CRANDON, Wisconsin (October 27, 2022) — Taking significant steps toward the future by making a substantial investment in its past, Crandon International Raceway has announced a new Crandon Historical Initiative that includes an official partnership with the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF). Designed to pay tribute to the short-course style of the sport made famous by Crandon’s annual Polaris World Championship Off-Road Races® and Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run events, the innovative program represents a long-term investment in bringing history alive.
Crandon’s Historical Initiative is a multi-year program created to provide the sport of off-road short course racing a long overdue home. A joint project between the track ownership of Cliff Flannery and his family, the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, and Crandon Promoter Marty Fiolka, the program features three distinctive elements.
The new project was first presented during Labor Day weekend’s Crandon Gold Ticket VIP reception, an annual event that kicks off the annual Polaris Crandon World Championship and Red Bull Crandon World Cup weekend.
A major component of the concept is the newly completed partnership with the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame (ORMHOF), allowing the race track to build the very first official annex of the prestigious organization. In the coming years, Crandon International Raceway will convert its iconic Lucas Oil Barn into an interactive Crandon Museum focusing on the colorful history of short course off-road racing and its legendary home – Crandon International Raceway. Once completed, the facility will serve as a tourist attraction open to the public during the summer months and race weekends.
The new museum at Crandon International Raceway will see a revitalization of the upstairs area of the Lucas Oil Barn, a structure that once served the original dairy farm that the original Crandon International Off-Road Racing Association purchased in 1984. While not finalized, current plans call for the museum space to house vintage short course racing vehicles, driver and event memorabilia, interactive displays and videos, a Crandon Wall of Fame to honor local volunteers and Midwest Sportsman drivers, as well as a new Crandon “Walk of Fame” for race winners talking the victorious stroll from the track to the podium area. The remodeled building is also expected to house a new Crandon Media Center.
The announcement ceremony at September’s event included a special donation by members of Crandon’s original board of directors to ORMHOF in the amount of $30,000 to obtain the rights to build the annex. In addition, Crandon Motorsports LLC, the track’s current ownership group, donated an additional $11,000 to ORMHOF raised earlier in the day via the second annual Lucas Oil Legends UTV Poker Run. Along with ORMHOF Executive Administrator Barbara Rainey, a group of eight Hall of Fame Inductees was also recognized including Cliff Flannery, Marty Fiolka, Frank DeAngelo, Bill Savage, Curt LeDuc, Scott Taylor, Shannon Campbell and Brad Lovell.
The second component to the program is the Crandon-led initiative of creating a new vintage historic short course racing association. Modeled after the highly successful and popular vintage sports car racing found in such organizations as HSR (Historic Sportscar Racing) and historic desert off-road racing led by the rebirth of NORRA (National Off-Road Racing Association), the yet-to-named organization will focus on telling the colorful history of short-course off-road racing through restoration, display, and on-track competition.
The first date for the new vintage short course group will take place on the weekend of June 24 -26, 2023 in association with the annual Forest County Potawatomi Crandon Brush Run event. Appropriately, the historic off-road motorsports reunion will take place on the 30th anniversary of Crandon’s long and special relationship with the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
An important component of the new vintage racing association will be the inclusion of all types of short-course off-road machinery. From the earliest homebuilt pipe buggies that won the first Crandon Brush Run 101 in 1970 to the vast array of vehicles that ran in such places as Riverside and the iconic Mickey Thompson stadium series, all qualifying cars will be welcome. The overriding factors in the new organization will be on having fun, sharing the history, and breathing life back into old and often forgotten pieces of off-road racing’s past.
More information on the June, 2023 event and the new vintage short course racing association will be released in the coming months.
A third and final element of Crandon’s Historical Initiative is the eventual and tandem creation of a new Crandon cinematic documentary and coffee table history book. For six years Crandon and track promoter Marty Fiolka has been documenting the Crandon experience via the cinematic filmmaking of veteran automotive and motorsports videographer Bryant Lambert and crew. An associate producer of the 2005 motorsports film classic Dust to Glory, Fiolka is also a published author who was responsible for his 1000 Miles to Glory book on the history of the Baja 1000, as well as the history of McMillin Racing entitled The Big Blue M.
“Every other form of racing takes a lot of pride in sharing the history and making legacy an important part of their overall story,” explained Crandon President Cliff Flannery. “While Crandon and our events are marching toward a bigger and brighter future, Crandon is also proud of our place in off-road racing history. We have been planning this program with ORMHOF for a least three years, and are excited to finally share the news with our fans, racers, and the entire off-road industry. History is coming alive at The Big House.”
ORMHOF inductees Cliff Flannery and Marty Fiolka, along with Crandon Office Manager Tina Kulaf and former Crandon board member Richie Kulaf, will join hundreds of other attendees this Sunday night at the South Point Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to celebrate the annual Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame Induction & Awards Gala. For more information on ORMHOF please visit www.ormhof.org.