Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: May 9, 2015
Slinger's golden driver
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — One simple phrase can sum up Jerry Eckhardt in a
nutshell: “I don’t know how the hell he does it.”
That was said by Slinger Superspeedway super late model
driver Brad Keith of Slinger when asked how impressive it is for Eckhardt to be
in his 50th year of short-track racing.
Even Eckhardt is impressed with the achievement.
“It’s just something I’ve always loved to do,” he said with
a grin. “I always had a lot fun at it and met good people.”
Eckhardt is impressive in many ways, leaving many scratching
their heads wondering how the heck he does it when you take a look at a guy who
is often seen with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, a cowboy hat that looks
older than some drivers in the pit area and a pair of cowboy boots that have
its share of miles on the soles.
“That’s what’s so neat about Jerry,” said Todd Thelen,
co-promoter at Slinger. Eckhardt is 72 years old and will be 73 in November.
From here, it’s hard to think which is more impressive: that he races three
nights per week, consecutively, on three tracks, or that he uses all of his
equipment and rebuilds broken parts tossed away by other drivers instead of
buying new ones.
“That’s something I think most of us would dream about,”
said Al Stippich, a fellow late model driver at Slinger. “That’s a long time to
be doing this. Most people are hanging it up now after 20 years. That’s unheard
of, 50 years.”
“For the modern-day racer, it’s almost unheard of,” Thelen
said. “For Jerry’s era, it’s not a big deal. It’s nothing new.”
“We’re very fortunate to have Jerry Eckhardt,” he added.
Eckhardt’s dedication to shorttrack racing is as solid as
gold.
Later this season, Slinger plans to honor Eckhardt’s 50th
season. No date has been set.
“He is a racer’s racer,” Thelen said. “He’s what everybody
used to be like. That’s how people raced. They raced because they loved it.”
When asked what Eckhardt means to short-track racing, Thelen
replied, “Old school dedication.”
He’s also raced against generations of families.
“It’s respectful to honor those who helped you get you where
you’re at,” he added. “Jerry was there in 1974 when Rollie Heder put asphalt on
(at Slinger). Jerry’s been here every single year. It’s special. It’s a golden
anniversary. It’s a milestone. It’s unheard of.”
It’s also because Jerry’s one neat guy.
“He’s so easygoing,” Keith said. “At the end of the night,
you can go down and have a beer with him.”
Eckhardt’s tight-fisted when it comes to finances. He spent
about $5,000 on tires last season. Then tack on pit passes for three people and
gasoline, that adds a couple more thousand.
By comparison, Steve Apel, the twotime defending super late
model champion at Slinger, budgets about $30,000 per season for racing and he
usually races only at Slinger, with a few stray shows at other tracks.
What may be the secret for Eckhardt’s longevity is his
seemingly natural ability to turn what may be nothing to most drivers, into
something.
His start was in 1965, racing a 1956 Mercury in the hobby
stock division at Jefferson and Columbus. He split the duties with a friend,
Dave Drost. Eckhardt raced the car at Columbus and Drost raced it at Jefferson.
In 1968, Eckhardt went on his own, racing at Jefferson and
Columbus in an asphalt late model. Eckhardt began racing at Slinger in 1974,
when the track was transformed from dirt to asphalt. He also ran at Lake
Geneva, which closed in 2003, and at Madison whenever he could.
“I’ve always wanted to win,” Eckhardt said.
Early in his career, he’d race at Madison on Fridays,
Jefferson on Saturdays and Columbus on Sundays.
He’s collected more than 80 trophies from heat victories,
feature victories and/or track championships. Most of those came in the 1960s,
1970s and 1980s.
By the 1990s, technology and deeper pocket books started to
overtake him. It’s been more than 30 years since his last track championship.
Still, he’s managed to find victory lane for a feature. His most recent victory
was June 1, 2013, at the age of 70 at Jefferson, and driving his
all-too-familiar orange car with white No. 61 etched onto the doors — the Orange
Blossom Special.
He also won two features at Jefferson in 2012.
“I just love doing it,” Eckhardt said.
Somehow, to the amazement of his colleagues, Eckhardt’s
always found a way to get to the race track, whichever one it was, regularly.
“He still runs damn good for what he’s got,” Keith said.
Growing up, Eckhardt dropped out of high school and enrolled
at a vocational school. It was there he discovered his trade and his purpose.
He picked up drafting, sheet metal, welding and machine shop.
“I’ve always built all my stuff,” he said, adding the engine
is the only thing he doesn’t build anymore. But he used to. Otherwise, every
bolt, screw or welded piece of metal on the car was by his hands.
That, he said, is likely attributed to him working in car
dealerships, starting in 1959 in Watertown. But he was laid off after one year
and went to work at a turkey slaughter factory in Johnson Creek and he did that
for another year. In 1961, he got a job working at a Chevy dealer in Lake
Mills.
Eckhardt learned as he went. He didn’t like to read, so he
never read any kind of manual on how to fix what. He did everything through
trial and error.
“I just didn’t make a lot of errors,” Eckhardt said with a
smile and a chuckle.
Early in his career, he won plenty of races with his own
craftsmanship getting the best of the other drivers, the ones with more money
in their billfold than him.
“It was fun to beat all the competitors that spent a lot
more money than I did,” he said with a laugh.
It’s something he takes pride in and it’s one of many
reasons other drivers are in awe of him.
“He’s a legend,” Keith said.
In 1981, Eckhardt went into business on his own after the
Chevy dealer in Lake Mills closed. He started Jerry’s Auto Repair. The business
is still open to this day near the outlet mall in Johnson Creek off Interstate
94 going west from Milwaukee to Madison.
If he couldn’t build his own equipment, Eckhardt said he
probably would’ve stopped racing 10-15 years ago.
So many are glad he’s still around, no matter if he wins or
loses. Todd Behling, the track announcer at Slinger for almost 30 years, calls
Eckhardt the world’s oldest teenager.
“I have 100 percent confidence in what he tells me to change
on the car,” Stippich said. “He’s been around a long time. He knows what he’s
doing.”
Eckhardt is one of the last remaining good ol’ boys of
racing from what the sport used to be like in the middle of the 20th century,
where racing was done five, six or even seven nights a week. It wasn’t a hobby,
it was a lifestyle — a way to make a living, or the only way to make a living.
Thelen said there needs to be more guys like Jerry Eckhardt
walking through the pit area.
“People have got to take notes and see the real roots of
racing were all about,” Stippich said. “It’s not how much money you spend on
it. Obviously that’s an easy way to go fast, but it’s working on them, the
knowledge that can keep you going forward.”
After 50 years, what does Eckhardt get out of it?
“Not a hell of a lot; it costs too much money,” he said with
a big laugh. “That’s probably why I don’t win so much anymore because I can’t
spend the money the kids do.”
There is another possible theory as to why he still races
after 50 years.
“I don’t know, maybe I’m just crazy,” Eckhardt said with a
grin.
