Remembering Scotty O
By John Wells and Gary Schmelzer
Note: the following statistics were provided by MIS Historian Gary Schmelzer
He was best known by fans at Madison International Speedway as the driver of the black “O” car and in 1997 he was the best of the best amongst super late model drivers at MIS when he won the track championship. Altogether at Madison, Ollerman won thirteen feature events.
In October of 2011 Ollerman passed away at the age of 49.
This week Madison International Speedway will be holding it’s first round of the Triple Crown Challenge and the race will be known as the Scotty “O” Ollerman Memorial 100.
Here’s a look at his accomplishments over the course of a racing career that lasted nearly thirty years.
Scotty began his racing career in 1980 racing at the Columbus 151 Speedway and Jefferson Speedway. Driving a Sportsman car, he won six features at Columbus and two at Jefferson. For his efforts he finished second in the points at Columbus and seventh at Jefferson. He also added a combined fourteen fast times between the two tracks…not bad for a rookie season.
In 1981 he ran a Sportsman / Limited Late Model at Columbus and Jefferson. The next few years found him racing at Columbus, Madison and Slinger. In 1986 he spent time at several tracks including Madison where he picked up a semi-feature win.
The late-80’s found him piloting the familiar “O” car racing super late models at the Dells and Slinger along with a late model at Columbus.
In 1990 he won a pair of features at Columbus in a late model and added two more wins there in 1991 winding up third in the point standings.
When Madison re-opened in 1992, Ollerman was there for some events and wound up 27th in points. In 1993 he won a semi-feature at Madison and finished ninth in points.
In 1995 he finished in seventeenth at Madison before moving all the way up to fourth in 1996 with one feature win. Better things were yet to come.
The 1997 season was clearly Ollerman’s best at Madison as he ran the entire season at MIS and based on consistent finishes and winning five features he took home the track championship and joined an elite group of champions.
For the next few years he continued to run on and off at Madison along with other tracks throughout Wisconsin.
A strong run at MIS in 2002 found him finishing sixth in points and powered by four feature wins in 2003 he was up to fifth in the standings.
He continued to race super late models on a limited schedule at Madison with his highest finishes being eleventh in 2005 and fifteenth in 2008.
In 2010 Ollerman won his second and final track championship. This time it was where it all began at Columbus 151 Speedway where he won the late model title and finished with four feature wins.
The 2010 season would be Ollerman’s final full season of racing and a fitting way to finish his career.