Classic Modifieds at Slinger in The Dirt Days

The two tiny pictures below are mine and I took them way back when Slinger Wisconsin Speedway was still a flat ¼ mile dirt. Since the mid 1970s Slinger has been a well known super high banked ¼ mile asphalt. The recent version of the Slinger Nationals saw Matt Kenseth beating Kyle Busch and Ross Kenseth.

I apologize for the tiny size of those two images, but these digital files are all that remain from the original b&w prints/negatives and the original digital copy.

In its hay day, this style of mod had 13 tracks in the northern Illinois (1 track) Upper Peninsula of MI (2 tracks), and Wisconsin’s 10 tracks. All 13 were quarter miles with 3 asphalt and ten being dirt. The Milwaukee Stock Car Club at one time raced six nights a week, and they raced five for many years. Mondays were the only night that race tracks were dark in Wisconsin. Eventually several of these tracks switched to late model stock cars, while at others the modifeds morphed into roofless and winged super modifieds. Those “supers” usually became sprint cars in due time.

The first driver below is the legendary Billy “The Cat” Johnson. This was the first year that local mod tracks allowed the roof to be removed from their cars. I think it ruins the class of the car as can be witnessed by the second image of Wally Jorsmodifieds and 100 sportsman ( low buck stock car) on any given Saturday night.

Names (not official names) of those early mod tracks. They are dirt unless noted asphalt.

Waugegan, Illinois Speedway (now gone)

Wilmot Speedway, Kenosha, county, WI (now a 1/3^rd mile sprint car track.)

Lake Geneva Raceway, WI asphalt (now gone)

Hales Corners Speedway, WI (now gone)

WI State Fair Park, WI ( now gone but this was a ¼ mile dirt inside the Milwaukee Mile)

Capital Speedway asphalt, WI( changed a long time ago to a ½ mile banked with late models )

Cedarburg Speedway, WI (now gone)

Slinger Speedway, WI ( now asphalt high banked ¼ mile with late models)

Beaver Dam Raceway, WI ( now a high banked 1/3^rd mile racing sprints, midgets and IMCA mods)

141 Raceway, WI asphalt ( I believe this track is now dirt and racing stock cars)

Plymouth Raceway, WI ( now 1/3^rd mile racing sprint cars)

Norway, Michigan ( now a 1/3^rd mile asphalt with late models)

Escanaba, MI ( now a 1/3^rd mile asphalt with late models)

There was also (14^th track) Hayden, Ontario Canada. A ¼ mile dirt a short way from the U.S. border. I have no idea if this track still exists.