By Ben Deatherage
BENTON, Wis. (May 30, 2025) — The number on the door says 211. But the story behind that number is as layered and handcrafted as the engines Jason Robbins builds in the quiet hours of his life, tucked in the rolling farmland of southwest Wisconsin.
It’s a Friday evening in Benton, population hovering just above 1,000, where lead mines once fed the Union’s rifled muskets and now powers the dreams of stock car hopefuls. In a town where the most famous factory is Spooky Pinball — a family-run outfit building arcade marvels and fielding a race team — Jason Robbins lives a dual life. By day, he’s a machining instructor at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College. By night, he’s the wheelman of the no. 211 Sunoco IMCA Stock Car for Spooky Pinball founder Chuck Emery.
The story of the number? It was quite the compromise.
“Chuck had 11E, and I’ve had 21 in the family forever,” said Robbins. “But the 11E was big for Chuck. His uncle raced that number back in the ’80s and he still comes out to the track in Dubuque and watches. It meant a lot to him and his family. So Chuck said, ‘What if we just put the two together?’ And there it was — 211.”
The Tinkerer from the Grandstands
Robbins’ path to the cockpit wasn’t glamorous — more grinding than glitter.
“My parents and some of their friends got into Enduro racing in the mid-’90s — just for fun at first. But the next year, they built a real stock car and started getting serious. I was always at the track, watching from the stands, and wrenching on engines whenever I could. That’s what I loved — tearing things apart and figuring out how they worked.”
At just 15, he got the nod to race — in a full-bodied entry-level local Stock Car class with an old Camaro clip and a two-link rear suspension. The machine weighed over 3,000 pounds. Robbins had never even driven on the street.
“I got in thinking to go fast, you just stay wide open,” he laughed. “So I went down the frontstretch at Lafayette County Speedway, turned into one, got on the gas in the center… and pushed straight into the wall. That was my first night, and it was a rough year, but it taught me.”
He moved around, running Limited Late Models locally before stepping into the Sunoco IMCA Late Models for his first taste of Speedway Motors IMCA Weekly Racing. But things took a turn when a buddy, Manny Bennett, offered him a Karl Chevrolet IMCA Northern SportMod for a night.
“We started running it and bounced around a few places. After a while, I decided to build my own car using a front clip I’d cut off another chassis. I pieced it together with whatever steel I could find and welded the whole thing myself. I ran that car for a couple of years.”
Spooky Partnership, Serious Results
Then Chuck Emery came calling. A racer himself, Emery was fielding a Sunoco IMCA Hobby Stock but struggling. He needed help — or maybe a new direction.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you jump in a Stock Car?’ Dubuque was just starting to bring them in, and I wasn’t sure at first. I didn’t know how it’d be, running for someone else. We’re in our second year together, and it’s been great. The racing is tight and intense — you really can’t give an inch.”
The Spooky Motorsports squad made a statement early in 2025, winning the season opener at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on April 27.
Jason Robbins hoists his trophy in celebration after winning the season-opening Sunoco IMCA Stock Car feature at Dubuque Fairgrounds Speedway on April 27. (Photo by Mercede Sweet Photography)
The Professor with Grease Under His Nails
Away from the dirt, Robbins is affectionately known as “The Professor.” He teaches machining at the same school he once attended — Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore. The institution was recently honored with the 2025 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, naming it the top two-year technical college in the nation — a distinction Robbins takes great pride in.
The campus of Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore, where Jason Robbins teaches machining and CNC programming. (Photo by SWTC.edu)
When an instructor position opened, Robbins was deep into running his own business — Robbins Precision Machine — with his brother.
The operation was gaining momentum when life took a turn. Robbins’ brother got married, and his wife accepted a job offer in Montana. With a move on the horizon, the future of the business suddenly came into question. Around the same time, one of Jason’s former instructors approached him with an opportunity to take over the entire machining program at Southwest Tech.
“I wasn’t sure at first — we’d put so much into the engine business, and things were going really well. But in the end, I took the teaching job. I still get to do machining and engine work on the side, which is perfect. Between December and now, I’ve built 14 engines for different racers, and it’s been awesome watching them go out and run.”
It all started with a lawnmower when he was around 10 years old.
“While other kids were playing video games, I was in the garage tearing engines apart, trying to figure out what made them tick. Racing pushed all of that — you were always chasing a better motor. That’s what hooked me.”
He’s passing that passion on to a new generation — showing kids how to run CNC machines, how to think critically, and how to turn precision into power.
Life in Lead Country
Long before pinball machines and stock cars, Benton and the surrounding region played a critical role in American industry. By the mid-1850s, the lead-rich hills of southwestern Wisconsin — along with nearby Galena, Illinois, and Dubuque, Iowa — produced nearly 90 percent of the nation’s lead. Production peaked in 1857 at 36 million pounds annually, much of it shipped east by rail or through ports in Milwaukee and Chicago. The Civil War revitalized the slowing industry, as the region’s lead was smelted into bullets for the Union armies.
Today, Emery’s Spooky Pinball shop is the town’s largest employer. With kids and crew building high-end arcade machines for customers around the world, the shop has become as much a cultural hub as a factory floor. Chuck’s YouTube channel — Old Guy Hobbies — adds another layer, chronicling the race team’s adventures with equal parts humor and humanity. Viewers tune in not just for racing, but for the stories that surround it.
Back in Benton, Robbins’ story is woven into that same community fabric. His parents are building the Blackstone Campground nearby — a place for travelers and racers to relax and enjoy the driftless beauty of southwestern Wisconsin.
And Robbins? He’s the quiet technician threading it all together — in the garage, the classroom, and on the track.
Robbins is also fueled by the support of his wife, Jessica, and their two young sons, Thomas and Callan. Though the boys are still little, they already enjoy going to the racetrack, soaking in the sights and sounds, and watching their dad compete.
That’s the spirit behind the 211. And behind the man who drives it.
