68 PEOPLE attended our 12th annual awards banquet held Saturday, February
15,2003 at the Dal Mar Catering Hall in Nappanee!
Most of them took advantage of our once per only photo sale! WE registered
a total of 7 more cars for the 2003 season! Included in the registrations
was a brand new street stock driver, Andrea Caines, 17, sister of 2002 kart
champion Jacob Caines!
A fantastic meal of chicken, swiss steak, baked potato, corn, rolls, salad
and pie was served plus coffee and soft drinks and vegetables and cheese
and dip! It was all you could eat and no one went home hungry!
Good Year track champion jackets were presented to Jason Schaefer (p4)
Randy Burns (Bomber) and Paul Scott (Pro Stock). These 3 plus Richard
Allbee (TC), Joe Fitzpatrick (MS), Jacob Caines (karts) and Fred
Garrett (Mtc) received large trophies for the winning their season points
championships! All were first time champions except for Garrett who won his
2nd MTC championship in a row!
A special "Friend of the Mottville Speedway" plaque was given to Robert
Sutton for his support in the drawings during the past season and for his
snow plowing efforts at the track!
Rookie of the Year plaques were presented to Derk Sargent (MTC), Steve
Clifford (MTC), Jon Fitzpatrick (MS).
Sportsman of the Year plaques were presented to Jeff Brunt (PS), Eric Root
(TC), John Fitzpatrick (MTC), Scott Rozner (Bombers), Dave Logan (Bombers)
and Gary Denzel (Bombers).
A total of 55 plaques and trophies were presented which was a record high!
Money was also handed out! Paul Scott got $500, Randy Burns $500, Joe
Fitzpatrick $250, Fred Garrett $250, Richard Allbee $200 and Eric Root
$200. This was based on division and number of nights ran for the season.
For our classes of cars this was a very good points fund pay-out! These
were the drivers who raced at 80% of the nights in a division.
Rita Courtney, Shelly Lauderdale and Eric Root donated several nice prizes for the
drawing!
Everyone seemed very excited about the 2003 racing season!
Steve Clifford told me he and Chuck Hall have about 5 MTC ready to go!
I have been having trouble keeping track of all the Fitzpatrick cars but if I
have it straight Jon, John and Joe each have a MS plus Christy Zimmerman
and Susan Beers each have a MS! Plus Bryan Whitaker and Larry Birk! So that
is 7 right there plus Merle Yoder and Wesley Schaefer! Plus Jason Schaefer
has one ready to go also! So that is at least 10 that we know of right now!
Robert Sutton will have his truck back as a SS! Plus Vic Krontz has ss!
Mike Grand, Scott Rozner registered SS!
Jacob Caines registered a kart.
Sutton told me Danny Zimmerman's MTC is ready to go! Derk Sargent has his
MTC about ready also! (needs some doors I am told)! Plus Fred Garrett has
his MTC ready except for tires.
So bottom line is that we have a big bunch of SS, MS and MTC ready to go!
Randy Burns told me his wife will be the powder puffs and Vic Krontz's
daughter also!
2003 schedules were passed out and you will find that schedule elsewhere on this
web site!
It was great having Al and Brenda Maurer of Goshen Collision Center with us
again! Goshen Collision Center has been our best sponsor over the last
several years and Al got a big hand from the crowd for his sponsorship!
Brenda did scold me over a personal matter, however!
All in all it was a fantastic banquet with a lot of excitement for the 2003
season!
Saturday I also had some very good news about our electrical and pump
problems at the track! We should have both fixed by no later than Wednesday
and have water in front for February Follies II Sunday, February 23! As for
the water in back Vic Krontz and I are going to try to get it going Tuesday
afternoon! Vic has a new truck, by the way and a cell phone!
John Fitzpatrick talked to me about running some vintage race cars. He has
about 6 cars in a group in this area and we may well work something out for
them to race a few nights at Mottville this season!
The awards banquet always is a kick-off to the 2003 racing season and it
sounds like 2003 will be our best season ever! We have the cost affordable
racing classes in SS, MS, MTC and if you can not afford one of these
classes than you simply can not afford to race anywhere!
We have reduced our Pro Stock down to 50 nights for the season and
hopefully this will help the car count in this class! Jeff Brunt says he is
all ready to go!
Talk about what a difference a year makes! One year ago at our banquet
which was actually one week earlier than this year it was 54! Tonight it
was about 20 with a wind chill factor below 0!
But the weather forecast is for warmer tempts starting Monday! Maybe high
30's for February Follies II! Randy Burns and Robert Sutton are ready to
plow the track if needed! So we will be running February 23!
Oh yes, we certainly missed Tom Pearson, our lost time pit steward! He had
2 teeth pulled Friday and was having a lot of pain! But Lillie Person, our
longest continuous track official, was there! She took a piece of pumpkin
pie home for Tom!
So only one week until February Follies II and only two weeks until the
start of the 2003 racing season, our 53rd consecutive season of racing at
the Mottville Speedway!
I have never been more eager for a season to start and I am confident it
will be our best season ever!