Whenever you ask Kevin Ramsell about his first visit to a race track, he will tell you that it was horrifying. “My parents took the whole family to Jefferson Speedway for the Mid-Season Championship in 1981,” Ramsell recalled. “I remember being scared that something bad happened to the drivers every time I saw a wreck. But, I got over that after my third visit and got a ride in Terry Grossen’s street stock.”
Since that first visit, Ramsell was hooked on auto racing. His family would make regular visits to Jefferson Speedway and then, Capital Super Speedway. “I think my first visit, to what is now Madison International Speedway (MIS) was in 1982,” Ramsell stated. “It was a 100-lap feature where Tom Jones (not the singer) held off Dick Trickle for the win.”
In high school, Ramsell worked for the Stoughton Wal-Mart where he overheard a fellow employee, Karen Whitford, talk about her son Wayne who raced street stocks at Jefferson and Columbus. Kevin and Karen got talking, and the next thing you know, it was back to Jefferson each week to see Wayne race.
Kevin got to know Wayne and eventually started to work on his pit crew when Wayne started racing late models. “I probably had the cleanest hands of all of the pit crew members,” Ramsell joked. “My job was to document the lap times, tire pressures, tire temps, etc. Oh yeah, and keep the dust off of the car.”
When Wayne Erickson re-opened MIS in 1992, Ramsell had this big idea that he could do the marketing for the track. “I quickly learned that I wasn’t even close to being qualified to do that,” Ramsell stated. “Mark Gundrum (MIS and Slinger Marketing Director at that time) showed me that I had to eat some humble pie and do some more learning.” So, Ramsell worked in the concession stands during the 1992-93 seasons. The money he made on Friday nights, he would spend on Saturday nights to help Wayne Whitford at Jefferson.
In 1994, Ramsell quit working for MIS and started to help Whitford as he dedicated to compete in the MIS Sportsman (limited late model) division. “We had a good three year stretch there,” Ramsell recalled. “We finished second in points in 1994, third in 1995, and won the championship in 1996.”
Whitford would try his hand at super late models but would not race on a weekly basis and for Kevin; he didn’t like the idea of just sitting in the stands. “I got to know Jeanne & Larry Starr, and they slowly showed me what they did in the area of public relations,” Ramsell stated. “I really started to pay attention to what they did.”
Jeanne Starr was able to get Ramsell a job in the tower at MIS as a scorer in 2000. “John Kamineck, MIS chief scorer, was looking for someone to help score the features and Jeanne suggested me. About a week later, John asked me to help score at Jefferson as well.” Ramsell would do this job for two years at MIS and three years at Jefferson.
In 2002, the Starr’s didn’t return to MIS. Jerry Fillner, the owner of MIS at that time, was looking for someone. John Wells, one of the track’s announcers suggested Kevin for the job. “I was real hesitant at first to take it, but today, I am grateful that it happened.”
Ramsell did not walk into an easy position. His first challenge was to handle the situation regarding the foreclosure on the track in 2002. “That was a tough thing to do, because I felt we needed to be up front and not let the rumors fly on things,” Ramsell recalled. “I know Jerry wasn’t happy with some of the releases I wrote, but I don’t regret writing them. I think by the track being up front and with Dave Grueneberg coming on board, we were able to salvage the season, and make it worth something to a new potential owner. Dave and I got to know each other real well that year and to this day, I consider him to be a very good friend.”
At the end of the 2002 season, MIS was sold to Chicago area car dealer, Terry Kunes. Kunes immediately hired Roy Kenseth to promote the track. “Long story short on this one was that when I saw that announcement on the internet, I placed a call to Roy the next day and we met that following week.” The meeting was short but it kept Kevin in his position at MIS. “It was a thrill to meet Roy but now to work with him that was something I never thought of.”
Roy and Kevin immediately started working on sponsorship packages. Roy would tell Kevin how he would want the proposals to look and Kevin used his desktop publishing skills to produce sponsorship marketing packages.
After a successful 2003 season, Kevin was involved in a lot of off-season meetings with the planning of the 2004 season. An offer was made to Kevin to go full-time with the racetrack. “As I look back on that, I do not regret that I accepted the position. I do regret what happened during that time that basically made me decide to leave in July, 2004.”
“I was personally frustrated with how things were going and with the results,” Ramsell stated. “Thankfully, my friend Pete Mc Cormick needed some help in his insurance agency and I took up his offer.”
After leaving MIS, Ramsell got his property & casualty insurance license and still to this day works full-time for the Pete Mc Cormick Agency, an American Family Insurance agency. Recently, he obtained his Life & Accident/Health license to go along with this property & casualty license.
It was only a few weeks later that Ramsell got a phone call that rejuvenated his love of auto racing. “Many people were telling me that Rockford Speedway was looking for a public relations director,” Ramsell stated. “Next thing, Gregg McKarns calls me and asks if I can do the public relations for the National Short Track Championships. I said yes to that right away.”
“The tower staff at Rockford made me feel right at home,” Ramsell recalled. “I ended that weekend saying to myself that I would like to work here on a regular basis.” Next thing, Kevin is covering the Bahama Brackets and the Goblin enduro, the last two events of the 2004 season for Rockford. He is about to start his fourth season as the public relations director of the Rockford Speedway.
Along with Rockford, Kevin assists Roy Kenseth with his RK Race Promotions. “We have done three events and have enjoyed each of them. All three have been memorable events, especially last year when Roy and I returned to MIS and filled the place up. Roy is a great friend. I love his passion and commitment that he puts towards any of his projects. I have learned a lot from him and continue to learn. We complement each other with what we know and I think that shows when we work on events together.”
This past July (2007), Kevin joined the ASA Midwest Tour as a staff writer. The ASAMT has kept him busy with many off-season announcements and press releases. In 2008, Kevin plans to be covering all ASAMT events. Watch for his on-track updates at the ASAMT's website at www.asamidwesttour.com.
He also writes press releases for the Big 8 Series, Midwest Motorsports Racer’s Auction, Oktoberfest Race Weekend, and is a feature writer for Fastrax Newspaper and Hawkeye Racing News. Recently, one of his columns was published in Late Model Racer magazine.
Kevin holds an Associate in Applied Arts – Marketing degree from Madison Area Technical College and is a graduate of Lakeside Lutheran High School (1989).
Besides auto racing and his full-time work, Kevin is involved in the Wisconsin Marketing & Management Association (WMMA), a college division of DECA. Each year, Kevin assists at their regional and state conferences by judging the Sports & Entertainment Marketing event. He has, on occasion judged at the International competitions. Kevin was a state officer for WMMA in 1993-94, and was the campaign manager for a successful International President campaign. The candidate he was the manager for was Pete Mc Cormick. One of his duties during his year of being a state officer was to put together the organization’s newsletter. That year, it took third place in the International Newsletter competition. For more information on WMMA, Kevin encourages you to visit their website at www.wmma-dex.org.
Whenever Kevin gets some free time, he usually flies down to visit his parents, Mike & Sandy, who manage an RV Resort about 40 minutes north of Tampa and about two hours from what many of his friends call his second home, Walt Disney World. Kevin is the oldest of three kids. His sisters include, Kelli (who is married to Mike) and Kati (who is married to Erick and has one daughter named Taylor). Kelli has assisted Kevin at some of the RK Race Promotions events while Kati does the oil changes and car maintenance for him.
If you would like to e-mail Kevin, please e-mail him at press@kevinramsell.com.
