Woodville’s Roepke inducted

The Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame, located in the Sandusky County Fairgrounds, inducted 10 individuals Saturday, June 25, including Woodville’s Dan Roepke.

The following are now enshrined in the hall of fame, including drivers Roepke, Dale Blaney and Bryan Scott —

Dan Roepke, Woodville. Roepke is a member of a rich family tradition at Fremont Speedway, as he joins his uncle Jim “Smiley” Roepke and aunt Christina Roepke in the Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame.

Dan’s cousins still work at the track. Roepke’s grandfather, Harold Van Ness and uncles Jim and Norm Van Ness were all inducted into the hall of fame in 2014 having fielded race cars at the track for many, many years. Roepke’s brother, Alvin, still races at Fremont to this day and Dan is always there to help. 

Dan also fielded dirt trucks for his son, Daniel, who won 12 features at Fremont. Dan’s other son Chuck also fielded a dirt truck that won a championship and numerous feature wins. Dan raced street stocks at Fremont in 1984 and 1985, picking up the track championship in 1985. He ran in the six cylinder division in 1986. 

When the dirt truck division was created at Fremont in 2000, Dan was one of the first four trucks to compete, winning on opening night and going on to win the track championship that season.  Dan compiled 22 feature wins at Fremont during his career.

Dale Blaney, Hartford, Ohio. Blaney was the “All Star King” at Fremont Speedway during his illustrious career. “The Low Rider” has recorded 24 career feature wins at Fremont, 18 of those being with the All Star Circuit of Champions to lead all competitors in series wins at the track. 

Blaney, a 2016 inductee into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, is a six time All Star champion; a six time All Star Ohio Speedweek champion; the 2000 winner of the King’s Royal; the 1998 winner of the Historical Big One; has 137 career All Star feature wins to lead all competitors; is a two time winner of the Brad Doty Classic; and is a three time winner of Fremont Speedway’s Jim and Joanne Ford Classic. 

Dale will join his brother Dave who was inducted into the Fremont Speedway Hall of Fame in 2016.

Bryan Scott, Clyde. Scott started racing in 1993 after serving in the United States Air Force. He saved as much money as he could while serving his country and bought out the entire operation of Butch Schroeder for $10,500 and went racing. 

Scott owned his own team through 2002 and then picked up a few rides with other owners during the 2003 season. Scott served as the Fremont Speedway tech inspector in 2004 and in 2006 raced a 410 sprint car for hall of famer Rich Farmer. 

Scott picked up a few rides in the 305 division racing at Fremont, Attica and Sandusky in 2007 after which he retired from racing. Scott amassed 21 career feature wins at Fremont and was the track’s 2000, 2001 and 2002 track champion in the 305 sprint division.

Car owners

Al Harrison, Columbia Station, Ohio. Harrison, who was born and raised in Bettsville, Ohio, started helpimg his cousin, hall of famer Darl Harrison in the early 1950s on his super modified team. Al and Darl bought a dirt champ car in 1971-72 and ran with the United States Automobile Club (USAC) for nearly five years. The car was sold and Al was out of racing until 1986 when he bought an engine for David Harrison’s pavement car.  

The following year Al bought a sprint car and started racing at various tracks with David driving the car. Al then bought a second car and put driver Rusty McClure behind the wheel. David won the championship at Buckeye Speedway (Wayne County Speedway) in 1993 and McClure was second.

David Harrison ran for Al for approximately 10 years. Al wanted to run more All Star Circuit of Champion events and some World of Outlaw races and when David expressed his desire not to travel that much, Harrison named Rodney Duncan as his driver. 

Duncan drove Harrison’s car for nearly six years and when he too wanted to slow down on the travel, Jason Johnson was named the driver of Harrison’s car. During his tenure as a car owner following the All Stars, Harrison finished third in points with Duncan behind the wheel in 1999 and second in 2000. Johnson finished second with the All Stars in 2003. 

Chuck Steinbrick, Marblehead. Steinbrick began his racing life in the 1950s. Steinbrick fielded cars in the 305 sprint division with drivers including Bruce Roby, Lenny Benyak, Spike Schneider, Willy Steinbrick and Jerry Narbecki. 

Steinbrick would win the 1989 championship at Attica Raceway Park with Schneider behind the wheel. Steinbrick, along with his sons, Willie and Adam, fielded 410 sprint cars for drivers like Randy Hammer, Andy Shammo, Chad Kemenah, Al Hager, Mike Lutz and hall of famers Tim Shaffer, Jim Linder and Mark Keegan. 

Kemenah would drive Steinbrick’s sprint car to the track championships at Buckeye Speedway (Wayne County Speedway) in 1995 and 1996 (14 wins on the season).  Keegan would pilot Steinbrick’s cars to 22 wins, taking the 1999 and 2001 Attica championship and the 1999 K-C Raceway (Atomic Speedway) title.  

During Steinbrick’s incredible career his team scored notable wins as the Lorain County Speedway mid-season champion in 1955 with Norm Sawl as the driver; the 2000 Mercer Raceway All Star Circuit of Champions Western Pennsylvania Speed-week event; and the 2001 All Stars Ohio Speedweek event at Fremont Speedway.