The ARTGO Challenge Series was a United States midwest late model short track racing series that ran from 1975 until 1998. Many race car drivers have used the ARTGO series as a stepping stone to get into ASA, ARCA, and NASCAR. A guy by the name of Art Frigo created the series with the help of Bob Roper and John McKarns. He came up with the name by taking his first full name and the last two letters of his last name, coming up with the name ARTGO. The first race was held on September 7, 1975 at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois. The inaugural Wayne Carter Classic was won by Tom Reffner. Frigo sold the series to John & Sue McKarns in 1979. In 1998 the McKarns licensed the name to NASCAR and NASCAR took full control of the series. The series went through different name changes with different title sponsors including the RE/MAX Challenge Series, International Truck & Engine Midwest Series, and finally the AutoZone Elite Division, Midwest Series. Under the NASCAR era the series had identical rules to three other NASCAR regional series (Northwest, Southeast and Southwest). In 2006, after dwindling car counts and lack of races on the schedule NASCAR finally shut down the AutoZone Elite Division. To replace the NASCAR Midwest Series, the ASA Midwest Tour was created in 2007 by Racing Speed Associates, LLC as a new touring series that was similar in format to the former ARTGO Challenge Series.

Richard "Dick" Trickle (born October 27, 1941) is a retired American race car driver. He raced for decades around the short tracks of Wisconsin, winning many championships along the way. Trickle has competed in the ASA, ARTGO, ARCA, All Pro, IMCA, NASCAR, and USAC.

In more than an estimated 2,200 races, Trickle has logged one million laps and has won around 1,000 feature races. He was billed as the winningest short track driver in history. Trickle's career highlights include racing to 67 wins in 1972, winning seven ARTGO Championships in nine years between 1979 to 1987, winning back to back ASA AC-Delco Challenge championships in 1984 and 1985, the 1968 USAC Stock Car rookie of the year, and winning the 1989 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award in what was then called the Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup). Trickle was nicknamed the "White Knight" as referenced by his sponsored SuperAmerica paint scheme, when he raced in Wisconsin.

Eight-year-old Dick Trickle was playing tag with his cousin Verlon on the rafters in a house under construction when he fell two floors to the basement and broke his hip. He was transferred from a local hospital to the University of Wisconsin Hospital with slow recovery. His recovery was so slow that the doctors gave up and sent him home presuming that he would be an invalid for the rest of his life. Trickle later began to walk, although he still walks with a slight limp. He spent three years in a cast from his waist to his foot. While he was recovering as a nine-year-old, a friend took him to his first races at Crown Speedway in his hometown of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. "When I got there I was flabbergasted," Trickle said. "I thought it was the neatest thing. Free shows were nothing compared to it. That race never left my mind until I was 16. I knew I was going to drive a race car when I was 16."

Mark Anthony Martin (born January 9, 1959) is an American stock car driver. He currently drives the #55 Aaron's Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on a part time basis. He has the second most wins in the Nationwide Series with 49. He has finished second in the Sprint Cup Series standings five times and has been described by ESPN as "The best driver to never win a championship."

Martin began his racing career as a young man on the dirt tracks of Arkansas. He moved on to asphalt racing and joined the ASA racing series. During his ASA career, Mark raced against Dick Trickle, Jim Sauter, Joe Shear and Bobby Allison. Mark went on to earn Rookie of the Year in 1977. Mark rounded out his ASA career winning twenty-two races and four championships (1978, 1979, 1980, and 1986).

Martin had a tumultuous beginning in NASCAR, driving for six different teams from 1981 to 1987. He made five starts in 1981 driving for Bud Reeder, earning two pole positions at Nashville and Richmond and finishing third in his final race at Martinsville.

Jim Sauter (born June 1, 1943) is a former NASCAR race car driver from Necedah, Wisconsin.

Sauter started racing in 1964 in a modified at Raceway Park in Savage, Minnesota. He moved up to late models the following year. Sauter moved to Wisconsin, and his career took off after he won the North Star 500 at the Minnesota State Fair in a Dave Marcis Chevelle. Sauter said "The funny thing about that race was the fact that we had a barn full of various brands of tires that we wanted to use up and ended up with Goodyear on the outside and Firestone on the inside for no other reason than that. Everyone thought it must be the hot tip." Marcis called Sauter in 1978 and asked him to drive his racecar in the ARCA 200. Sauter battled Bruce Hill for the win on the last lap. They crashed, with Hill ending his race along the wall and Sauter won.

Sauter returned to Wisconsin to win the 1981 track championship at Wisconsin International Raceway. He also drove part-time in the Winston Cup series, posting four top ten finishes in 76 starts.