Rich Bickle

Did You Know?

• Bickle won the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway a record five times: 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999.
• In 1987, Bickle won a $15,000-to-win event in Calgary, Alberta, Canada after the race was halted for rain and hail with 46 laps left.
• Bickle nearly won a fourth Truck Series race at Sonoma in 1997 until rookie Boris Said retaliated against him during a chaotic restart.

Early career

Bickle was introduced to racing as a child by watching his father, Rich Sr., race in Wisconsin. He began racing motocross at age five and won a 250cc championship on Sunday nights at sixteen while racing stock cars at Jefferson Speedway on Saturday nights in 1977. He selected a beat-up 1968 Pontiac GTO from behind his father's barn to start his stock car career. For the second half of 1977 and all of 1978, he raced a 1974 Pontiac as a sportsman at Jefferson. After graduating in 1979, he stopped racing motorcycles and built a 1972 Ford Torino with a 302 cubic inch motor, which he used at mid-season. In its first night out at Columbus 151 Speedway, the car won a heat and the semi-feature, and it ran well at Lake Geneva Raceway and Rockford Speedway. During the off-season he modified the rear clip for Rockford, then gave the car away and built a new one. In 1980 he raced weekly at Rockford, Lake Geneva, and Capital Speedway, winning 23 semi-features, the most in the United States, and was named Sportsman Rookie of the Year at Lake Geneva and Rockford. He converted his Rockford car into a late model in 1981, finishing in the top five in points at Lake Geneva and ninth at Capital, and won his first late model feature at Lake Geneva. In 1982 he raced between 90 and 100 events within 300 miles of home, winning a couple of features and setting fast time at Wisconsin Dells Speedway. He told track owner Wayne Erickson at the Slinger Super Speedway banquet that he would win the 1983 track championship, which he did by finishing in the top five in seventeen of eighteen features. In 1984 he raced primarily at Slinger, Wisconsin International Raceway, and Capital, winning his first half-mile feature at WIR.

NASCAR career

Bickle made his NASCAR Winston Cup debut in 1989 at Charlotte Motor Speedway driving his self-owned, unsponsored No. 02 Buick, finishing 39th after an engine failure 37 laps in. He made his first Daytona 500 start the next year in his own underfunded Oldsmobile, finishing 28th. Over the next three years he competed in eleven events, leading one lap at Charlotte in 1993. In 1994 he drove ten races, most for Harry Melling. He made a full-time jump to Cup in 1998 driving the No. 98 Thorn Apple Valley Ford Taurus for Cale Yarborough, replacing the injured Greg Sacks. That year he had two top-five qualifying efforts and finished a career-best fourth at Martinsville. After sponsorship ended, he signed with Tyler Jet Motorsports to drive the No. 45 10-10-345 Lucky Dog Pontiac, posting top-tens at the Pontiac Excitement 400 and the Pocono 500, but was released after the Pepsi Southern 500 at Darlington. He drove some for Melling Racing that year. In 2000 he substituted for Joe Bessey's team, and in 2001 he drove one race each for Morgan-McClure Motorsports and Midwest Transit Racing. In the Busch Series, he debuted in 1993 at Atlanta, finishing 27th. His best Busch season was 1995, with one pole and four top-tens in a limited schedule. He made his first full-time Busch run in 2001 driving the No. 59 Kingsford Chevy, competing in 27 events before being released. He began racing in the Craftsman Truck Series in 1996 for Petty Enterprises, winning two poles and having nine top-ten finishes, finishing eleventh in points.

Career after NASCAR

Rich Bickle still shows up for special events at his home Wisconsin tracks. Back in 2007, he was planning to start an auto fabrication shop in Edgerton with his father, calling it Rock County Flatheads and Fabrication, after previously running an auto customization business out of his Mooresville racing shop. By 2012, he had shifted focus to business, operating three ventures: a hot rod shop in Janesville, a bar in Madison, and a drive-shaft company also in Madison. He also co-owns a strip club in Bristol, Wisconsin that has drawn controversy.

Bickle built a new chassis he raced from 2005 through 2010, but he wasn't happy with how it performed. For the 2011 National Short Track Championship at Rockford Speedway, he got back one of his early-2000s cars. He was second fastest in practice and ran in the top five during the feature. The next year, he qualified third for the Slinger Nationals behind Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth. After early contact sent him to the back, he fought his way to the lead just past halfway and ended up sixth. He closed out 2012 by winning the National Short Track Championship at Rockford for the second time.

He announced 2013 would be his last season racing stock cars. He ran the full ARCA Midwest Tour and won his fourth Slinger Nationals after the apparent winner, Steve Apel, was disqualified. At the National Short Track Championship that year, he battled for the lead mid-race and finished fourth. His career ended the following weekend with a 22nd-place finish at the Oktoberfest 100 ARCA Midwest Tour race at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway on October 6, 2013.

Bickle came out of retirement in 2015, racing at the Slinger Nationals, Madison, and several events at Wisconsin International Raceway. That same year, he was inducted into the Southeastern Wisconsin Short Track Hall of Fame, recognized for his two Slinger track championships and four Slinger Nationals wins. A 2019 book, Barnyard to Brickyard – The Rich Bickle Story, covers his life, and he scheduled a book signing tour at Wisconsin race tracks in July 2019. After that tour, he kept racing super late models, and in 2020 he said the 2021 Snowball Derby would be his final race.