Jim Sauter

1/6/1943

Record updated 30-May-06

Jim Sauter is from Necedah, a small upper-Midwestern town located off of Route 21 in the southern third of Wisconsin.

A carpenter by trade, he is an extremely determined individual who always had to work for what he had, and he instilled that quality in his kids of which he has 11 (Jay, Tim, Teonna, Danielle, Therese, Gabrielle, Jennifer, Angela, Jim Jr., Johnny and Andrea with his first wife, who passed away several years ago and Joe with his second wife, Debbie).

Jim Sauter started racing on the short tracks of Wisconsin and his love of cars would eventually bring him to some of the big leagues of Short Track racing and beyond.

In 1979, Jim raced his Camaro at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Speedway, racing against the likes of Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, Mike Eddy, Don Gregory and Rusty Wallace.  Jim had made it to the big time of racing, and in his first ASA start, he finished 29th after starting ninth.  Eventually he would win that prestigious race and many others along the way.  Jim also spent time in Winston Cup cars, Busch Grand National cars and ARCA.  Even to this day, he works closely with the International Race of Champions (IROC).  In fact, Ned Jarrett once said if Jim Sauter would have come to NASCAR sooner, he could have been one of the best there ever was.

He has been a test driver for IROC since 1986 and has done it all from making great race cars to making great race car drivers, which is evidenced by the seemingly never ending list of Sauter's sons garnering championships, race wins and recognition attributed to their driving abilities. Sauter has posted numerous race wins and championships over his 30-year career driving in a wide variety of divisions including NASCAR's Winston Cup Series, Busch Series, and Truck Series.