Promoter Andy Bartelt understands what it takes to make Tomahawk Speedway in Wisconsin successful. He needs cars, a perfect race surface, a great show, and, most importantly, incredible food at the concessions.
Fantastic food requires effort. The night before an event, you can find Andy rubbing his meat. He uses a special recipe of brown sugar, onion powder, garlic granules, and black pepper to create the track’s famous pulled pork.
“I start promptly before 6 p.m. on race nights, with 24 to 28 pork shoulders,” Bartelt said. “First, I wash the juices off the pork shoulders, and then I rub them up. After that, I put them in a smoker. At the strike of midnight, I take them out and put them in the oven until exactly 8 a.m.”
At that time, he begins making other track favorites. The macaroni and cheese uses seven different local Wisconsin cheeses. The Death by Chocolate dessert incorporates pudding, brownies, chocolate syrup, and chocolate chips. If pulled pork isn’t your thing, Tomahawk Speedway offers other options.
“There’s our famous fish fry, made with lots of love and time on a special hot plate we developed to keep the fish flat in the fryer,” said Bartelt. “By the way, all our servings are huge — over the top — and our pricing keeps it affordable.”
Racers love the pulled pork so much that the track runs a shuttle bus from the pits to the concession stand and back. The food even draws people who are not familiar with racing.
“Locals began showing up at the gate, saying, ‘I heard the food’s good here,’” said Bartelt. “So, I let them slip in with no admission. Some of them stay to watch the show. I see that as a win-win situation. Most of them come back and pay to watch the show and eat the next week.”
There’s another element to Bartelt’s promotion at Tomahawk Speedway that revolves around pigs.
“We have five pot-bellied pigs roaming the grounds, thanks to an animal rescue run by local pot-bellied pig lover Jamie Pastika,” Bartelt said. “They’ll tip over the garbage cans if you don’t feed them French fries. I’m on the mic every week telling the fans, ‘If you don’t think the pork is fresh, you haven’t met Ralph!”
By the way, Tomahawk Speedway uses none of the pot-bellied pigs wandering its grounds in its pulled pork. Ralph (pictured above), one of the pigs at the track, gets his reputation for being fresh by poking his snout in everybody’s business. Regardless, fans eat it up — figuratively, in the case of Ralph, and literally, in the case of the track’s famous pulled pork.
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.
