Friday night over 170 racecars took to the high banks of Michigan’s oldest continually operating speedway to qualify for the big money features in their respective classes. The evening was capped off by a feature for legend cars won by Drew Simmons and a 50-lap race for Enduro cars won by Steve Schmidt.

Saturday brought gray skies and the qualifier back out for the big dance started off by the Sportsman class with 19 Josh Schmidt bringing the field to the green for the 75 lap main. Before the first lap was in the books, heat winner, 44 Terry Briggs jumped to the lead followed by 16 Dale Zimmerman. By lap five Zimmerman would take the lead and bring 31 John Zawacki along and into second place. A lap ten yellow strung out the pack for the restart that found Zimmerman, Zawacki and Briggs racing hard up front. After another quick yellow for a blown motor there would be a slight change up front when Zawacki took his car to the pits for repairs leaving Zimmerman, Briggs and 21 James Farley up front. Twenty-five laps in up front remained the same but the next four, 23 Mike Ulman Jr., 28 Scott Watkins, Schmidt and 69 Brian Hager were fighting hard to better their spot. Halfway found Harger leave the track. The rest of the of the front-runners stayed the same. The Briggs machine gave out at lap fifty leaving Zimmerman, Farley and Ulman Jr. the top three. The veteran, Zimmerman was the class of the field as he drove away to the checkers followed by Farley, Ulman Jr., Watkins and 44 Brian Norton the top five.

A big Factory Stock class put a full twenty-two cars on the track for their part of the show. Heat winner X50 Ed Newman showed the way to the start followed by a fast bunch of drivers from all over the state. Under the threat of rain, Newman lead lap five, chased by heat winner 34 Pierre Letienne, heat winner 8 David Murday and heat winner 50 Jay Woolworth. 2 Bob Farley, charging hard, drove to third by lap ten when a crash took place on the front stretch. Two cars left on the hook and the race went on with Newman, Murday and Farley came to the green with sprinkles in the air. Newman cut down a tire and Farley drove into the lead with Murday and 69 Barry Vance close behind. Murday left the track leaving the running order Farley, Vance, Woolworth and Letienne. Halfway there was no change up front but the rain started to increase. Lap Forty-five the yellow flew for 222 Gary Shanker and bunched up the pack for the restart. The rain started to make the track slick and the decision was made to cut the race short at lap fifty-two giving the win to Farley followed by Vance, Woolworth, Letienne and 21 Dan Engle the top five.

Sunday afternoon the sun was out and the action was hot as the Mods took to the track for 100 laps. 19 cars took the green but by turn three, three were on the infield and seven were over the bank. After some time to do repairs all of the racers came back out to try again. Another early yellow would put the field in single file with heat winner 60 Rod Thompson, heat winner 7 Todd Matheson and 0 Johnny Belott up front. At lap fifteen Matheson spun bunching up the field and moving everyone up a spot. At the halfway point Thompson was still leading with Belott, 5A Jerry Artuzo and heat winner 15T Dave Thiel in tow. After the mandatory pit stop the action went on. Thompson was the class of the field and the train kept rollin’ on with only three minor cautions. At the stripe it was Thompson, Belott, Artuzo, Thiel And 31 M. G Moll the top five.

Limited Late-Model racing was next and had as hard of a time getting started as the mods did taking three attempts to get in the first lap and losing heat winner 84 Sam Tremble. Heat winner 62 Mark Klein hit the stripe first with 15 Gary Kaiser, 33 Marty England and heat winner 43 Ken O’Conner in hot pursuit. 20 Robby Johnston spun at lap twenty with a little help from 0 Ryan Ostrander and tightened everyone up. Kaiser bothered Klein all the way to the mandatory yellow at halfway when the field stopped for fuel. When the action restarted we had Klein, Kaiser, England, 55 Tony Rosebrough and O’Conner the front five. Lap fifty-two saw 29 Mike Minor Jr. hard into the front stretch wall putting him out of the race. Lap fifty-five the leaders were racing hard. Kaiser got Klein loose and made the pass for the lead but had his hands full of England. Kaiser drove too hard into the corner and spun giving the lead to England followed by Rosebrough, Klein and Todd Rosebrough. Klein began to fade and with five laps to go took a ride over the turn three banking and put him out of the race. At the restart the race to the finish found Tony Rosebrough first followed by Todd Rosebrough, England, Ostrander and Johnston the top five.

The last race of the event was for the Mini-Stocks and heat winner 83 Keith Lutes brought them to the green and like the rest of the classes it took several tries to get going. Heat winner 7D Mike Bilicac made a charge at the drop of the green and took the early lead in this fifty-lap event. 88 Bobby Pauley came from mid pack into second with heat winner 19 Don Colbath III in third. After the first yellow the restart had Bilicac, B. Pauley, Colbath, 20 Andrew Shagene and Lutes the front-runners. At lap ten B. Pauley got around Bilicac for the lead. Shagene spun on lap fifteen and bunched up the field again. Twenty laps in and 11 Eric Valent had worked his way to third from mid pack behind Pauley and Bilicac. At halfway B. Pauley was the leader followed by Bilicac, Valent, 77 Dick Pauley and Colbath. The last twenty laps ran caution free and at the checkers it was B. Pauley the winner with Bilicac, Valent, D. Pauley and 28 Ken Duval Jr. filling the top five. 19 Jeff Willett picked up a heat win.

The Whittemore Racing Club would like to congratulate all of the race winners and points champions and their crews for doing such a great job and to thank all of the volunteers, staff, drivers, car owners and racing fans for making the 2002 racing season so exciting. Whittemore Speedway will host one more event this year, our fall Enduro Sept. 21. Visit us on line at: www. WHITTEMORESPEEDWAY.com