Had we known Anthony “Tony” Jorgensen in the mid-1960s when his very concerned dad first “encouraged” him to join the Club (hopefully saving his life), no way could we have pictured the tireless and popular SCCA® tech and pit volunteer he would become.
Indeed, the then-17-year-old New Jersey hot rodder who lost his license for street racing earned the 2025 SCCA Pit & Grid Worker of the Year Presented by Mazda award, and is now a very familiar volunteer in the Midwest.
The decades between read like a movie script: SCCA Drivers’ School in a first-edition L-88 Corvette Sting Ray and subsequently a NEDiv A Production title; skills development with a season in Brian Power’s Triumph TR-4A; a one-off Formula B race in Spain prelude to a full UK Formula 3 season in 1969; a terrifying year in the jungles of Vietnam (two Purple Hearts, many painful memories); and an extended second tour of duty in Germany where enthusiasm, trips to the Nürburgring and Zandvoort, and a sweet Porsche 914/6 got him through.
Ordered Stateside after four years, Jorgensen quit the Army and, in December 1976, returned home to New Jersey. Soon thereafter, though, a love interest led him to Wisconsin, in chase of the young lady he would soon marry, to her parents’ home in Waukesha.
The marriage ended after eight years (“We’re best of friends today, though”), but Jorgensen never left the Badger State.
“I quickly got to love this place,” he says. “Let me tell you, the people here are something else.”
Back on Track
Today, Jorgensen, happily single, is settled on three acres of woodland west of Milwaukee and is fully immersed, once again, in the sport. He’d drifted completely away until a chance meeting at Thanksgiving dinner in 1990 with Tony Machi, SCCA Milwaukee Region Counsel, led him back into the fold.
“Machi was, and is, a judge and a lawyer for the Central Division,” Jorgensen explains. “We got to talking, he showed me all of his racing stuff, and he said, ‘You'd be a perfect fit to come into SCCA.’ I said, ‘Well, I'm no longer interested in driving. A man’s gotta know his limitations. I'm too competitive, and if I can't be number one, I don't want to be out there.’ ‘Well, we have programs in corner working and we've got pit lane, we've got the grid, we've got Timing & Scoring, paddock, tech,’ he said. ‘Whatever you might want to do.’”
The late Hal Durham, a Datsun 240Z racer, was Milwaukee Region’s administrator at the time, Jorgensen remembers, and he and wife Mary co-sponsored Tony’s membership.
“Once I got in there, I went to the corners because, when I was racing, I always had the highest respect for those folks,” Jorgensen explains. “Then I got around the crews and I thought, ‘I want to go to pit lane 'cause I can interact with drivers and crews, which is my first love.’”
Thirty-five years later, Jorgensen is licensed for Flagging & Communications, Pit & Grid, and Tech.
“And I work all three,” he says. “I go to races a day early, work tech, then switch hats and do pit lane.”
He also volunteers for the local VSCDA vintage group and is a full-time Black Hawk Farms Raceway corner worker.
“For me, pit lane is where the action is, you know? Cars are coming and going, and I’ve gotten really good at it. I've developed such a relationship with crews from all over the country. I walked down pit lane at the June Sprints and people were leaning over the pit wall hugging me.
“And if you can get that kind of love and respect from people you’re supervising, you've done something right.
“I’ve always loved the social aspect of SCCA, and I think about future generations. I think about ways to market what we have so it reaches out into the community. So many people don't even know what SCCA is.”
Uncle Tony Wants You
Jorgensen especially loves talking to young people at the races.
“When young people come up, if I see them, I talk to them. I try real hard to recruit them. And I have absolutely no problem whatsoever mentoring them.
“The biggest thing for me,” he goes on, “is trying to get young people to want to volunteer. ‘How much do I get paid for doing this?’ I hear that a lot. So I tell them: ‘Well, as a volunteer you get free camping, free dinners, your evening meals taken care of most times.’ I tell them, ‘You get free beer, various social activities at the end of the race day. And you get up close and personal with a sport you love, whereas others have to sit home and watch TV.’”
“Me, I’m the last one to leave the party. I work hard, but I like to celebrate. I know how to network, and I’m always doing that. I'll go down pit lane and meet all the drivers and crews, greet them, tell them I'm glad they're there. Because without them, well, if those guys didn't enter, we wouldn't be here either. I thank them. And they appreciate that.
“I've done some crazy things in my time,” Jorgensen wraps up, “but my love for SCCA has been constant from the day I went to my first Drivers’ School. SCCA is basically my life now.”
Stories – Tony Jorgensen has stories. He’s a Milwaukee Region treasure. Track him down next time you’re in the Midwest, tell him you want to get involved, and he’ll point the way.
If you'd like to get involved in SCCA Road Racing events like Jorgensen, head to scca.com/trackside.
Photo of Tony Jorgensen being presented with a 2025 Worker of the Year award by SCCA President and CEO Mike Cobb (image by Jon Krolewicz).
