Either way, someone from Madison College would win the title. The question was whether teacher, or student, would take the trophy.

As the 2012 race season at Dells Raceway Park was winding down, the sportsman division unfolded as a championship battle between Scott Luck – a Madison College graduate and defending division champion, and Randy Breunig – driving a car built by current Madison College instructor Jon Christian.

This time, the win went to the teacher.

Breunig (2006) was the only driver in the division, to break the 2000-point barrier and edged Luck (1949) by 57 points. Multiple feature victories and consistency, led to the title for Breunig and Christian – in a race car that looked far different at the trophy presentation, than it did when purchased a few years ago.

Christian – a car guy who prefers turning the wrenches, to turning the wheel – decided to purchase a wrecked street version of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo and evolve it into a race car.

So much  work had to be performed on the car, that even the make and model of the car changed. Literally. Months of work went into preparing the frame, hanging the body and building the engine.

“The front had to be cutoff and built new,” Christian said. “The front frame rails were junk from the crash. That’s before the body work and engine.”

Christian’s work turned a Monte Carlo, into a Ford Thunderbird. He said the planning and labor, produced a car that had much of the field covered.

“Nobody around had spent any time in building these race cars,” Christian said. “They were going by what everyone was doing, or had done. I, just started at ground zero, then put a Thunderbird body on it.”

The race car – fusing together Chevy and Ford parts – took a year of Christian’s effort before completion. Nearly three years ago, when he finished, Christian spoke to Breunig about driving the car.

“He was running late models and wasn’t having fun, like he did in the sportsman division,” he said. “I was looking for a driver and asked him if he wanted to drive my car.

“It sure ended as a good combination.”

Christian and Breunig made a limited number of events, which were productive. Not immediately running a full season, gave the team a chance to fine-tune the car before season points were at stake.

By the start of the 2012 season, the team had the car dialed-in, but it wasn’t necessarily planning on racing weekly from April to October. Rather, that decision was made for them by the results.

“We didn’t intend on racing the entire season, but we won the season opener and three of the first six races,” Christian said. The success continued through the 2012 season and as each week passed, the picture became clearer, showing a fight between Breunig and Luck for the title.

A feature win by Breunig, in the second week of September, basically clinched the title for he and Christian’s team. In a season when Christian and Breunig didn’t plan to compete for a title, by default their plans changed and hardware was added to the trophy case.

“On our dry-erase board, we listed the goals for the season,” Christian said. “Only one was listed – ‘have fun.’ And we accomplished that.”