The unofficial start to the Ozarks auto racing season is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 3, with the 36th Annual Ozarks Area Racers Foundation Hall of Fame Induction and Reunion at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds E-Plex.
One of the eight new OARF Hall of Fame inductees is believed to have won more feature races in the Modified division than anyone in Missouri history — and he’s still adding to the total.
Stephen Muilenburg of Sparta has made 832 trips to victory lane in a career spanning more than four decades. Eight of the wins came during the 2023 season and he’s again planning a limited schedule in the season ahead.
Family a big part of Muilenburg's success
Muilenburg is quick to give a lot of credit to his brother and long-time crew chief, Jon, and to his Hall of Fame racing dad, Earl.
Now Stephen joins Earl, who died in 2015, in the Hall of Fame in the Legends division.
“I learned everything from him,” Stephen said of his dad, who mentored him when Stephen began racing as a 19-year-old in 1980. “If you didn’t do it right, he sure did tell you about it.”
Jon Muilenburg, who’s a couple of years younger than Stephen, has been around for most of the success.
“We’ve been together since I started racing. He’s meant a lot,” Stephen said of Jon. “Dad helped us for a while, then me and him went out on our own. I have 832 wins now and probably got 800 of them with him alongside.”
‘I'm just playing now'
The Muilenburgs are still going strong as Stephen posted four wins in the Midwest Mod class in 2023, though he considers it all fun and games these days after so many years of taking racing seriously in a Late Model and the upper Modified divisions.
“I’m just playing now,” Muilenburg said. “I don’t have to concentrate on it like you do when racing the other stuff. This is where I get to enjoy myself. The rest of it is like a job. Now I’m having fun.”
Stephen’s son, Blake, has started racing at the age of 37 and earned his first feature victory last season at Bolivar Speedway. Stephen followed Blake across the finish line in second place and, while it’s mostly for fun these days, anyone who thinks Dad gave the race to his son is badly mistaken.
“I don’t give nothing to nobody,” Stephen said. “If you beat me, you beat me. My dad never gave nothing to no one and I don’t give nobody else nothing, either.”
From a winless rookie to a consistent champion
Stephen Muilenburg didn’t win a race his rookie year in 1980, when Late Models was the only class running. He joked that he was even getting lapped in heat races for about half a season before he started to improve, under the specific direction of his dad.
“I finally won a feature my second year,” Stephen said. “I just kept working at it until I got it. Dad wouldn’t let me do certain things. Everybody said you run the bottom really well. That’s because that was the only line I was allowed to run my first two years of racing. My dad said that you’ll put the car in the wall and destroy it. Stay on the bottom of the race track and don’t get off. So that’s what I did for two years.”
Asked about his favorite win among the many, Stephen said it’s hard to identify just one, though the Modified portion of the Show-Me 100 was pretty special. But probably the most memorable was career win No. 800, with his three kids and six grandkids all in attendance at North Central Arkansas Speedway in Flippin, Arkansas.
“I won a lot of ’em at Flippin,” Muilenburg said. “They said I owned that place. I didn’t own it, but I took home a lot of money from there.”
As for what the Hall of Fame honor means to him, Muilenburg said he hadn’t given it a lot of thought. He borrowed a perspective of his dad’s in how to view it.
“It just means you’ve had a good career,” Stephen Muilenburg said. “Everybody remembers what you did. My dad always said you didn’t have to tell everybody what you did, they’ll know what you did and you’ll get rewarded for it if you do it right.”
‘Legends' and ‘Pioneers' set to join OARF Hall of Fame
The OARF inducts drivers into its Hall of Fame in the “Legend” division, for driving accomplishments, along with a “Pioneer” division for contributions to the sport off the track.
Three other racers will be inducted as Legends on Feb. 3:
• Kelly Bremer, of Monett, won five points championships in the Modified, Super Stock and Pure Stock divisions while compiling more than 200 career feature wins. Among his notable wins were three 4-State Dirt Track championships at Monett Speedway, the Inaugural Dirt Works 3000 and the 1994 Thunder Valley Fall Classic.
• Scott Drake, a Joplin native, began his racing career in 1994 and has more than 300 feature wins to his credit. Drake was the 1990 IMCA Rookie of the Year and 2012 USRA B-Mod national champion while also earning multiple MLRA, MARS and USMTS feature wins throughout his career.
• Al Purkey of Coffeyville, Kansas, started racing in 1975 and has won at least one feature race in each of the last six decades. Purkey is a seven-time MLRA champion, two-time NCRA Champion and an OLMA champion, driving and owning his own team the entire time. He has more than 400 career feature wins.
The new class of Pioneer inductees:
• Jeff Albright has been a key figure in keeping the competition fair as a tech director. The Lebanon resident has worked in that capacity at 15 tracks and is currently the Director of Tech Competition for POWRi. A race fan since an early age, Jeff also owned two championship teams and has supported racing for more than 50 years.
• Gary Bass is a founding owner of Dirt Works, building the first Modifieds in this part of the country. Bass had drivers such as Rex Merritt, Dale Roper and Earl Muilenburg barnstorming the Midwest, building the IMCA Modified class, which is what all Modifiers are based on in the current era.
• Terry Brown was a long-time car owner out of Joplin. He’s fielded cars for high-profile drivers all around the four-state area of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and all the way on to the national touring level.
• John Yeoman has been a successful engine builder for many years and has owned and helped countless drivers with their motor programs to keep them on track. Yeoman Race Engines, based in Galena, Kansas, is known throughout the racing world and Yeoman is also a long-time modified driver himself.
Tickets are $15 in advance and will be available at area O’Reilly Auto Parts locations. They are $20 at the door. Doors will open at 2:30 p.m., with an autograph session for the inductees from 3:30-4:45. The formal program begins at 5.
In addition to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, racing memorabilia and race cars from different eras will be on display inside the E-Plex. Promoters from area speedways also will be invited to introduce their track champions from the 2023 season in a “Salute to Champions” prior to the Hall of Fame program.
The 2024 class will bring the total number of Ozarks Area Racers Foundation Hall of Famers to 233.
The Hall of Fame monument is on display outside the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, available for viewing 365 days a year.
