Week 3 of racing at the historic half mile Shawano Speedway turned out to be a night to remember for hometown hot shoe Cody Hudson.
The popular driver known as “The Hudson Hornet” is a rookie this season in the IMCA Modified division after winning the track championship a season ago in the IMCA Sport Mod class.
I’ve told his story before in these pages, but it is worth retelling. Hudson grew up next to former IMCA Modified track champion Wade Schutt and began hanging around his garage. As he got a little older he began to help out Schutt and then Tracy Wassenberg before scratching together the funds to buy his own race car.
Through hard work and determination, Hudson has made himself into a top-flight racer.
Hudson hit his stride after joining forces with longtime racer Dave Stoffer a few seasons back.
Impressively, Hudson won Saturday’s feature while running on seven cylinders. In fact, Hudson nearly pulled off during a caution period.
Quick with a smile and willing to talk to anyone, Hudson has become a track favorite, and the future continues to look bright.
Also last week, Shawano racer BJ Giese nearly scored a win in the IMCA Stock car feature.
Giese is back behind the wheel this year after taking a few seasons off. The grandson of Shawano Speedway Hall Of Fame racer John Beyers, Giese has shown he may be a force to reckon with this summer.
Starting this week at the track, “The Challenge” is back in the IMCA Modified and IMCA Sport Mod classes. The Challenge was a big hit years ago in the Late Model division.
Drivers are given the opportunity to start at the back of the feature; if they can pull off the win, they earn extra money.
Chuck Buckbee was the only driver to win The Challenge back in the day.
The Modifed pot starts at $100 and goes up by another $100 each week that it goes unclaimed. For the Sport Mod, the pot starts at $50 and will go up another $50 for every week it is not won.
This could really make things interesting in each of these divisions. Hats off to Brad Luepke for all of his hard work getting The Challenge going again.
Also look for Craig “The Tiger” Bartz back at the track this week in a Mike Weisnicht-owned IMCA Modified.
It should be another great Saturday night for racing. See you at the track.
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