For those race fans who donated to and have been following the Shawano Fans Fund, there now is a winner. With a very good final weekend for donations, the total was pushed to $2,005. That means the top four vote getters will be offered $500 each to come and race at Shawano Speedway on Wednesday, Aug. 3 with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series night of racing.

When the final votes were tabulated, Jason Feger, a.k.a. “The Highside Hustler,” had received the most votes with a total of 317. Feger is from Bloomington, Illinois. He will be making his first appearance at Shawano Speedway. There is a reason his nickname is “The Highside Hustler,” and I bet most fans can guess why. If the track has a “cushion” on the high-side, you can expect Feger to try and make that the fast way around the track.

Kent Robinson of Bloomington, Indiana received the second most votes with 266. As Feger has, Robinson has also confirmed that he will be at Shawano Speedway on Aug. 3. I don’t recall ever seeing Robinson race in person, so I am looking forward to his appearance at the Speedway.

Third in voting was Chad Simpson of Mount Vernon, Iowa, with 256 votes. Simpson doesn’t travel around the country to race as much as some other drivers as he tends to race closer to home. I don’t believe Simpson has ever raced at Shawano Speedway before. He has confirmed he will be at Shawano Speedway on Aug. 3.

Fourth in voting, and the final driver to be offered $500 from the Shawano Fans Fund, was Bub McCool of Vicksburg, Mississippi. McCool received 224 votes. You have to admit, that has to be one of the better racing names out there. Unfortunately, McCool has had some changes take place on his race team over the last week or so and won’t be able to make to Shawano Speedway.

Because McCool backed out, the fouth spot of the Shawano Fans Fund was offered to Frank Heckenast Jr. He did accept the invitation and will be at Shawano Speedway on Aug. 3.

Since this will be the last Full Throttle column before the big race on Aug. 3 I’d like to go over some of tidbits concerning the race. There were 32 Late Models on hand at least year’s World of Outlaws show at Shawano Speedway. Other than the 13 regular drivers following the World of Outlaws Late Model Tour, it is tough to say how many Late Models will be on hand because there is no pre-entry for the event. My prediction is that there will be more than that at this year’s show.

Not knowing exactly who will show up can be both good and bad. It’s bad because if fans knew exactly which drivers would be there, they may be more apt to buy tickets for the show. On the other hand, not knowing exactly which drivers will be there adds to the anticipation of the show. Fans can’t wait until they get to the track in order to see who exactly will be at the show.

At last year’s event, five drivers timed in under what was the track record at that time. The track record was set last year when Billy Moyer timed in with a lap of 19.630 seconds.

That’s just the information regarding the Late Model portion of the show. The IMCA Stock Cars will also be on hand, racing for a top prize of $1,000. In fact, the top four spots will be paid more than what the IMCA Stock Car feature winner receives each week at Shawano Speedway.

Hopefully there will be plenty of new IMCA Stock Car drivers at the Speedway for this event.

Don’t forget about this weekend’s racing program which will include Hall of Fame inductions. Pappy Diemel and Les Yaeger will be inducted into the Shawano Speedway Hall of Fame. I will write more about those two in next week’s column.