The Shawano Speedway will hold its second annual Ladies Night on Saturday. The first 500 ladies get in free.
Obviously, the idea is to help get more women out to the track and involved in racing. Truth be told, though, many women do have a big role in racing.
It was, years ago, a rarity to have a woman wheeling a race car. Currently, though, Jordan Bartz is one of the top guns in the IMCA Sport Mod class. She scored her first career feature win as a rookie last season.
This year Bartz is joined in the Sport Mod class by rookie Karah Peterson, of Shawano. Peterson is a third-generation racer as her grandfather and both of her uncles have raced for many years on the ice in winter.
Mighty 4s racer Hollie Welch and Kayla Slewinski also compete at the Speedway.
Of course, past racers such as Cindy Peterson, Sherry Czarapata and Julie McDermid have enjoyed success throughout the years and paved the way for the current generation.
It goes without saying that just about every male racer out there is supported behind the scenes by a wife, girlfriend, daughter and/or mother. If you look around the stands of any given racetrack, you will see many moms at the track with their kids.
Julie Anvelink, Lynn Muenster, Jamie Springborn, Kim Yaeger, Mary Parker, Marilyn McBride, Bonnie Lamberies and Jayne Schaewe are, or have been, fixtures at the track for many years.
In my youth my mom was quite often the one who wanted to go to the races on Saturday night, and nowadays it is my wife taking the family to races when I am working.
Women have also had a big hand in putting on the races and running things behind the scenes for many years. The likes of Harriet McDonald, Cleida O’Brien, Sally Raddant and Nancy Flaig, among others, worked as scorers in the tower for numerous seasons.
I am currently outnumbered in the tower on Saturday nights by Tina Marks, Jolene Clark, Michele Hoffman and oftentimes Hollie Welch, Taylor Hoffman and Haleigh Springborn.
In summation, this week’s Ladies Night is not just to get more women to the racetrack. It is also to help honor those women who put up with all the long hours in the garage and also put in so much hard work of their own.
The old saying “behind every successful man there is a good woman” is certainly true in racing. The saying holds true as well for a successful racetrack.
Enjoy the races.
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