Whitman cashes in after IMCA Modified win

A picture-perfect night for racing brought a large crowd to the Legendary Half Mile at Shawano Speedway. With added money in the IMCA Modified division, it was sure to be a big night of racing.

Jayden Schmidt, Eric “Chummy” Arneson, Johnny Whitman, Gunner Frank and Brad Wedde had the biggest of nights with feature wins in their respective divisions.

The IMCA Sport Mods got the show rolling with Jason Jach trying to find a groove after a rough early start to the season. Jach grabbed the early advantage despite multiple cautions in the early going.

While Jach didn’t want to see any yellow flags, Schmidt was happy to see them. Schmidt, having started mid-pack, used each caution to shrink the gap to the front of the pack. On lap 10, Schmidt wrestled away the lead and cruised to a feature win.

Jach finished with a strong runner-up performance, with Jeffery Teske in third place.

It is getting very difficult to find adjectives that explain just how great the action has been in the IMCA Stock Car division. Saturday was no exception.

For the first nine laps, Vern Stedjee was out in front of all the craziness behind him. Kyle Frederick rose to the top on lap 10 and looked to escape.

Meanwhile, Arneson was battling with numerous heavy hitters in three-wide battles that evolved into four-wide wildness. Arneson snuck past Frederick with four laps left and drove to the win.

Chucky Forstner grabbed third, with Travis VanStraten and Trent Nolan using late-race charges to complete the top five.

Thanks to LINE-X Extreme Coating, there were 1,000 reasons to win the IMCA Modified feature. Normally a driver leading green to checkered for the win makes the recap a boring thing to write, but not on this night.

Whitman took the lead on the opening lap after starting third. Whitman then began to power away from the field. With multiple feature wins this season, Mike Mullen was doing his best to entertain as he was slicing his way to the front. By lap six, Mullen made his way to second from 10th.

Mullen began to cut into the lead lap after lap, and it looked like he would get by the Whitman machine on multiple occasions. Whitman was up to every challenge.

A late-race caution gave Mullen one more shot, but Whitman was up to the challenge and picked up the win. Mullen was second with Marcus Yarie third and Lance Arneson fourth.

Frank wouldn’t let anyone spoil his pole position start as he jumped to a big lead in the Late Model feature. Building an over five-second lead at one point in the race, Frank was just too strong.

Luke Postl would be the talk if it wasn’t for Frank, as Postl finished a strong second. Brett Swedberg finished third with Mullen grabbing fourth while racing double duty.

Wedde kept up his strong season with a win in the Mighty 4’s as he took the lead on lap two and cruised to victory.

Tanner Westphal finished second. Taylor Becher and Alexis Michonski completed the top four.