RONK & STUEBGEN NAMED NEW PROMOTERS AT TERRE HAUTE

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Terre Haute, Indiana (January 31, 2022)………Scott Ronk and Bernie Stuebgen will serve as the co-promoters of Indiana’s lone half-mile dirt track, the Terre Haute Action Track, starting with the 2022 racing season.

Ronk and Stuebgen have both been event promoters, car owners and business owners over the past several years.  Kokomo, Indiana’s Ronk owns Chalk Stix and Schroeder Torsion Bars while Stuebgen owns Indy Race Parts, all names familiar in dirt track racing circles.

But it was the chance to promote one of the most famed dirt tracks in the world, an opportunity that was impossible to pass up.

“John Fitzpatrick from the Wabash Valley Fair Association reached out to me and told me they were wanting to go in a different direction, and he asked if we would be interested,” Stuebgen recalled.  “I reached out to Scott, and he said, ‘hell yeah, we’re doing it.’”

Among the improvements slated to be implemented in time for the start of this season is a tiered guardrail set up on each end of the famed racetrack, similar to the outer retaining guardrail currently seen at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and Minnesota’s Jackson Motorplex.

“There are a lot of projects that have to be done in a short amount of time,” Stuebgen admitted.  “But the guardrail is obviously a very big deal; the number one priority is to get rid of the concrete blocks on each end of the racetrack and put tiered guardrail in at each end of the racetrack.”

Also on tap are restroom and concession stand updates.  In fact, 2015 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Champion Robert Ballou, a two-time Terre Haute USAC Sprint winner who works for Ronk during the week, recently attended an auction to help purchase kitchen equipment needed for the concession stand upgrades.

Kokomo Speedway’s Reece O’Connor has been tabbed as the right hand man by Ronk and Stuebgen to prepare the track surface at the Terre Haute Action Track, a role he had previously undertaken during the early part of the 2010s.  Track equipment such as water trucks, graders and tractors have already been purchased for track preparations.

The Terre Haute Action Track is an iconic figure in the dirt track racing world, hosting a combined 248 USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car and National Midget events since the year of USAC’s inception in 1956.  Among his long-term ideals, Stuebgen lists the resurrection of the Hut 100 as one of his ambitions in the years to come.

Stuebgen sees the Terre Haute Action Track as an icon in the present and the future.  Despite growing up in Pennsylvania, he was keenly aware of the place from an early age via television, and his first in-person visit evoked even stronger emotions.  The Terre Haute Action Track is truly special.

“I think it’s really neat,” Stuebgen stated.  “I had heard of Terre Haute as a kid, and I remember ABC Wide World of Sports showing sprint car races there on TV way back in the day and the track was always a part of their commercials.  I moved to Indiana in 1996 and I got to go there for the first time for a USAC Sprint show, and as I watched the cars go down the back straightaway, I knew this place was cool.  This place is what everybody said it was.”

Four USAC national events are on the docket for the 2022 season at the Terre Haute Action Track.  THAT kicks off the USAC Silver Crown season on Sunday night, May 1 with the 19th running of the Sumar Classic.  Terre Haute is also one of eight tracks on the Indiana Sprint Week slate in 2022, hosting its round on Wednesday night, July 27.

The 52nd annual Tony Hulman Classic is the longest-tenured race on the series’ schedule, dating back to 1971.  The event has moved to the weekend for the upcoming season and has now doubled in size, going from one night to two on Friday and Saturday night, May 20-21, where it will now occupy two boxes on the calendar, with the second of two nights now paying $10,000-to-win at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track.