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No funny stuff here ... well ... maybe some. But mainly these pages are devoted to a NASCAR driver with over 1,200 feature wins throughout the United States in All Pro, ASA, ARTGO, ARCA, IMCA, MASCAR, NASCAR, USAC, and CWRA. This guy has won more races than any other driver in NASCAR. Trickle began racing in 1958 at Stratford Speedway in Central Wisconsin by winning his first event. In 1984, Trickle won the ASA Championship, and he won it again in 1985. He has finished runner up in the ASA Championship 9 times in his career. In 1977, Trickle won the ARTGO Series Championship. He won the title again in 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1987. All told, he won 63 events and 9 championships with the series. NASCAR bought the ARTGO Series in 1998 and renamed it the NASCAR RE/MAX Challenge Series. Then in 1989 began driving as a reserve driver for Bobby Allison, and he won the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year title at age 48. They call him a Legend.

Not yet, when I'm gone I'll be a legend, right now I'm just very good at what I do. -- Dick Trickle

Born October 27, 1941 in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Dick Trickle is a veteran of several thousand late model events. A master of his trade, chassis designer and engine builder, fabricater, welder and, oh yeah, driver. Before moving to North Carolina in 1990, Dick and Darlene owned and operated their own race team in Wisconsin, sponsored by SUPERAMERICA gas stations — a division of Ashland Oil, Pabst Brewing Co., Miller High Life Co., Adolph Coors Co. — Coors Light brand, A & W Root Beer and many others. With three kids (Victoria, Tod & Chad), he now lives in Iron Station, North Carolina and runs an occasional race at the short tracks where he cut his racing teeth. Dick started racing in 1958 on Wisconsin dirt tracks. In 1972, he won 67 short track feature races in a single season.

His first experience in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series came in 1970 at age 28 when he ran 2 events. He made a handful of starts in the series from 1970-1986. He took the pole position in 1990 at Dover Downs. His best finish in the series came in 1997 at Bristol Motor Speedway where he finished 3rd. He won the 1990 NASCAR Winston Open at Charlotte gaining him a starting position for the 1990 NASCAR Winston Invitational event. From 1970 to 2002, he started 303 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Events. He had 15 top five finishes, 36 top ten finishes, and one pole.

Finished '95 season 25th in points standing but doubling his previous career best earnings. Qualified top eight at seven races, including fourths at Mountain Dew Southern 500 and NAPA 500 in final race of year. Only top-10 finish was 10th at Pocono. In 1996, drove in 16 races for three different owners, finishing in the top 10 only once. Joined Junie Donlavey as substitute for Mike Wallace for 17 races after substituting for injured driver Loy Allen. In 1997, he finished third at Bristol and fifth at Rockingham in second half of season. Failed to qualify three times and skipped road course races, or he might have done better than 31st in points. But was voted 4th most popular driver by fans of the NASCAR Winston Cup series.

In 1998, he scored second NASCAR Busch series win at Darlington Raceway and earned 8th NASCAR Busch pole position at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He was voted 4th most populat driver by fans of the Winston Cup series. In 2000, his 31st year in the NASCAR Winston Cup series - he competed with Joe Bessey Motorsports and AJ Foyt Racing (one event with Dave Marcis Racing but DNQ). He classified 51st overall in the championship.

Trickle had a bit more success in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. He made his first Busch event in 1984 at The Milwaukee Mile where he captured the Bud Pole and finished third. In 1997, he won at Hickory. He won again in 1998 at Darlington. Between 1984 and 2001, he started 158 NASCAR Busch Series Events. He had 2 wins, 24 top five finishes, 42 top ten finishes, and 7 poles. In 1991, Trickle won the Atlanta ARCA 500k, and from 1991-2004 he served as an IROC test driver.

Dick Trickle is perhaps one of the most colorful characters in the sport. During his time in NASCAR, Dick was famous for having a cigarette lighter in his racecars, and having his full-face helmet drilled so that a cigarette would fit in front of his mouth thru the helmet allowing him to smoke during caution laps.

I did it for a living, made a career out of it, but now I've turned it into somewhat of a hobby. I don't race a lot, half a dozen (races) a year maybe. I play with my tractors and live somewhat of a family life and just try to enjoy trying to retire sooner or later. Racing is in my blood, I can't quite get out of it yet.

Slinger Speedway promoter Wayne Erickson stands with Winston Cup drivers Dick Trickle and Alan Kulwicki at the Slinger Nationals in July 1992.

Sling Shot

The Speedway That Put Slinger, Wisconsin On The Map

Slinger ... officially and deceptively named Slinger Super Superspeedway ... is a Bristol in half-scale. A place where the feature cars lap two-abreast five times every minute. Where the track record stands at 11.095 seconds. The track itself is carved into a Wisconsin Valley, with the pits on a hill to the north and east bleachers to the west and south. To view a race from the top of the stands is to watch cars circle the walls of a cereal bowl. To compete here, Dick Trickle says, is to fly a jet fighter in a gymnasium. Slinger is famous among race fans as the site of the Slinger Nationals, a two-round series run annually on the second Tuesday in June and the second Tuesday in July.

History Of Nationals Champions Larry Detjens Alan Kulwicki Dick Trickle Dick Trickle Mark Martin Dick Trickle John Zigler Joe Shear Butch Miller Dick Trickle Joe Shear Joe Shear Rich Bickle Joe Shear Matt Kenseth Butch Miller Rich Bickle Lowell Bennett Track Records Late Model Division July 8, 1980 Dick Trickle - 11.658 sec July - 11, 1984 Mark Martin - 11.597 sec June 13, 1988 Rich Bickle - 11.582 sec June 14, 1988 Ted Musgrave - 11.501 sec July 12, 1988 Davey Allison - 11.487 sec Sept 5, 1988 Al Schill Sr. - 11.479 sec June 13, 1989 Rich Bickle - 11.456 sec July 10, 1989 Butch Miller - 11.376 sec May 22, 1994 Jim Weber - 11.300 sec May 29, 1994 Andy Wendt - 11.193 sec June 12, 1994 Tony Strupp - 11.154 sec June 13, 1994 Tony Strupp - 11.095 sec

The story of the Nationals' beginnings has become a fuzzy blend of fact and fiction, told and retold so many times that even the people who were there have difficulty telling the difference anymore. Like the birth of the modern NASCAR points system, the concept of the Slinger Nationals conceived by men in a barroom, their creativity sparked by generous quantities of sponsor product.

How, track own Wayne Erickson wondered, could he schedule a race that would fit into the busy schedule of his old buddy, Dick Trickle? Surely the participation of Trickle, the barnstorming pride of the Wisconsin short tracks, could lure fans into the Erickson's quick quarter mile that sits a half-hour's drive north of Milwaukee.

Run it on Tuesday, Trickle said. He was free that night. And bring in a few other names, too. The conversation took place more than 19 years ago, when neither Erickson nor Trickle had any idea just what impact the event could have.

Since then, the roster of visiting drivers who've passed through Slinger's gates has grown to include legends of the past, present and future: Bobby and Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett, Dale Earnhardt Harry Gant, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Rusty Wallace.

Some of the top short trackers have raced there, as well. Northerners like Mike Eddy and Butch Miller, and drivers out of the South such as Gary Ballough and Jody Ridley took the green flag here. The list of locals isn't bad, either. Before he ever got to Winston Cup, Alan Kulwicki won two local track championships and the 1981 Nationals title, and Rich Bickle has won a pair of each.

Rising Busch Series star Matt Kenseth never won a track championship, but his boss, Robbie Reiser, took three straight from 1991 to 1993. Kenseth did claim the 1994 Nationals title, when the two event series was split between Slinger and another track Erickson owned near Madison, Wisconsin.

All of the visiting stars said they enjoyed their stays, according to Erickson. Even if they didn't always fare well. "I think it was the best thing I ever did, doing this, bringing Bobby Allison, who was the first one we brought from NASCAR," Erickson says. "And beyond that, there were a lot of guys who graduated from my track that we brought back. I was doing it not only so I could say I did it, but so my fans had a chance to see them up close, much closer than they’ll ever get to see them at a Cup show."

Martin is the only driver from outside Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, to win a Nationals crown (1984), but he was practically a local at the time. In the 1990s, among the visiting drivers, only Schrader has won a feature in either segment of the Nationals.

Strupp, who holds the track record, which management claims as a world record for a quarter mile in a Late Model Stock, finally won the Nationals. "A lot of drivers said if you can drive here, you can drive any place," says Tony Strupp, a 25-year veteran of the track who raced against and beat Kulwicki to earn three track championships. "Name a place that you would have to have more concentration than Slinger Speedway," Strupp says. "If you miss any thing out here, you're in trouble. That's what makes Slinger extraordinarily special. There are guys that came here ... big-time guys ... that never came back. There are guys that parked their cars on the infield and said they had a flat."

Of course, a track cannot get to be 51 years old on the strength of one or two special events. Slinger has continually staged a solid weekly show, first with Midgets and Modifieds, and later with Late Models. Racing actually took place on the site of the speedway in 1947, the year before the track was built, with such local legends as Miles "The Mouse" Melius, who won 11 titles in 20 years.

Erickson took over in 1973, when he was not only the promoter, but also a driver and the Contractor who paved the place. A number of the top weekly pilots moved on, such as Kulwicki, Bickle and Reiser, while others stayed behind ... for reasons of business or family or simply a lack of opportunity ... to give the next generation an accurate gauge of their skills.

With each passing year, the face of Slinger Super Speedway changes. The days of dirt Midgets and Modifieds have become faded memories, along with the Milwaukee Stock Car Club, which included Slinger as the Sunday stop in its five-nights-a-week series. The notion of big-time stars such as the Allisons, Earnhardt and Wallace actually competing against the local-level racers has slipped away, too.

Meanwhile, Slinger ... although some 850 miles from NASCAR's home base in Charlotte, North Carolina, and 1,200 miles from its headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida ... is no longer far off the beaten path of major stock car racing. Fans can see the entire Winston Cup field in Indianapolis, Indiana, 250 miles away, or in Brooklyn, Michigan, 350 miles away, or catch the Busch and Craftsman Truck Series in Milwaukee.

The Nationals doesn't have the allure it once did. "People are saving their money and going and seeing the shows," says Erickson, who's not sure how much longer he can continue to promote the event that put his tiny track on the national map. "I'm losing a few fans because TV's made NASCAR so strong. I've got to think of other avenues so I don't lose 'em." Even with the weekly shows, the costs have gone up immensely and the competitors must treat racing as a business even though it is primarily their hobby.

Operating a race track isn't a case of opening the gates and turning a profit. "It's gotten tougher as a promoter because you need to make sure you've got the audience in order to make your participants able to race," Erickson says, noting the increase in options for his fans' disposable income. Slinger is one of those places that has survived too much and accumulated too much history for anyone to seriously believe it'll do anything but persevere.

But if the event that brought Bobby Alison and Dale Earnhardt to sleepy Slinger, Wisconsin, has outlived its usefulness, more than a few people will be sad to see it pass. "I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world," says Dick Melius, Slinger's competition director and the son of one of its pioneers. 'There's a lot of hard times making it right every night, but that's part of the job.' The frosting on the cake is being able to be a part of this race track ... to know Kenseth and Richie Bickle and Trickle, who cut their teeth at places like this, are now holding their own in Busch and Winston Cup. That's what makes this track today."

by Dave Kallmann January 1999 Racing Milestones* Some Photos Courtesy Slinger Speedway

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