Profile On: Gregg Bakker
Monday, May 26, 2008
(Joanne Cram) With his first and second feature wins behind him at Knoxville Raceway in as many races, 39 year old, Sioux Falls native Gregg Bakker hopes that this will be a repeat occurrence again in the near future for him.
For the past two seasons at Knoxville, Gregg, his wife Jody and their crew have towed the four and a half- to five hour drive each weekend. But if you think that schedule sounds crazy, what they do when they get home is even crazier! After they run Knoxville on Saturday night, they wash the car and head north to South Dakota. At about ten in the morning Sunday, they are hard at work servicing the 360 and changing motors to run the 410 at Husets that night, in the same car they just ran at Knoxville!
Hectic schedules are nothing for this racer to deal with. Bakker has been driving competitively in some capacity since the early 80’s. He began racing motorcycles, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers locally and even ran some races at the Des Moines Fairgrounds in the winter, as well as some ice racing around his home town. The 11x came about when Gregg jumped on a three-wheeler to race and only had two 1’s- so he slapped them on to make an 11. When another racer with the same number approached him and asked him to run an x after his 11, the 11x was born. Then in the 90’s, Gregg began racing professionally for Curtis Sparks of Bakersfield, California with the nationwide AMA four-wheeler series. In 1995, Bakker won the AMA TT Championship in the Pro Class.
Bakker’s brother in law, Chad Mellenberndt raced motor cycles with Gregg and had moved up to a sprint car, and Gregg had helped him out as much as he could. So the following year of 1996, Gregg tested out his sprint car racing skills. Bakker started his sprint car racing career with the IMCA sprint series, running at Rock Rapids, Husets, and Hartford Speedways. Gregg was named the IMCA National Rookie of the Year that first season, and also won the Boone 360 IMCA Nationals.
The following season of 1997 took Bakker to the next level in a sprint car, racing a 410. For the next nine years, he could be found running a 410 at Husets Speedway on Sunday nights and a 360 on other race nights. This allowed Gregg to run three nights of racing almost every weekend. Friday and Saturday he raced special shows or drove to Fargo, Saturdays were spent at either Eagle Raceway or Jackson, and Sundays were at Husets. Over the nine years of running this schedule, Gregg racked up two 410 Championships at Husets in 2004 and 2005, as well as a 360 track championship at Jackson in 2004. Another highlight of his career includes winning the 410 Cheater’s Day Race at Husets in 2002- with a 360 motor.
Last season was Gregg Bakker’s first full season running at Knoxville, where he had his highest finish on the finale night of racing, 2nd place. This would help Gregg to achieve 8th in overall 360 points standings. He also had a 2nd place points finish at Husets last season.
This season, Bakker hopes to be more consistent on the track at Knoxville, which will hopefully get him towards the front of each race. With a great start to his season thus far, the rest of the year is looking good! Bakker continues to run Sundays at Husets as well. Down the road, Gregg would like to bring a 410 down to Knoxville to race weekly.
When Gregg isn’t ripping it up at a race track somewhere around the Midwest, he helps farm 10,000 acres. His family also owns the 18 hole Bakker Crossing Golf Course on part of his family’s farm site. (It’s a public course just south of Sioux Falls, so stop by on your way through some time!) Winter time brings out Gregg’s other passion of snowmobile riding. He makes the trip to West Yellowstone a couple times during the winter to ride.
Helping keep Gregg’s crazy schedule in check on the Schnee/Maxim/ Tim Baker Engine/Wesmar team are: Tom and Tim Baker, Trent Selting, Chris Gesling, and Gregg’s wife, Jody.
Sponsoring the Bakker 11x this year include State Bank of Fairmont, Scott Bolte Sanitation, Bakker Crossing Golf Course, Adrain Sod, D & R Welding, Borrowed Bucks Road House, Heitritter Graphix, Rock Rapids Machine and Welding, Dave’s Car Care Products, MSI Machine, Mike McCormick, Sioux Empire Fitness, and Rex’s Lawn Service.
Feel free to stop by and support Gregg Bakker and his team by buying a t shirt!
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