Published: June 16, 2015
Young Bennett has high hopes
Driver has 2 Hall of Famers to look up to
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — Braison Bennett had a choice and he explored his
options.
Those choices didn’t stand much of a chance, though.
When he was 10 years old, Bennett got his first race car — a
dragster — after he won a bet with Mom and Dad. He got A’s on his report card.
It fulfilled an auto racing ambition that started when he was much younger.
“I’ve been going to the races since before I could walk,”
Bennett said. “I thought it’d be awesome to try it.”
Bennett played baseball and soccer. His father, Lowell
Bennett, knew those things weren’t for Braison.
“I never saw him put his heart into the other things than
what he does for racing,” Lowell said. “I never wanted to be the dad that just
because I raced that my son should race also, live my dreams through my son. It
just happened that way.
“If he wanted to play baseball or golf, I would’ve been fine
with that.”
Lowell is happy his son chose racing because it’s been a way
of life for the Bennetts for more than half a century.
Braison, 19, is a thirdgeneration driver. In addition to his
father, Lowell, Braison’s grandfather is Bob Bennett. Both are Hall of Fame
short-track racers — legends.
Bob is a member of the Hall of Fame at Shawano and Oshkosh,
while Lowell will be inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short-Track Hall
of Fame in Hartford in November.
Braison knows he has a lot to look up to and a lot to live
up to.
He wouldn’t want it any other way, however.
“It’s a lot to look up to,” Braison said. “I’m hoping I can
be that good someday.”
What is the positive for having two legends in his corner?
“Just being able to have someone to go to when I need help,”
Braison said. “They’ve taught me everything I know.”
What is the downside?
“Knowing that I’ve got to follow that up,” he said.
That’s the last thing Lowell and Bob want.
“He is who he is,” Lowell said. “He’ll accomplish what he
can. If he beats me, I’ll tell him I’m very proud of him and I won’t be at
jealous.”
Braison knows he has that cloud over him.
“I think people have high expectations because of my dad,”
he said.
The pressure he feels is what he puts on himself to someday
be a successful race car driver.
Lowell has a laid-back approach as to how he helps Braison
learn to be a successful race car driver. It’s a similar approach his father
had with him.
Putting pressure on their son was only going to make it more
difficult. The only difference is Lowell is admittedly more patient and more
mellow than his father was toward him.
“I try to make him earn a lot himself,” Lowell said of
Braison. “I don’t want him to be the spoiled rich kid that has everything
handed to him. He works very hard. That’s the way my dad taught me.”
Braison has his race budget, separate from Dad’s.
Lowell doesn’t like to compare his accomplishments and/or
abilities to his son. In actuality, the two may not have any differences.
They love to race and their fascination with cars started at
an early age. For Lowell, it started when he was about 2 years old. By the time
he was a teenager, Lowell was working in his dad’s shop and repairing cars in
the shop. Lowell bought his first car — a 1972 Chevelle late model — in 1976.
The car formerly belonged to his father.
“It won a lot of races,” Lowell said.
Bob made Lowell responsible for the parts, the upkeep, etc.
In 1976, in his first career race, Lowell won the heat race.
When Braison learned that he was in awe.
Braison didn’t think he was capable of doing something like
that. But in 2012, he accomplished a feat similar to that of his dad’s.
Braison won the limited late model feature at Slinger in his
eighth career start. Later that season, he won the feature on Slinger Nationals
night, a night that’s been kind to Lowell five times in his career.
“That was awesome,” Lowell said.
“It was my rookie season running the limited lates,” Braison
said. “I couldn’t believe I was able to do that.”
Braison’s interest in racing started when he was 10 years
old when he told his dad he wanted to get into racing a junior dragster at
Wisconsin International Raceway.
Lowell was apprehensive, but not because he was afraid of
the danger. He was racing and still is at least twice a week (Kaukauna and
Slinger). He didn’t believe he had the time to put in the necessary effort to be
there for his son.
Braison was adamant. So he turned to his mom, Sue. She told
him that he could get a dragster if he got A’s on his report card. A few months
later, Braison showed off a report card with A’s. Then not long after that,
Braison and Lowell were in dad’s pick-up truck and getting a dragster.
Braison’s been a racer ever since, just like his grandpa and
his father.
“I’m proud that he decided to follow me,” Lowell said,
adding he’s blessed to have a wife — and the mother of his son — who is
supportive the way she is.
But looking at the larger picture, it shouldn’t have been a
surprise Braison chose the route he did.
Outside of having a grandpa and father in racing, his mom’s
dad was Lynn Blanchard, a wellrespected engine builder in the region during the
1970s. One of those drivers to use Blanchard’s engines was the late Dick
Trickle, arguably the most successful short-track racer in state history.
Blanchard was also a national road racing champion.
“I’m hoping someday to follow in their footsteps,” Braison
said.
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