Published: Nov. 2, 2013
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News Sports Editor
West Bend’s Chris Ratajczyk is too meticulous with his car.
While it’s frustrating sometimes, it is a trait he inherited from his late
father, Bob.
It’s what Bob Ratajczyk was known for throughout his racing
career. He prided himself on how the car looked at the race track. After all,
it had to look good in victory lane.
“He was my hero growing up as a kid,” Chris Ratajczyk said.
Bob Ratajczyk of Hartford won the 1954 track championship at
Hales Corners Speedway and won two big races in 1970 as the highlights of an
eventual Hall of Fame career.
Ratajczyk will be inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin
Short Track Hall of Fame tonight in a ceremony at the Wisconsin Auto Museum in
Hartford.
More than 500 tickets have been sold for the event, which,
according to the event organizers, is a sellout.
Joining Ratajczyk in the Class of 2013, the seventh
induction class in the Hall of Fame’s history, is West Bend’s Frank Heimerl, as
well as Conrad Morgan, Charlie Weddle, Jack Aschenbrenner, Darrell Dodd, Tom
and Jerry Mueller, George Scheffler, Gary Laack, and Joe Shear.
“It’s a real big honor because you’re in a class with the
best drivers in the state,” Chris Ratajczyk said.
Bob Ratajczyk died in 2007 at the age of 74.
“He would think it’s great,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He’d be
really honored.”
Bob Ratajczyk began racing in 1950 and raced for more than
25 years, competing in Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada.
He won 18 features in his career and was often near the top
of the speed chart during qualifying. Not to mention his car was always looking
in tip-top shape.
If it wasn’t ready to go to the race track, he wouldn’t go,
which wasn’t very often as he competed six nights a week throughout his career.
In 1959, he finished in the modified stock car points standings at Waukegan
Speedway in Illinois.
“Too much,” Chris Ratajczyk said when asked how much of his
dad’s personality and attention to detail he inherited. “He turned me into
being way too meticulous.”
That wasn’t a bad thing, he added.
“He took care of his equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He
was more of a finisher than a hard charger. He never drove over his head.”
At Ratajczyk’s race shop in West Bend, some tools can be
found sitting on the shelf, unorganized. Bob Ratajczyk would get angry if he
could see it today. It’s just the way he was, on and off the race track.
He made sure his son Chris understood it. It’s what worked
for him.
“Take care of your equipment,” Chris Ratajczyk said on his
father’s greatest lesson to him. “He was a stickler for that.”
Bob Ratajczyk won the award for the best appearing car three
years in a row during a time where more than 100 cars could be spotted in a pit
area at an area race track on any given night.
“It’s just the way he was,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “He was
one of those guys where every wrench was measured out. He was a stickler for
neatness and organization.”
Ratajczyk began his racing career in 1984 when he was 21.
During his career, he’s competed in the Slinger Stinger division and eventually
moved into a late model. In 1991, he was the Slinger Superspeedway Rookie of
the Year in the super late division. In 2005, he won the limited late model
track championship at Slinger.
How he prepares for a race is similar to his father.
One of Bob Ratajczyk’s proudest moments happened in 1970.
In that year, he won the state championship race at Slinger,
a 100-lap dirt modified feature. Also that year, he won a feature in Canada,
beating more than 100 cars to the checkered flag.
It was a victory Ratajczyk still had satisfaction for long
after he accomplished it.
Chris Ratajczyk, one of Bob Ratajczyk’s four children, will
give the acceptance speech and accept the honor on his father’s behalf.
“It’s a great honor,” Chris Ratajczyk said. “It’s a pretty
neat deal.”
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