By Chad Meyer
Like so many that attain success in dirt racing, there was probably little doubt that Al Henja would sit behind the wheel of a race car. “My dad was my hero,” Al says. “Even though my dad stopped racing in 1972, I’d make him drag me to the races. For a long time after he quit, a lot of people always asked me ‘are you Jerry’s boy?’”
Even though there were no weekly races at Mason City, occasionally the track would hold Enduro events and that’s where Al started his racing career in 1984. Weekly action returned to Mason City in 1985. “That year I raced a Hobby Stock, a 1974 Monte [Carlo]. That thing weighed 4200 pounds,” Al recalls.
In 1986, Al campaigned a Chevy Camaro at the Mason City track in the Hobby Stock division and earned his first point championship title. From 1988 through 1991, Al raced a Limited Late Model with success.
“In 1988 I was the point champion at Mason City and finished second to Kenny Farrell the next year in the points. Mason City dropped the Limited Late Model class in 1990, hoping that drivers would switch to Modfieds, but my brother [Mike] and I opted to run Cresco for the next two years,” Al said. The choice paid off as Al earned the 1990 point championship in Limited Late Models at Cresco.
In 1992, he made the switch to the Modified division. In 1992 he won the Rookie of the Year award at the track in Algona, while his brother Mike achieved the same award the following season. Success continued and Al remembers, “In 1994 we won the first four modified events at Webster City, with engines built by dad. That really meant a lot to me.”
“In 1995 Mike and I bought the bar in Clear Lake and we were trying to think of a cool name for the place. Then it hit us, we were both rookies of the year at the track in Algona. ‘Rookies’ seemed like the perfect name for it,” Al said.
After spending the prior year launching their bar business, in 1996 Al raced three nights a week and captured the Algona point championship that year. To secure the 1996 point title, Al won the season championship feature to do it.
“I loved racing Algona,” Al says. “It was so hard to win at that track and across North Iowa then. I beat Rob Rose for the Algona title. You had to beat Denny Anderson, Dave Nutt, Ron Pope, Keith Schmitz, Pat Graham, Mark Noble and Kevin Stoa [and so many more]. It was a hell of a field every night.”
In 2003, Al went racing full time on the USMTS circuit but still managed to win the IMCA Modified title at Mason City that year. He captured his first career UMTS win that season, besting his brother Mike and Kelly Shryock for the win. His next USMTS win occurred in 2005 in Wisconsin.
“We had the time of our lives, racing and traveling with Mike and Kelly all over the country. We raced from Minot [ND] to Louisiana,” Al remembers.
Looking back, Al says winning the ’96 title meant the most in his years racing at Algona. “Points championships meant a lot back then. You sacrificed a lot to win a title because they meant so much. You used to look forward to Mid-Season Championship night just for a chance to start up front for one night against that competition.”
Al achieved a level of success racing that few reach. He collected 23 wins in USMTS competition, which is still tied for 14th- most all time. A winner of many big events, he won three straight Night of 1000 Stars events at the Hancock County Speedway, collecting those in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He earned 11 total points titles throughout his career so far, seven at Mason City with the most recent in 2023, two at Britt, one at Cresco and the ’96 title at Algona. He is a two-time winner of the Race of Champions during the IMCA Super Nationals at the Boone Speedway. Had it not been for a broken axle, he’d have a Super Nationals Big Dance trophy too. He promoted his hometown racetrack for three years, from 2016 to 2018 and continues to race USMTS/USRA modifieds today.
