Racing has always been in the Mellenberndt Family since Bret’s father, Bill, began racing motorcycles at the young age of 12. Bill, having won “Mr. Motorcycle of South Dakota” in 1961, decided to move to the ranks of sprint car racing in 1965. Winning many races and championships Bill retired from driving in 1980. Racing wasn’t over for the Mellenberndt family though; Bret’s older brother Chad began racing sprint cars in South Dakota and surrounding areas. Bret was right there on Chad’s side helping him out on the sprint car. Bret, watching his brother race and knowing of the stories his father told, obviously wanted to sit in the seat as well.

In 1992 Bret began racing quads on dirt and, living up here in the frozen tundra of South Dakota, also raced them on ice. In 1998, Bret had the opportunity to work on a World of Outlaw team and decided to take that opportunity to learn a little more about the sport of sprint car racing. After a year of that, Bret went back home to South Dakota and raced his quad all over the States. 2004 was the first year Bret and his father decided to build a non-wing sprint car. They raced at the local race track here and won the season championship. In 2005 Bret raced his quad along with an Xtreme Series Go-kart with the ICE/WSRA World Championship Series on indoor hockey arenas which covered an area all across the United States, coast to coast. Bret won the ICE/WSRA World Championships in both the Pro Quad and Xtreme Kart Divisions along with winning ten out of the twenty non-wing sprint car events he entered in the same year. In 2006, Bret conquered non-wing sprint cars in South Dakota by winning the Track Championships at all three of the tracks he raced at. Bret moved out to Indiana the following year to focus on non-wing sprint car racing. Bret worked for Scott Benic Enterprises while racing sprint cars full-time on his own competing in local and national USAC events. This year, Bret plans to live here in Sioux Falls, SD, and race a complete USAC schedule along with hitting all the local shows he can hit. If you look at the schedule here on www.bretmellenberndtacing.com you will see how busy of year Bret Mellenberndt will have.