Published: April 16, 2016
West Bend man led rebuilding project at Beaver Dam Raceway
Daily News
Jimmy Gish was upfront and honest, which made him a good people person. It also made him a good businessman.
He resurrected Beaver Dam Raceway and the track will start tonight for
its 24th season since Gish reopened the track after it sat dormant for more than a decade.
Born in 1937, he grew up in Milwaukee and started working at a salvage
yard. He worked his way up through the ranks at the business and
eventually bought it.
Gish moved to West Bend in 1968 where he purchased, owned and operated
Bradley Auto Salvage on Highway A. Later, in 1986, he opened a car wash —
Soft Touch Car Wash. Today, that car wash is Scrub-ADub, 1515 S. Main
St.
That car wash was a
way of life for the Gish family, which included himself, his wife,
Bonnie, and three sons, Joel, Daniel and Nathan.
“We all had a responsibility in that business,” Nathan said.
Dad ran the business. Mom ran the counter. The boys did whatever else needed to be done.
On Feb. 12, 1987, Bonnie Gish passed away. It changed everything.
“When mom died, the plan fell apart,” Nathan said. “So he got out of that.”
In addition to his business ventures, Jimmy loved to race. He raced
in what some area short-track racing enthusiasts call the “golden
years.” Racing was done five or six nights per week, and it was done
against the likes of Miles “The Mouse” Melius, Fuzzy Fassbender and
Billy Johnson.
When
Bonnie died, it was at about the same time Alan Kulwicki broke in with
NASCAR after a successful run on short tracks in Wisconsin, including
Slinger Super Speedway.
“Kulwicki and my dad were very close,” Nathan said.
“Him and Alan went to NASCAR country. Dad drove him and dad waited in
the car while Alan did his presentation to see if NASCAR was a right
fit.”
Kulwicki was NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year in 1986 and later won the then-NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship in 1992 before dying in a plane crash in 1993.
“He reached out to my dad and said, ‘I want you to be my business
manager,’” Nathan said. “My dad said, ‘No.’ “I was in high school at
that point. The other boys, Dan was in college and Joel was off starting
his life. Dad had to take care of me.”
A few years later, a deserted piece of property on Highway 33 west of
Beaver Dam changed the whole family’s life and redefined Jimmy’s
legacy.
Racing stopped at Beaver Dam in the early 1980s and the track was demolished.
“The place basically completely got demolished where you couldn’t tell there was a race track there,” Nathan said.
But, and this was key, the property still had the permit to have a
race track built on it. Gary Schlafer bought the land and had a dream to
resurrect racing at Beaver Dam.
“He was the guy with the dream and he bought the race track,” Nathan
said of Schlafer. “But didn’t have the money to do anything.”
Schlafer’s construction project didn’t last long. Concrete blocks were
stacked and scattered throughout the property. Buildings, such as the
concession stand and restrooms, were started, but never completed.
A few years later, that’s when Jimmy took over.
At the encouragement of his sons and Kulwicki,
Jimmy decided to finish Beaver Dam Raceway, purchasing the track in
1992. It opened for business in the following spring in 1993.
“We saw the opportunity in the place,” Nathan said. “Not that he was
blind to it, because he had interest too, but it was encouragement from
us.”
Also at that time, openwheel dirt racing was booming, with the help of the World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series.
“We were at the age where racing was the greatest thing,” Nathan
said, who was 18 at the time. “Dan is five years older than me and he
was running midgets at Sun Prairie. He was Rookie of the Year in 1992.
Joel was running modifieds at Plymouth. I was racing go-karts at
Dousman. We were all pretty tied to racing.”
The WOO was the hot ticket no matter what track the series went to.
“They’d have 90 sprint cars show up for a World of Outlaws show,” Nathan said.
“Open-wheel racing was really coming into its time at that time, big
crowds, stands were packed and good car counts,” Dan said.
Jimmy eventually recognized the opportunity.
“Kulwicki was influential in that as well, saying, ‘Go ahead and do
it. It’ll be good for you.’” In a matter of months, the family
transformed the track from a farm field into a one-third mile oval that
was later dubbed the “Taj Mahal of dirt tracks.”
“Ted Johnson, who is the founder of the World of Outlaw Sprint Car
Series, he would go around the country because it was his job and he
traveled to all these race tracks,” Nathan said. “What he would say to
other track owners and promoters is, ‘We need to get these race tracks
like Beaver Dam Raceway.’” What a compliment.
In 1996, the series made its debut at Beaver Dam in
front of a more-than-capacity crowd. The race was won by Dave Blaney.
His son Ryan Blaney is a rookie with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this
season.
NASCAR champion Tony Stewart has also raced and won at Beaver Dam.
So what made Beaver Dam Raceway?
“The appearance and the experience,” Nathan said. “The VIP center, the
VIP tables, the cleanliness of the facility, the grass seating and not
a lot of obstructions.”
“It was touted as a stateof- the-art track,” Dan said.
It also offered something new, never before seen at a dirt track: banked turns.
Hales Corners Speedway, for example, like most others in the state at that time, were flat ovals.
The sprint cars, which these days have horsepower similar to those of stock cars on the NASCAR circuit, struggled to showcase their speed.
That was not a problem at Beaver Dam. The cars used the banking to
push down on the gas, nearly taking corners at full throttle and then
shoot down the long backstraights.
The track surface, using the best clay money could buy, also helped.
The Gishes used trucks to bring in clay from the shoreline of Lake
Michigan near Port Washington. It wasn’t cheap to do that.
Beaver Dam is also a wide track. As many as three or four wide can fit
through a turn, adding another element of excitement for the drivers
and the fans.
“The
intention was to build a first-class facility that would attract the
fans and the drivers,” Dan said. “At that time, that was a first-class
facility. Back then, you’d go to dirt tracks where clean bathrooms was a
huge thing, make it a more family atmosphere.”
The racing at Beaver Dam was and remains some of the best around.
“It’s a very racey track,” Dan said. “(Beaver Dam) always puts on a good show. That’s what it’s all about.”
It’s a challenging track, too, and that’s something drivers like, in addition to speed.
“In a legend car, it’s a real momentum track,” said Slinger’s Joe
Johnson, who won a legend track championship at Beaver Dam in 2013.
“You’ve got to have your whole lap figured out and be consistent in
order to be competitive.”
Jimmy worked at, owned and built up salvages yards, a car wash and a race track.
“He worked hard and treated people really good,” Nathan said. “He was honest. He was a genuine.” Reach sports editor Nicholas Dettmann at ndettmann@conleynet.com.
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