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loud auto race. In the late 60’s motorsports drew a crowd similar to those attending rock music festivals. That would be the relatively young and rowdy group favoring consumption of massive quantities of whatever, followed by making noise and acting goofy. Although I never attended any of the early Donnybrooke events, I was present at Watkins Glen in the late 60’s when the infamous "Bog" was in full swing, and it was sometimes not pretty. When the noisy and rowdy racetrack crowd began spilling out onto Hwy 371 for camping, drinking and random hooliganism, local residents were not happy. This fostered (if you’ll pardon the pun) a hostile relationship between track management and its neighbors, which has really never been resolved.
Bottom line: despite some memorable events running through 1972, the track went belly-up, and title to the property fell into the hands of the bankers, with the facility dormant through 1973. At that point local racer and entrepreneur Jerry Hansen put together a group including racers Dick Kantrud and Orly Thornsjo, and signed off on a note to take over the facility, with some amount of money changing hands at the time of the reorganization. Then these racers, along with the eager participation of Land O' Lakes Region membership, set about rebuilding the track with a new SCCA funded Tech Building and other sponsorship help. The neighbors were relatively pacified and the first event at the newly christened Brainerd International Raceway was the 1974 Uncola National. Long time local racer Dick Roe was installed as President and General Manager, and thanks to his painstaking work the track was returned to profitability. A series of amateur and pro racing events throughout the remainder of the decade brought large numbers of competitors and spectators to the excellent
facility. By the 80’s NHRA was on board with a big National drag event and even more fans flocked in, with occasional crowd control problems (wet tee shirts), but growing revenues. I won’t get into the complex financial dealing that transpired through these years, but eventually the track went public with an over the counter stock issue and board of directors primarily from the racing community. The Colonel’s Truck Accessories got involved in the track primarily as an avenue to become a publicly held corporation. When the Colonel gained majority ownership of BIR stock, Dick Roe, Bev Heilicher and the remaining staff were promptly shown the door and new faces took over the day-to-day operation. The bond between SCCA and the track, dating back to its origin, was long forgotten, and hard core contract negotiation was the order of the day. More money was funneled into the track for buildings and stands, but SCCA quickly became a small cog in the Colonel’s big wheel. Which brings us to where we stand today: LOL is a small-time customer for track management who has little interest in sports car racing, and even less incentive to spend money restoring the track to SCCA specifications.
I would like to say that I am optimistic that these problems can be resolved. If LOL is to continue as a Region interested in road racing, we must work to find a solution to the situation. We must negotiate as best we can to assist the track in coming up with a plan to correct the safety discrepancies, so we can continue to use the excellent road racing facility. The only option if this negotiation fails is to build a new track in the metropolitan area or within easy access of the Cities. Numerous schemes have been discussed towards this end, but to my knowledge none have gotten past the talking stage. Upgrading and expanding an existing racing facility
would probably be the easiest, and there are two active racing facilities in the area. But despite the geographic problems we experience attracting entries and workers, it would be very difficult to walk away from one of the best laid out and safest (from the driver’s perspective) road courses in the country. While this whole scene was coming down, the Fubar 2001 racing program ground to a halt much as did the LOL season. As is often the case in motorcar racing, my first deadline of getting my engine back from rebuild at the CAT National was missed. Next I hoped to meet with Tom Andresen Saturday at the CART race and pick up motor. This also did not happen, so the only way I could hope to run the Road America "chicken" races was to drive to suburban Chicago the Friday before the race, and install the engine in my Swift chassis. Since son/crew Chris was working his final bartending shift of the summer until closing time on Thursday, I had the trailer packed that evening after an all-day Thursday trip. I managed a quick hour’s nap before Chris returned home, and we hit I-94 at 2:00 a.m. Traffic wasn’t a problem, and we arrived at Andresen’s promptly at nine in the morning. We were a bit groggy, so the normal hour and a half engine install stretched out past noon despite generous help from Tom’s chief mechanic Tim. After strapping down the car we were back on the road through scenic Lake Geneva, and finally grabbed a late sit-down lunch in Plymouth by 4 in the afternoon. By 5:30 we were standing in line waiting for R/A Registration to open up, and had dropped off the trailer in FF reserved parking (courtesy of Steve Beeler and the East vs. West Challenge) and hustled thru Tech well before dark. By 10:00 I was near collapse while Chris and nephew Greg
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Tonneau On-Line October 2001
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Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
