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2017 Hall of Fame Class

Swede Anderson
Has devoted his life to fixing cars and building race cars! He started building go-karts with whatever spare pieces and parts he could get his hands on back when he was just a kid in the 50s. He built his first race car in the mid-1960s and has been building them ever since. Swede has never been interested in driving the cars, just building ‘em!

Swede is from Worthington, Minnesota where he owned and managed Anderson Alignment with his son, Charles. These guys spent many hours in their backyard building, repairing, and fixing racecars when they weren’t at the shop working on someone else’s vehicle. Swede has built many kinds of racecars through the years—Super-modifieds, Fords & Chevys.

Through the years, he has hired many different drivers. One of his first racecars was the “28” super-modified driven by Bill and Ray Smith through the late 60s. In 1972, he built the“58” racecar driven by Jerry Groenwold (“Mahoney”). They raced the 58 car at the Murray Country Speedway, Rock Rapids Speedway, Husets Speedway, and the Worthington Raceway in the 1970s. Swede was always coming up with ways to make the 58 car go faster and Mahoney loved it--the faster the better—he was a young driver that had a lot of guts! He was an aggressive driver that had no fear. They won many races and season championships with the 58 car. Swede really like these years as this is when you had to be clever and innovative; you literally built cars from the ground up, rather than buying them like you do today.

In 1980, Swede changed from the red “58” car to the yellow “00” racecar. Along with the new car came a new driver, Ron Luitjens, from Brewster, Minnesota. By the 1980s, racing was getting more sophisticated and there were more rules—they raced in the USRA Modified and IMCA Modified classes. Ron was a strategic driver, he had the patience to wait for opportunities and he consistently won races and season championships. But some of his best awards were the years that his fellow drivers voted him as “Sportsman of the Year”. Through these years, they raced many brands of cars. The “00” car that was designed by Swede was Murray County Track Champion in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2008 to name a few. In addition to the Murray Country Track, Ron was a strong competitor with season wins at Park Jefferson, Fairmont Raceway, Worthington Raceway, and Alta Speedway.

In 2004, Swede’s grandson and Charles’ son, Justin Anderson, was starting to show some interest in driving a racecar. Considering all the hours he spent side by side with Swede and Charles working on racecars, it seemed to be a natural fit, so the guys built an USRA B-modified for Justin Anderson “07” and an USRA A-modified for Ron Luitjens “00”, and did that for several years! Eventually, Ron officially retired and Justin moved up from a B-mod to an A-mod and has been driving that ever since. Justin has had the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the area; he is a careful driver that isn’t afraid to put the pedal to the medal when he has the opportunity! Justin has the same cool, even disposition that has been modeled by his dad and his Grandpa “Swede”.

Swede would like to thank all the guys (and gals) that have pitted for his cars through the years. Bill and Ray Smith, Tony VanEck, Joe Peterson, Elroy Bennett, Jim Allen (Tuna), Jeff DeGroot, Maynard, Kenny Duetschley, Kevin Dusso, Kurt Johnson, Richard Paplow, Steve DeGroot, Bruce Houseman, Aaron “Bubba” Sieve, Leon Windschitl, and Matt Munkel, —there are truly too many to mention. Each one of these guys have made the seasons a little brighter and the load a little lighter. My sincere apologies for all the guys that were missed, my memory isn’t what it used to be!

A HUGE THANK YOU to the Murray County Speedway and all that have made this track a special place for race fans to meet every Friday night and see a good show! It takes a lot of volunteers and countless hours behind the scenes to be ready for racing on Friday night. I am lucky to have raced at this track for so many years and have had much success here. It takes the support of the entire community to put on a show like this all summer long, thanks for all you do guys!

Scott Kleve
I first starting working at the track, as the Hobby Stock Class Vice President, back in 1993. I was also a corner official and then a member of the Tech Inspection team. I then became the Track Promoter for 15 years. I worked with several different sanctioning bodies, first IMCA and then USRA. During my years of promoting, the USMTS touring series made several appearance at the track, which brought in many large shows to the track. To be involved with so many of the top dirt track drivers, was a great experience. During all those years, I enjoyed working with a lot of different drivers, fans, and workers of the racetrack.

Jackie Linder
I began working as the ice cream lady, back in the early days of the association. Eventually, the track stop selling ice cream, but needed someone to help sell beer. This led to 15 years, of meeting many great fans of the racetrack. I also helped my husband Earl, build all the trophies, for close to 20 years. Earl and I, truly enjoyed working and helping at the racetrack. This is a very special honor to receive.

Dan Ross
Dan started racing in 1993. It was first in Worthington and then in Slayton. Dan started racing in the Sportsman class for 3 years, then in a Hobby class car for 4 years and then for the final 8 years in a Stock car. Over the 15 years, Dan had a total of 101 wins. Dan was the track champion in 1999 for the Hobby class and in 2006 in the Stock Car class. Dan is proud of winning the “Bud Shoot-Out” at Algona, Iowa and twice winning the Jackson Nationals. Dan won the last race he entered, using Jerry Gronewold’s car. In one race, Dan and Jerry raced side by side for the whole race, until Dan just inched ahead of Jerry at the finish line.

A couple of pit crew that helped Dan, were Scott Echternach and Richard Paplow.

Dan quoted, “if I was younger”, he would absolutely be racing again, because of all the great friends at the racetrack, and he “would be enjoying” all the great competition from the drivers.

Dave Ross
Dave started racing in 1993, in the Pure Stock class. In 2002, he bought a Hobby Class car from Corey Krull after driving if first, to see if he wanted to keep it. Dave would win five consecutive track championships in the Hobby class from 2002-2006. Dan’s best year racing, was in 2003, earning 12 feature wins and placing in the top 5 places, 34 times, while racing in Slayton, Worthington, Jackson & Fairmont.

A couple of pit crew that help Dave, were Aaron “Bubba” Sieve, Bruce Houseman and Trent Knause. Dave’s father, Gary Ross, always had a race car in the garage to work on, which gave Dave a great desire to race. He also work on several of Swede Anderson’s pit crews.

Dave stated, “that, if he could do it all over again”, that he would love to give it a shot.

Brian Postma
I began as the assistant flagman in 1996 for two years. I then started the safety director position. This position was a rapid response on an ATV with fire suppression. While doing this position, I was elected to the board of directors. This eventually led to the president of the association. During my term on the board and as president, we implemented many changes to the facilities. A new guard rail and catch fencing was installed three quarters around the speedway. The infield pits was move to the outside and south of the racetrack, for better viewing for the fans. I was also involved in the planning in the new grandstand and concession stand. I helped bring in several special events, the USMTS touring series, the 305 sprint cars and the ASCS Regional Sprint Cars. A lot of this work was labor intensive, but without all of the great volunteers of the speedway, many of the above items would have never happen.

I would also like to mention my wife, Melanie, who has, as many hours in this racing thing as I do. She has put up with the long hours and hard work. We have met many great people in the racing community and loved every minute of it. I am humbled to be inducted into the MCRA Hall of Fame. Thank you.

Dottie Muecke
I started working at the race track in the early seventies. I worked first with Joe LeTendre and Gorge Bloom in the announcer’s stand (crow’s nest), which was on the inside of the track, at the beginning of corner one. There was several close calls, of a car almost hitting the stand. A while later, I began working at the front ticket booth and later at the back sign-in gate for the drivers and pit crews, where I currently work now. There are some many interesting people to chat with every Friday night.

There has been many changes to racing during this time. The most notable when is, back in the 1970’s & 1980’s, if you weren’t at the track by 6:00-6:30pm, it was difficult to find a seat in the old grandstand.

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