By Jeff Pederson
Pedal Down Promotions
(PEDAL DOWN PROMOTIONS) August 20, 2021 – After completing five years of learning, fine tuning and overcoming adversity in a quest to be smooth and consistently fast on the race track, the 2021 season has brought the type of success Plymouth Dirt Track Racing B Mod competitor Spencer Long of Sheboygan Falls had been seeking during the initial stages of his burgeoning racing career.
The Sheboygan Falls High School graduate currently stands a career-high fourth in the PDTR B Mod points race just eight points behind his brother, Shane, for third place and 72 points behind point leader Justin Bauer with just two points races remaining in the 2021 campaign.
In a season filled with several strong performances, the clear highlight for Long’s Lone Wolf Motorsports team came on July 17 when substitute driver Justin Green of Sheboygan Falls steered the team’s 59s car to victory in the 25-lap PDTR B Mod A main.
Through 11 PDTR B Mod points races during the 2021 campaign, Long and his Lone Wolf Motorsports team have racked up six top-five and seven top-10 A-main showings.
“We have won multiple heat races and B-mains over the years,” Long said. “We are currently eight points behind my brother in third place putting us fourth in points at PDTR, which we have never done before. The team won its first feature this year with a fill-in driver, Justin Green, of Justin Green Racing.”
Long, who holds a business degree in supply chain management from UW-Oshkosh, first got the racing itch at a young age.
“When I was growing up, my father always used to take my brother and I to the race track every Saturday,” Long said. “I never thought at that young age that I would ever be racing at the same track we would watch at. I went to college and my brother with a couple friends started racing and I became somewhat a part of it.”
After longing for his own chance to slide behind the wheel, Long’s opportunity finally came along through a partnership with a likeminded close friend with a similar racing ambition.
“It did not happen until one day a good friend of mine and I were talking, and he stated that he wanted to become part of a race team, but had no interest in driving the car,” Long said. “I, on the other hand, was totally interested in driving the car, so we teamed up. He wanted to learn more about cars, maintenance and setup and it was a good way to get to learn all of that. So, we went out and bought our first car which was a BMS chassis.
“I started racing in 2016 at The Plymouth Dirt Track,” he said. “I have been a part of Grand National racing, but I started racing in the IMCA Sport Mods [B Mods] and continue to race in that division.”
Long, who is employed as a production manager at Baileigh Industrial in Two Rivers, has been happy with his team’s progress this year, but admits that one major goal remains firmly at the front of his mind.
“Coming in into the 2021 season, we did not know what to expect or where we were going to be racing,” Long said. “We started the season up at 141 Speedway and then came down to The Plymouth Dirt Track on opening night. The team did an excellent job in the start of the season with a couple unfortunate events in the middle of the season, which made us work for the positions we have finished in.
“Since then, we have for the most part been a top-five car every night of racing,” he said. “We also ran the Captain at the Creek at 141 Speedway, which put our teams’ abilities to the test. My goal this year was to win a feature. I personally have not done that, but the team has won a feature this year, which is exciting.”
Long is proud of how the Lone Wolf Motorsports team has evolved over the past six years into one of the front runners in the PDTR B Mod division, while cherishing the many strong relationships he has built through the sport of dirt track racing.
“I enjoy being able to spend my time racing alongside my brother and a couple other close friends of mine on a weekly basis,” Long said. “I started my racing career working out of a storage unit with no electricity where now there are a couple of us that share a shop and help each other out. It is also nice to have my family’s support and my girlfriend’s support with racing as well.
“We will continue to run the IMCA Sport Mod [B Mod] to get better as a team and as a driver,” he said. “We want to be a competitive team where we can win features before we move up to any other class.”
Crew members for Long’s Lone Wolf Motorsports team are Tyler Collins, Brittni Knepprath, Amber Sixel, Jacob Long, Shane Long, Justin Green and Nathan Woelfel.
The Lone Wolf Motorsports sponsors include Chris and Sue’s, Pit Stop Pizza Diverse Tooling Inc, Cal-les Trucking, Hardee’s, The Osthelder Saloon, Fresh Prints Design and Nathan Woelfel Outdoors.
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Plymouth Dirt Track Racing will return to action this Saturday, Aug. 21 at The Plymouth Dirt Track at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds in Plymouth, Wis. for Autograph Night and Kids Night, featuring competition in the 360 Sprint Car, Late Model, Grand National and B Mod divisions.
It will also be the final regular points night of the 2021 season for the PDTR Late Model division with Justin Schmidt of Cleveland looking to wrap up his fourth consecutive track title. Schmidt heads into action on Aug. 21 with a 26-point lead over Turk Letizia of Milwaukee and a 46-point cushion over Charlie Schmidt of Cedar Grove.
Free backpacks and checkered flags will be distributed to the first 200 kids through the gate courtesy of Hopf Farms with a candy-coin drop and glow stick giveaway also planned.
Grandstand gates open at 4:30 p.m. with hot laps at 5:30 p.m. and racing at 6 p.m.
The Plymouth Dirt Track at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds is located at 229 Fairview Drive in Plymouth, Wis. For more information, visit www.plymouthdtr.com or check out Plymouth Dirt Track Racing on Facebook.
Pedal Down Promotions is a full-service public relations and media services company devoted to helping clients effectively communicate with targeted audiences through a diverse array of promotional strategies and methods, including press releases, newsletters, profile and feature articles, website and social media content development, printed media, editing and layout, graphic design and book publishing services.
For more information on Pedal Down Promotions, email pedaldownpromotions@gmail.com, visit www.pedaldownpromotions.com or call 920-323-7970.
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