The first award tonight has been put in place to recognize an outstanding achievement or accomplishment throughout the past season. Past recipients include Mike Kekich, Randy Ferguson, Mark Murphy, and our outstanding safety coordinators Keith Shilling and Brian Turk.
Tonight, two up and coming young drivers will join this group.
The second recipient is also a relative newcomer to Mercer Raceway Park. Imagine if a driver had the ability to foresee the future and the ultimate end of their upcoming season. If he was aware that throughout that time he would actually compete against 180 different stock car drivers from throughout a wide region, would he ever imagine that in the end he would finish every feature event that he competed in at the Park.
Oh, and lets go a step further; he actually had 17 top 10s in 19 races and finished the year with nine straight top 5 finishes, his two worst finishes being only 11th, and he ultimately finished second in our points.
Do you think he would chose to face this unbelievable challenge? It was probably a good thing that he was not aware on opening night of this daunting task, as he competed with vigor to compile these tremendous statistics.
Our second recipient of the 2001 Outstanding Achievement Award- Mr. Shaun Hooks.