Pete Aarsand

The car owner who has arguably flown under the radar more than anyone else at the Speedbowl has to be Pete Aarsand, whose drivers won 6 championships across 3 different divisions at the shoreline oval and has won an unprecedented 95 Speedbowl races as a car owner.

Pete first got involved in the Sunday Stocker Series of the early 1990’s. He fielded a car for his cousin Kari Little, who won the 1994 Women on Wheels Mini Stock Championship. They dominated the division winning 7 consecutive features out of the 9 held that season.

Aarsand then became the car owner for Mini Stock heavyweight Bruce Thomas, who was already the division’s winningest driver at the time. From 1996-2001 they won 22 races and the 1997 championship together. When Bruce’s son Bruce Thomas Jr started racing in 1999, Pete fielded his car as well and they won the 2001 Mini Stock Championship. Aarsand won 25 races with the Thomas family driving his Mini Stocks from 1996-2001.

Aarsand and Bruce Jr moved onto the Late Model division in 2002, and when the division began to convert over to ACT cars, they soon became the dominant team in the division. They won 10 or more races in each season from 2007-2009 and 3 consecutive Late Model Championships. Phil Rondeau, the only other driver to win 3 straight titles, won his first driving for Jay Stuart before winning the last 2 in his own #19.

Aarsand’s #35 won 63 races in the Speedbowl Late Models from 2003-2018 with Bruce winning 61 and Jay Stuart winning 2 during the 2004 season. In addition to his 6 owner championships, Aarsand also finished runner-up to the title in 6 other seasons, 3 each with Bruce Thomas and Bruce Jr.

With Bruce Thomas Jr retiring at the end of the 2010’s, so too did Aarsand. He quietly left the shoreline oval with 95 feature wins, the most by any car owner in Speedbowl history. Through the 2025 season, even driver/owners like Keith Rocco, Don Collins and Phil Rondeau all have enough wins driving for other car owners that drop their career owner wins below Aarsand’s 95.

STATISTICAL SNAPSHOT

PETE AARSAND
SPEEDBOWL PHOTO ALBUM