By Chad Meyer
After helping his brother David and others at the racetrack, Bruce Wickman got his chance to be behind the wheel in 1990. “Frank Crotts from Oelwein was going to be gone and he told me to race his car and go have fun,” Wickman said.
“I was also helping Keith Wirtz, who had Joe [Wirtz] driving it. Joe was going to be gone on a two-week vacation, so he told me to drive it. I remember I started on the front row [of the Bomber] feature and I led the whole race, until I spun on the last lap. The next week I started on the pole again because I still had basically no points and we won. I was hooked after that,” Wickman recalls.
For the 1991 season, Wickman built his own Bomber to campaign at Algona and what first full-time season it was. Wickman scored at least 10 wins that season, which included the Kossuth County Fair race, mid-season championship and the season championship feature. At season’s end, he was the Bomber point champion and named Rookie of the Year.
“That was a great season,” remembers Wickman. “We built a good car and had a strong motor. There weren’t many rules for that division, and we were running a 377 [cubic inch] engine.”
“The next season we bought [Shiney and Greg] Hilbert’s Stock Car and we won a couple features that first year after moving up to Stock Cars,” Wickman said.
Over the course of Wickman’s racing career, he ran Bombers his first year, and then Stock Cars and 360 mods/B-Mods. “I race a Modified one time,” he says. “My brother David was gone one weekend, so I raced his Mod one night at Algona. We blew the engine that night.”
Wickman considered the Algona track his home speedway and loved racing there. “In 31 years of racing, I only missed one night at Algona. It was around 1999 [when I missed that race]. We decided to go to the Jackson Nationals on Friday night and we ended up qualifying for the show. So, we missed Algona on Saturday to run Jackson.”
Wickman’s career concluded at the end of the 2023 season and after those 31 years of racing at Algona, his accomplishments at the track are significant. His 41 wins rank him in the top 12 all time. He is a two-time track champion, earning point titles in Bombers in 1991 and in Stock Cars in 2000. He captured four Kossuth County Fair races, earning those in 1991 (Bombers), 1992 (Stock Cars), and 2003 and 2007 in 360 Mods. Wickman also won the 1998 Schattschneider Memorial in Stock Cars.
“My favorite memory at Algona was season championship night in 2007, which also Mindy’s Miles night, a tribute to Mindy Bruellman who passed away in car accident. I couldn’t win the points that night [in 360 Mods], Nate Chodur had it locked up. [Track promoter] Joe Ringsdorf gave Chodur and I the option to start at the tail for double the money. Chodur refused and so did I initially but then decided to do it. It took me about six laps to get back to the front. I remember that the grandstand was full, a packed house, and everyone was on their feet when I won that race. That felt really good,” Wickman remembers.
A couple other memories at Algona also stand out. “I remember having to take the Fair Race trophy apart to get it home because it was too big to fit in the truck. I also remember how much winning the 2000 Stock Car points championship title meant to me. Pete Bachman told me when I was young that you’ll never win anything in Algona because nobody from outside Algona wins anything there. I was happy to prove him wrong.”
He’s also proud of winning a stock car special at Britt. “That track was so dry slick and I knew I had to beat Craig Gray to turn one for a chance to win. I did it and I couldn’t believe it when my crew told me I won by over a straightaway.”
“I raced many times at Alta, but I only won one race there. It seems like I had all kinds of seconds there. For the Simpson Memorial one year, both [brother] David and I won our heats and started up front in the feature. In the feature I couldn’t get back around David and he won and I finished second. David got claimed though and refused to sell. I ultimately won after he wouldn’t sell,” Wickman said.
“I’m proud of the way [the Algona track] has kept going,” Wickman says. “That place was always home to us. I also appreciate my family, my friends, my sponsors and all the people in the grandstand that supported us. Without you I wouldn’t have been there.”
Wickman joins John Pletcher, Stacey Mills, and Tim Sidles plus the Algona Fire Department and Kossuth County EMS as inductees into the Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony takes place during the Kossuth County Fair Races in Algona on Thursday, August 6th. Learn more at www.kossuthmuseum.com.
