By: Kevin Ramsell
West Salem, WI – One of the unique events during the 56th Annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend is the Dick Trickle 99 race.
This unique race will be contested on Friday, October 3rd at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, WI.
What makes it unique is two parts.
One, the race is broken into three 33-lap segments with drivers attempting to score the lowest points in each segment (one for first, two for second, etc.). The driver with the lowest number of points after all three segments is declared the winner of the event.
The second part is the story of how this race came to what it is today.
In 2007, John McKarns, president of the ARTGO Challenge Series and Oktoberfest Promoter, approached his long-time friend about the idea of having a race named after him. Trickle was very open to the idea and felt that Oktoberfest would be the proper place to have an event named after him. He gladly gave his blessing to McKarns to go ahead with it.
But McKarns didn’t want it to be a typical race. He wanted to have something unique that fans haven’t seen in the Midwest. That idea was something he saw at another track, the famous Milk Bowl event at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, VT.
It was in 1962, when track promoter and NASCAR Hall of Famer Ken Squier came up with this event as a unique way to end their racing season. The Milk Bowl is broken into three 50-lap segments with inverts in each segment. The overall winner would get a glass of milk for their victory and was expected to kiss a cow.
McKarns was intrigued by the idea and had a few ideas of his own to make this a memorable event not just for the fans, but for the participants as well. An idea that Trickle was on board with and wanted to compete in the first event himself.
With Trickle’s approval, McKarns reached out to Squier and Tom Curley, who both owned and promoted Thunder Road and asked for their permission to take their Milk Bowl idea and come up with the Dick Trickle “99”. Squier and Curley graciously gave McKarns their blessing and the first event was held in 2007.
This year will be the 18th running of this event in the past 19 years as the event was rained out in 2017.
The winners list (at the bottom of this story) is a who’s who of popular Midwest drivers. Both Ty Majeski and Dan Fredrickson each have four victories.
Last year, Dan’s son Ty Fredrickson won his first Trickle event.
The drivers are always looking forward to this year’s event.
“Just go for it,” three-time ASA Midwest Tour champion Casey Johnson said about the Trickle 99. “I mean, you got three 33-lap segments and you can’t rest in any of them if you’re going to plan to win the whole thing.”
When asked about strategy, Johnson basically shrugged his shoulders.
“No, not really. I’ve tried every strategy in the books and really you just got to get it to the front and hope you got the best car,” Johnson explained. “And then the main thing, and get it up to the front of each segment, too.”
Getting up front is what makes each segment interesting due to the high inverts for each one, not making any segment an easy drive.
Two-time defending ASA Midwest Tour champion Gabe Sommers had some strategy in last year’s running. But that strategy was thrown out at the start of the last segment.
“Last year we were tied for the points going into the final segment and got wrecked on the front stretch coming to the green,” Sommers recalled. “So I thought we had a really good car in that too. It’s just it’s a tough race. So it’s a unique strategy race too. It’s pretty much you gotta qualify really well. You gotta be upfront in the top four pretty much every race to be able to win that race.”
Only the top-15 in qualifying is locked into the main event; the rest of the field is set from qualifier races.
New NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Champion Jacob Goede shared his thoughts about the event.
“It’s fun. It’s a blast. You go all out for 33 laps, three times. And, I mean, it’s always produces good racing,” Goede said. “Comers and goers are mostly comers, with the fast cars kind of starting, especially that second segment coming from the back or whatever. So, it’s a fun, fun race. I’ve never won it. I think we finished second or third a time or two, but hopefully we can change that this year.”
While veterans enjoy competing in the Trickle 99, the next generation of drivers, like former Midwest Truck Series champion Levon Van Der Geest, likes the strategy needed to compete in the event.
“That’s a hard race, because it takes more than just being fast; you’ve got to have good strategy, as well,” Van Der Geest explained. “You’ve got to be careful; if you win the first segment and burn your tires up, you’re not going to be any good when they invert the fields. So, it’s just a tough one as a driver to run, but it’s always fun, always exciting.”
Along with the Dick Trickle 99, there will be “The Stubby” event for cars that don’t make the Trickle 99. The La Crosse Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Models will have two 20-lap feature events along with a 24-lap Area Sportsmen feature event on Friday night.
Visit oktoberfestraceweekend.com for more information and order your tickets online.
Past Dick Trickle 99 Winners
Year Champion
2024 Ty Fredrickson
2023 Ty Majeski
2022 Ty Majeski
2021 Ty Majeski
2020 Dan Fredrickson
2019 Nick Murgic
2018 Johnny Sauter
2017 Rained Out
2016 Dan Fredrickson
2015 Ty Majeski
2014 Dan Fredrickson
2013 Erik Darnell
2012 Skylar Holzhausen
2011 Neil Knoblock
2010 Dan Fredrickson
2009 Chris Weinkauf
2008 Nathan Haseleu
2007 Steve Holzhausen
