SLINGER, Wis. — Wrapping up his final season driving stock cars, Rich Bickle Jr. enjoyed a spectacular Labor Day weekend.
The 60-year-old racer won Friday’s Jim Sauter Classic for the ARCA Midwest Tour and then won his final late model feature at Slinger Speedway on Sunday night.
Bickle earned $15,555 for winning the Sauter Classic at Dells Raceway Park.
“My whole life isn’t about money, it’s about racing,” Bickle said Friday night. “That’s what people don’t understand. Like I said, if I win the lottery I will keep going. But it’s been a magical year. It’s just kind of ironic to win the Joe Shear Classic and now the Jim Sauter Classic. Just think I am the only guy in the field to have raced with those guys. It makes you realize how old you are sometimes, but to win it, it is very special.”
In a sense, his career came full circle Sunday at Slinger. He entered the season finale in the midst of the battle for the track championship with 17-year-old Luke Fenhaus.
The pair battled for the lead throughout the 100-lap event on the legendary quarter-mile track and when the yellow flag waved with four laps remaining, it set up a shootout to the checkered flag.
Bickle held off Fenhaus for the victory, while the teenager wrapped up the track championship in his rookie season.
“In 1983, I outran Joe Shear for the title here and I was 23, which back then was young,” Bickle said, alluding to finishing second to the 17-year-old Fenhaus in the track championship, “It’s kind of like the world has turned and now I’m the Joe Shear and he’s the young me. He’s a really good racer who ran me clean and we’ve done it all year long.
“He’s got a bright future and I’m not sure what I’ve got left, but of the 226 race tracks I’ve raced at, Slinger is one of my top-five favorites,” Bickle added. “The fans have always been incredible here and you just couldn’t write the storybook any better.”
“That couldn’t have ended any better,” Fenhaus stated. “It’s tough not to win the race tonight but what a great year we had. Our team and our family is the best in the business and I don’t take it for granted.”