Portland,Maine- Mike Rowe, Russ Morse, Lyman McKeage and Shawn Brackett were the guests of honor at the 61st annual presentation of awards at the Holiday Inn by the bay in Portland Maine Saturday night. The awards ceremony closed out the 2009 NASCAR Whelan All American Series at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in front of a capacity crowd in the banquet room.
Maine racing legend Mike Rowe was honored with the championship awards for the Pro Series division. Rowe received his championship awards from NASCAR and Beech Ridge and addressed the crowd in attendance recalling the NASCAR champions week in Charlotte and spoke some heartfelt words to his RJF Motorsports team. Rowe then recalled an evening this past season where he presented his feature winning trophy to Jordan Emerson, the young Whiz Kid racer injured in a crash 2 years ago and how that brought a big smile to her face. Rowe went one step beyond that on Saturday night as he announced that his championship trophy was going home with Jordan Emerson who was in attendance. Rowe made his way to the table Jordan was sitting at and presented his championship trophy to her much to the delight of the crowd.
Russ Morse stepped to the podium to collect the Sport Series championship awards. Morse capped off a brilliant season by thanking his team and family members who urged him to keep going when at times he didn’t think his heart was in it. This was the first championship for Morse in his 9 year racing career. Lyman McKeage collected his 3rd Beech Ridge championship on Saturday night. The elder statesman of the Wildcat division won the title by a scant 17 points and gave much of the credit to his team and family members who work tirelessly maintaining a fleet of 5 race cars that they use in various racing series’.
Shawn Brackett was the Road Runner champion for the 3rd consecutive year. Despite the fact that the Road Runner division is growing and the competition is getting tougher, Brackett stepped up his game to stay at the head of the class. Brackett thanked his family for the sacrifices they make so he can race as well as thanked his sponsors and team.
Several highly coveted awards were presented lead by the Driver of the decade award. Mike Maietta Sr. was the first winner of this prestigious award and Saturday night the award was presented to Bobby Babb. The annual Driver of the year award was announced and to nobody’s surprise Mike Rowe was the recipient of the award. The award for Outstanding new driver was presented to third generation racer Justin Cusack.
Rookie of the year awards went to Bradley Babb (Pro Series), Justin Cusack (Sport Series), Matt Gain (Wildcat) and Matt Dow (Road Runner). Most Improved drivers were Aaron Ricker (Pro Series), Nate Leavitt (Sport Series), Dan Bean (Wildcat) and David Turner (Road Runner).
The 2010 NASCAR Whelan All American Series at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway will kick off in May. Expect to see return visits from the Pro All Star Series and the American Canadian Tour as well as the True Value Modifieds.