Herbst Claims Wisconsin and LaCrosse Titles

J. Herbst collected five wins, 12 top fives and 16 top 10s in 17 starts throughout the course of his championship season. Courtesy of LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway

Motivated By Single-Point Championship Loss In 2010

 J. Herbst was a man on a mission at LaCrosse (Wis.) Fairgrounds Speedway in 2011. He hit his marks by winning his second NASCAR Late Model division track championship and first NASCAR state championship at the .625-mile paved oval.

“We met all the goals we set after losing the 2010 championship (to Shawn Pfaff) by one point,” Herbst said. “The whole crew set out to achieve those goals. It wasn’t just me.

“We were motivated in the shop doing a lot of homework trying to learn everything and anything we could to make ourselves better,” Herbst said.

“We were having issues with our car late in the 2010 season and couldn’t figure it out. We tore the car down after Oktoberfest race at the end of the season. That’s when we found issues in the back end of the car.

“We tested and tested that car last spring and figured it out,” Herbst said. “We hit on a set up that was phenomenal. We’d qualify (on par) with everyone, but when the green flag came out for the feature races we set sail.”

The Herbst team was able to keep their momentum despite losing their primary car, a Ford, to an accident in June. They brought out their back-up car, a Chevrolet, and didn’t miss a beat.

“The cars had different engines and different centers of gravity, but we able to make the back-up car fast," he said.

Herbst produced a record of five wins, 12 top fives and 16 top 10s in 17 starts. He also made one start at Elko (Minn.) Speedway but finished outside the top 10. He placed an impressive 11th in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Top 500 rankings. This time, however, he won the LaCrosse Late Model championship by 17 points over Todd Korish

Herbst has been racing for 11 years and advanced to Late Models from the track’s Thunderstox division nine years ago. His parents, Terry and Michelle, are the car owners.

“They’re my owners and they definitely have a say in what we race and where we race,” Herbst acknowledged.

Lucius Tewes is the team crew chief and is joined on the team by Corey Stocker, Jerry Burke and Jason Mulholland. They use Racetech chassis and Wegner Automotive Research engines.

Sponsors include Always Ready Mix, J&R Transport, Viking Electric, Affordable Concrete, Badger Corrugating, G-MAC Construction, Carpet City, Elite Excavating, Custom Concrete, Clevite Mahle Pistons and Fechner Motors.

In his time away from the shop and track, Herbst is a job site supervisor for HTH Construction.