Bruce Bonnesen returned to the seat of a race car this season. The five-time track champion at Buena Vista Raceway in Alta, Iowa, walked away from full-time competition in 2006.
“After an expensive season, where I went through five engines in my modified, I looked at the numbers and told myself it was time to quit doing this,” said Bonnesen, 54, of Aurelia, Iowa. “Racing became a second job and I wasn’t enjoying it.”
Bonnesen earned three track titles in the stock cars — 1991, ’95, and ’96 — and two in modifieds — 2003 and ’05. He sporadically picked up rides since 2006, last racing in 2018. For the past two seasons, Bonnesen has helped his son Kurtis with a hobby stock.
“[After] being at the track [with my son], I decided to get back into racing with a full effort this year,” Bonnesen said. “I felt I enjoyed racing and did my best when I drove a stock car back in the beginning of my racing career.”
He enlisted the help of Black Widow Racing’s Joe Ciechanowski to build a brand-new car with a Rage Chassis. Then Bonnesen purchased a 360-cid Chevrolet power plant from engine builder Stan Kramer. Kramer, 74, knew why Bonnesen was there when he walked through the door.
“Stan’s eyes lit up,” said Bonnesen. “He said, ‘I know why you are here, and I’m in.’”
So far, Bruce Bonnesen had won three heat races, but a feature remains elusive.
“The stock cars are 100% different from what they were when I left,” Bonnesen said. “They are now set up and sprung similarly to what a sport mod was back in ’06.
“I’ve had to change my driving style completely. You used to drive a stock car into the corner hard. Now, you roll the car into the corner and drive off from the center of the corner.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
