Scott Owen, Leader Columnist
With only two weeks remaining this season, I felt it appropriate to roll out this year’s edition of the Corny awards.
Much like the Oscars, Tonys, or Grammys; the Cornys are awarded to some of the outstanding performers and performances at the historic half-mile. The Cornys’ namesake, Warren “Corny” Schmidt, was involved heavily with the race program at the Shawano Speedway.
Corny has been a driver, crewmember, car builder, flagman and race director. Now north of 80 years old, Corny is still active in the sport of racing with the Caroline Valley Ice Racing club in addition to attending many Saturday night events at Shawano.
Without further ado, this year’s Cornys:
This year’s Corny award for comeback racer is shared by two pilots. Veteran Brad Rohloff returned to racing this season in an IMCA Stock Car after a few years away from racing. The Pulaski pilot has stormed back this season. After a slow start, he has really picked up the pace over the second half of the season, scoring a feature win a few weeks back.
The other racer sharing in the comeback award is young Konnor Wilinski. Wilinski struggled mightily right out of the box, but since July 8, Wilinski has scored four feature wins and now sits fourth in points.
The Corny for breakthrough performance goes to Clintonville teenager Max Oreskovich. In his first year of racing, the 14-year-old, second-generation racer struggled a bit early on as one might expect. Much like Wilinski though, July 8 is when his season turned around. He scored his first win that night and has won three more features since then to lead the Mighty Fours division in feature wins.
The Corny for most consistent goes to Mighty Fours racer Calvin Stueck. Stueck entered the season with one goal in mind, a track championship. He has done so already, wrapping up the track championship after last Saturday’s racing. Stueck did it without a single feature win, but he has 12 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 13 nights of racing.
The Corny for best new nickname goes to Sport Mods racer Kevin “The Bear Slayer” Bethke. The Neenah hot shoe acquired the name earlier this summer after his truck tangled with a bear on Highway 47 south of Bonduel. The affable racer has been a good sport about it and even added the new nickname to the side of his car.
Among awards handed out before the show, Tom Naeyaert surprised no one with another award for best mustache.
Only two nights remain in the 2017 season.
Late Model and IMCA Modified point titles will each come right down to the wire.
See you at the speedway.