DIALED IN
Blast from the Past
Great Lakes Dragaway’s Memorial Weekend Classic Celebrates Decades of Thrills
By Van Abernethy
T
he Memorial Weekend Classic
event at Great Lakes Dragaway repre-
sents one of the most enduring acts in
the storied history of this facility, even
though an exact start date is hard to
pin down since the track was forced to change
the event name in the early 2000s due to a
perceived infringement. “We used to call the
event the ‘Olympics of Drag Racing’ until the
August 2019
Olympics Committee of the United States sent
me a letter, then followed up with a phone call,
saying we can’t call it that anymore,” explains
Randy Henning, who’s co-owned the iconic
drag strip in Wisconsin along with Marcel
Kuper since 1994.
Regardless of what moniker they’ve used to
promote the Memorial Weekend event, Henning
estimates the event is anywhere between 50-60
years old. The track itself is now in its 64th year
of uninterrupted operation. Also amazing is the
familiar cast of entertainment that’s been thrilling
fans for decades on this same weekend.
Take 80-year-old Richard Hutchens and his
famous “Chevy Rebellion” wheelstander for ex-
ample. Hutchens’ amazing career has reached 53
years (and counting) driving the same iconic ve-
hicle, with which he first participated in this event
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