Pete
Wiegand
Born August 5, 1953
In the hamlet of South Salem in the Town of Lewisboro
Pete started racing back in 1973 at Lebanon Valley in their
Mini Stock Division. He ran a Volkswagen. Turned
it at over 7000 RPM’s. At that time The Valley
only had the following divisions racing, Modified, Sportsman,
and Mini Stocks. The Mini Stocks we just small modified
cars. Pete’s first car looked like a VW bug.
There are photos of it in the Photo section of this site.
Then they allowed you to modify the body. You can also
see a photo of that in the photo section. He raced under
the number 73. This was a great learning time for Pete.
He raced this car at Lebanon Valley, Accord Speedway, and
Flemington New Jersey.
A few fellow competitors included Tommy Corellis, Tony Laporta,
and Bob Hackel. Pete learned a lot from these racers.
Pete didn’t have any championships during this time
of his racing, but he did have the following finishes and
was in the points at Lebanon.
In April of 1975 he started dating his wife Laurie.
She enjoyed racing and went to the track with him every Saturday
evening. In the spring of 1976 they were engaged.
Pete will tell the story of how it was buy a ring for Laurie
or buy a new Weber for the car. Laurie won out.
Pete says he got the better deal.
Then he took 22 years off to get a house and raise a family.
Then in 1999 he decided he was going racing again. He
built a trailer and started hauling junk cars to the junk
yard for scrap. He would take off what he needed to
build a car and save the cash from the junk yard for what
he had to buy. He raced his first race at Riverside
Speedway in Agawam Mass. This track is 1⁄2 mile
asphalt. That was OK, but then the track closed down.
So he took the car to Lebanon Valley. His first night
back at the valley they started him last as a new driver
and he finished the race in second place. Then as he
was driving into the pits everyone was saying he was disqualified.
He asked why he still had the rear view mirror in the car
from when he raced at Riverside. So when he asked why
they didn’t allow rearview mirrors he was told because
you can block the other drivers. Pete said I started
in last position and drove to 2nd who did I block. They
had to agree, but he was still disqualified. So out
came the rear view mirror for the following week. He
put in half a season that year at the valley.
In 2000 he finished in 5th place, 2001 he was 2nd, then
2002 and 2003 he was champion. In 2003 he was co-champion
with Pete Defigilio. We will have to wait and see what
2004 brings.
Pete has other hobbies as well he likes to play softball.
He played on a town league for several years. He likes
to go fishing and goes whenever he can find time, which is
very hard to do when you have to work on a race car all week.
Along with his wife Laurie, he has two children a son Peter
Jr. and a daughter Jennifer. Both have been at the track
at times. His son Peter graduated from SUNY Purchase
with a degree in theatre lighting and his daughter Jen graduated
from SUNY Buffalo with a major in computer art and a minor
in art history. We joke around with her and say we have
a web site that cost over $50,000, as she is the one who designed
this sight. If anyone is interested in having her do
one for them click on the link at the bottom of the web site
or email her at design@divessence.com. Both Laurie and
Pete are very proud of the their children.
Peter Jr. has raced a Lebanon a few times, but with working
in the theatre it is very hard for him to get Saturday evenings
free, but we look forward to seeing him at the track in the
future.
Updates still to come! |
|
