Crapser works overtime to guarantee Street Stock championship

By Ed Reichert
All The Dirt! Racing News

EAU CLAIRE, WI - Cory Crapser entered the 2007 racing season consumed by one overriding thought: win the WISSOTA Street Stock national title.

With a determination bordering on obsession, Crapser attacked WISSOTA race tracks from west to east in the relentless pursuit of feature wins and the accompanying points that would be added to his ledger. When he finally came up for air in October, he discovered his goal had been accomplished - he was the 2007 national champion.

The conclusion of the 2006 racing season left a very bitter taste in Crapser’s mouth and the only breath mint that would clear the air satisfactorily would be to stand at the head of the Street Stock class in 2007. Despite 20 feature wins in 2006, he found himself two points short of a national title when the final event of the year was time shortened, which prevented him from making a pass for one more position that would have given him the national title.

With that burr under his saddle all winter, he started the 2007 season with plenty of motivation and promptly took out on his competition. He started fast with an early season win at Tri-Oval Speedway in Fountain City, WI, and continued to build on that success. The feature wins continued to come and the point totals continued to grow.

Not backing off on either the number of races he entered or the travel involved to get there, he continued to put the pressure on the competition. He put an exclamation point on the season when, for the second straight year, he won the Street Stock Little Dream Race at Rice Lake (WI) Speedway, which put his competitors on their heels for the rest of the season.
Not only was the Little Dream the highest paying show he won all year, he called it a very satisfying win based on the fact that Rice Lake is “a very hard track to win at.”

But that win didn’t end his season. He continued to hit the road during a tour that saw him visit 20 different race tracks in WISSOTA. By the time he finished up the victory parade with a win at Deer Creek (MN) Speedway, he had recorded some remarkable statistics.

Having entered a mind-boggling 89 shows, Crapser concluded the season with a spectacular 45 feature wins and 30 clean sweeps, numbers which should elevate him to among the best in the entire country. His two-year total of 65 feature wins and a three-year total of 249 nights of racing are remarkable as well. All this was accomplished by a team that often included just his brother Chris and their modest transporter - his pickup truck - that carted them around the vast WISSOTA racing region.

How does one manage to get to so many races and still remain an employed individual? The answer to that would lie with Crapser’s boss.

Dean Haase of Vincent Tool in Lake Hallie, WI, hired Crapser full-time when he completed his training at the Chippewa Valley Technical College. Vincent works a flexible schedule and Haase is a race fan who also helped sponsor the car. Therefore, with some creative work scheduling, Crapser managed to get his hours in and also race, a fact that he wanted to thank Haase for. Some others along the way that Crapser said deserved some special recognition were Viltz Racing, Jimmy Gullikson and the Rauschendorfer family.

The roots of Crapser’s involvement in racing go back a couple of generations. Cory’s grandfather, LaVerne, is a devoted race fan who attends races regularly at both Rice Lake and Red Cedar Speedway. His love of the sport was transferred to a couple of his sons, Bill and Jim. Both eventually became car owners; Bill ran Modifieds with Jeff Koller behind the wheel and Jim raced both Late Models and most recently Modifieds with his son Brian. Another cousin, Jess Johnson, had a successful but short career behind the wheel.

Cory started out racing on the ice in the winter when the family built a number of cars to race on a pond near Modena. After that he got into go-karts and has now completed his sixth year behind the wheel of a race car.

Remarkably, prior to 2007, Crapser had never won a track championship. He rectified that situation with titles at KRA Speedway in Willmar, MN, and Eagle Valley Speedway in Jim Falls, WI. Those were his two regular weekly stops as he hop-scotched across the country on other nights.

In addition, Crapser also raced at Tri Oval Speedway, Rice Lake Speedway, Red Cedar Speedway, Deer Creek Speedway, Golden Spike Speedway, Langlade County Speedway, Riverside Raceway, Kopellah Speedway, Viking Speedway, Sheyenne River Speedway, Madison Speedway, ABC Raceway, Princeton Speedway, North Central Speedway, Fiesta City Speedway, Jamestown Speedway, Brown County Speedway and Chateau Raceway. He claimed wins at 16 of the 20 tracks.

Barron County, WI businesses played a large role in Crapser’s success in 2007; he started the season armed with two complete cars built by Rick Kurshinsky of Cameron and powered by engines from Troy Newman of Troy’s Shop in Rice Lake.

Along with his brother Chris, who put aside his own racing career to help Cory, Crapser received assistance from his father Bill along with Ben, Dave, Brent, Bill, Jess, Kevin and Darkhead.

Crapser had the strong support of a number of fine businesses in his racing efforts including: Buzz Signs and Graphix, Troy’s Shop, Dave Running Construction, Vincent Tool, GRP Motorsports, FYE Motorsports Promotions, Northern Painting, Coldwell Banker-Bob Seckora, Baxter’s Speed Shop, Motion Motorsports, CarQuest, Special-T Graphics, Eau Claire Roofing, Fazoli’s, Fantastic Sam’s, Sweeney’s Pub, KK Fabrication, Pawn Doctors, Chippewa Towing, ESS Shocks and Girolamo’s Court-N-House.

While it appears Crapser has been racing forever, in reality at the age of 21 his racing career likely still has many more twists and turns ahead. At the end of the 2006 racing season he vowed that in two years he would make a major change in his racing program. He has followed up on that pledge by announcing that he has ordered a 2008 J-Car by Mitch Johnson that he should receive in January and that Troy’s Shop will be supplying spec engines for him as he moves into the WISSOTA Modified class for 2008. His goal is to “have fun and see if it looks good and run for rookie of the year.”

For updates on the Crapser racing team, log-on to his website at www.crapserracing.com or e-mail him at cory@crapserracing.com.