Local Racer Kegan Hagedorn Honored with others at Banquet of Champions
by Larry Hagedorn, guest columnist
NASCAR legend Kenny Shrader was the headliner and quest speaker at the 2010 43rd annual Banquet of Champions in St. Louis Saturday, January 23. The banquet is put on by the St. Louis Auto Racing Fan Club.
Seventeer year old Kegan Hagedorn received an award for his second championship in 3 years for Jr. Dragster at Gateway Raceway in Madison, Illinois. Those of you following the local racers know that Kegan has been racing Jr. Dragsters since he was 8 years old, and (since turning 16), has also been pulling double, even triple duty driving not only the Jr. Dragster, but also full size cars in High School Eliminator and Pro class. Along with a win in High School Eliminator, Kegan also qualified with the top 10 in the Pro class to represent Gateway at Indy in the division 3 finals last September driving a 9 second 67 Camaro (1/4 mile). Kegan also had an opportunity to drive an 8 second full size dragster at Gateway’s Megabucks competition in October, beating out many professional drivers for a top 12 (quarterfinals) finish. Kegan is currently a junior at Hermann High school.
Gateway Raceway was the only dragstrip represented at the 43rd annual banquet. Other race tracks and their champions that were honored (Mainly Oval tracks), were Belle Clair Speedway (Illinois), Fredericktown Raceway (Missouri), Highland Speedway (Illinois), I-55 Raceway (Illinois), I-70 Speedway (Missouri), Montgomery County Speedway (Missouri), Power-I racing ( Missouri), St. Francois Raceway (Missouri), and Tri-City Speedway (Illinois).
These tracks represent many forms of oval racing, (which are all within the St Louis area) and their respective champions were also honored in such classes as Quarter midgets, Midgets, UMP Modified, UMP factory stock, UMP Pro, UMP Sportsman, KART, Sprint Cars, Late Model, Modified, Mini Stocks, Outlaw Micro, Super Late Model, Jr. Honda, Sr. Honda, Hvy. Honda, Lt. 160, Hvy 160, World Formula, and Jr. Half.
The Gateway Raceway class champions honored include Super Pro, Pro, Street, Pro Bike, Street Bike, Street Car Shootout, High School Eliminator, Jr. Dragster- 8-9 yr. old, 10-12 yr. old, and Jr. Dragster 13-17 yr. old.
With all the Circle tracks represented it was no wonder that NASCAR legend Kenny Shrader would be an appropriate quest speaker. Kenny lives in North Carolina with his wife Ann, but his hometown was actually Fenton, Missouri, which he plans to return to in the near future. His words during his speech were “Im goin’ back home to Missouri to play in the dirt!”
He is of course speaking of going back to his roots and race the many dirt oval tracks in the Missouri, Illinois areas. His racing career stems back from 1971, with his accomplishments including:
1980 USAC Stock Car rookie of the year, 1982 USAC Silver Crown Champion, 1983 USAC Sprint Car Champion, 33 USAC Career victories, 18 NASCAR series poles, 3 Daytona 500 poles, 2 time Bud shootout winner at Daytona, 4 NASCAR Sprint Cup victories, 15 ARCA wins since 1981, 15 ARCA poles, 1999 ARCA racing series car owner champion, Has led 2005 laps in 32 ARCA races.
If you get into Oval track racing at all, I am sure that you will be able to catch Kenny racing at some of the above mentioned tracks in the near future.
Guest Columnist Larry Hagedorn owns and operates Hagedorn Collision Repair & SIGNS with his wife Rebecca, just south of the Hermann city limits. Formed in 1998, the business has five employees. On the auto body side of the business, Larry does towing and is very proud of their high quality body repairs. In the sign shop, Rebecca makes computerized vinyl graphics and prints for many types of vehicle graphics and general signage., The Hagedorns have been into cars, auto body, and Drag Racing for more than 25 years. They reside in Rhineland Mo.