When Ethan Toedter started racing six years ago, he began in the competitive crate late model class. Last weekend he finally earned his first feature win. It came at Florence Speedway in Kentucky.
“I threw myself to the wolves and decided I could teach myself everything,” Toedter, of Florence, Kentucky, said of starting in crate late models. “It was a family decision. They were all behind me beginning in the crate late model division.”
Since he first stepped into a crate late model, Toedter has had the support of his mother, Heather Wilkymacky; stepfather, Eric Wilkymacky; father, Bill Toedter; and stepmother Courtney Toedter. In recent years, his fiancée, Brittany Lanigan, the daughter of late model legend Darrell Lanigan, has supported Ethan as well.
“I am so fortunate that I have two parents who get along, and their spouses get along — how rare is that?” said Toedter. “They’ve always been there for me.”
A few years ago, Toedter jumped into the super late models for some races. He felt that experience benefitted him for when racing crate late models.
“It was tough up there in the super division,” Toedter said. “I raced against some really good competition, which helped me to be a better driver overall. You can’t bring the super setup stuff back down to the crate division, but the big guys can sure teach you a bunch by just being on the track with them.”
Back to last Saturday at Florence Speedway, Ethan Toedter made his first win even more memorable by the way he achieved it.
“Two laps to go, I lost the lead,” Toedter said. “Something in my head made me shove the nose into the corners. Dustin Nobbe ran the top and got some momentum.”
With a win so close, Toedter didn’t give up.
“Dustin was two car lengths ahead, so I threw a Hail Mary slider, cleared him, and beat him out of [turn] three,” said Toedter. “It was wreckers or checkers, I wasn’t lifting.
“The race was so close, everyone was so pumped.”
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.
