By Stan Kalwasinski

WEST SALEM, Wis. – The 57th annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway is right around the corner (Oct. 8–11), so let’s take a look back at the event 5, 10, 25 and 50 years ago.

5 Years Ago (2021)

When Casey Johnson was asked if this was the biggest win of his career, he had a simple one-word answer: “Absolutely!”

Johnson won the Oktoberfest 200, the season finale for the ARCA Midwest Tour, at the 52nd annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway.

Behind the wheel of his Hougan Farms Chevrolet No. 5, the Edgerton, Wis., native took the lead from Ty Majeski on lap 118 and held off a late challenge from Majeski and Travis Sauter en route to adding his name to the list of Oktoberfest Race Weekend champions.

Rich Bickle Jr., Dalton Zehr, Skylar Holzhausen, Derek Kraus, Luke Fenhaus, Braison Bennett and Riley Stenjem rounded out the top 10 in the 30-car field.

“Sure has a ring to it, doesn’t it?” a smiling Johnson said in victory lane when asked about being the big Oktoberfest winner. “We had a good car. It was hard to put that one away on Friday (where he finished second in the Dick Trickle 99), but we knew this was our best bullet, and boy did she come alive late.”

10 Years Ago (2016)

The 47th annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend at the LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway went into the record books as what could have been called “Majeski Fest.”

Continuing to establish himself as one of the top stock car racers in the country, Ty Majeski, the 22-year-old speedster from Seymour, Wis., won nearly everything he entered, including the ARCA Midwest Tour 200-lap late model special on Sunday afternoon at the 5/8-mile paved fairgrounds oval. Majeski and his Toby Nuttleman-prepared No. 91 cars were almost unbeatable, with Majeski visiting the victory podium numerous times, including after winning his first career Oktoberfest 200.

Majeski also won the opening Thursday night 40-lap feature for LaCrosse late models, the 68-lap Big 8 Series headliner on Saturday night, and all three 21-lap legs of the JMck63, a special invitational for Big 8 Series drivers, on Sunday before taking the green flag for the 200.

25 Years Ago (2001)

Eddie Hoffman won the NASCAR RE/MAX 200 that highlighted that year’s Oktoberfest Race Weekend. The Chicago-area racer, wheeling his Lisa Thomas Salon Chevrolet No. 8, took the lead after a pit stop with less than 20 laps to go and raced to the checkered flag ahead of Steve Carlson, Steve Holzhausen, Ron Breese Jr., Dan Fredrickson and Brian Hoppe. It was the third Oktoberfest victory of Hoffman’s career.

Trailing leader Holzhausen into the pits as the caution flag flew on lap 186, Hoffman beat him back out and was leading with 10 laps to go. Hoffman and his team had planned to run the entire 200 circuits without stopping, but that changed when the late caution appeared.

“I told my pit crew to watch what the other guys were doing,” said Hoffman. “I was thinking of staying out there and running till the end, but the crew thought I’d better come in. They got me out (after right-side tires and a splash of fuel) ahead of Holzhausen and Carlson.”

50 Years Ago (1976)

The 1976 edition of the Oktoberfest 200 saw Larry Detjens of Wausau, Wis., driving his Bemco Engineering 1974 Camaro No. 25, win Sunday afternoon’s 100-lap headliner after taking the second of the “twin 50s” features earlier in the day. With some 4,200 fans in the grandstands, Detjens, piloting a fresh