By Scott Brandenburg sbranden@mlive.com
The Muskegon Chronicle
Dennis Bringedahl’s run from nowhere near race cars to average racer to national power has happened seemingly overnight.
After three years of racing at Winston Speedway with middling success, Bringedahl exploded with 12 wins last year.
The wins and other top three finishes propelled Bringedahl to the 2011 UMP DIRTcar Factory Stock National Championship, good for a $1,000 check and a big trophy.
Bringedahl’s success has continued this season as he tops the Factory Stock point standings at Winston and is second in the national points standings.
How the Twin Lake resident burst on the scene is still a bit of a shock to him.
“I’m really not sure how it happened,” said Bringedahl, a 2000 Reeths-Puffer graduate. “I made a few adjustments on the car and the first race I had last year I had the fastest car by far. My confidence grew from there.”
Bringedahl wasn’t even into racing growing up.
The 30-year-old played sports with the Rockets and liked cars, but because his family wasn’t big into cars he never really investigated the world of racing.
Bringedahl got a job at a body shop right out of high school, and one of his co-workers convinced him to go to a race in 2001.
“Once I saw it I was hooked,” said Bringedahl, who paints cars for Bowman’s Body Shop. “I loved it right away.”
Still, it took him seven years to finally hit the track as a racer.
With a little money set aside Bringedahl spent $900 on his first race car, which he used for two seasons to get his feet wet.
Tom DeVetteDennis Bringedahl has driven his 1982 Olds Cutlass to a national title in 2011 and to second place so far in the UMP DIRTcar Factory Stocks national points standings this summer.
He then upgraded to a 1982 Olds Cutless with a Chevy engine, but his first racing season with the car was filled with nothing but angst.
“Everything went wrong with it,” said Bringedahl, who’s been married to wife Bethany for 10 years. They have three kids ages 12, nine and six and have another child on the way. “The transmission, everything broke down. It seemed like we had a new problem every week.”
Bringedahl spent the winter working on the car and making the adjustments he thought he needed to have success at Winston.
The work he did proved to be spot on as he won 12 races in 2011 after earning just two wins in his previous three years of racing.
“You have to be a little lucky to win 12 times,” Bringedahl said. “But no matter how good a driver or how fast the car is you have to have the car set up right or you’re not going to win anything.”
Bringedahl has three wins midway through this summer and a cartload full of runner-ups which has kept him 14 points in front of Josh Sternberg in the Factory Stocks points standings at Winston.
He currently trails Stephen Fohne of Troy, Illinois by 75 points in the national standings.
After a crash last weekend Bringedahl has been working furiously to get the car ready for this weekend.
“I’ve got to get it out there – I need the points,” Bringedahl said. “I’ve got no other choice. I hope we can get it out there and set up the way we had it.”
As far as Bringedahl has come since just seeing his first race 11 years ago, it’s a good bet he’ll be back in the winner’s circle soon.
