinski snagged the track title. Currently, Brad Wedde leads the point standings with his cousin Calvin Stueck a close second.
Wedde and Stueck have had some great on-track battles this summer. Also, drivers such as Jasper Drengler, Hollie Welch, Aaron Milavitz, Dalton Nelson, Grant Kastning and Lucas Hacker have been involved in some of the best door-to-door action of the year.
Hollie Welch has had a breakthrough season scoring her first two wins. I still maintain that the driver known as The Gambler, Lucas Hacker, will find his way to victory soon.
The Mighty Fours have also done their part in bringing new talent to the track. In terms of cost, it is the most cost-effective class to become involved in. Also, young motorsport enthusiasts grow up nowadays primarily working on front-wheel-drive, fuel-injected, four-cylinder cars. It only stands to reason that racing a class that these young racers can easily work on will spark their interest in racing.
In closing, my recommendation to you is, if you don’t normally stick around for the Mighty Fours, give them a chance. My guess is that you’ll come away thinking, “That was some good racing.”
See you at the speedway.