Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design
While most racers from the Northeast put the 2011 season to rest long ago, and are waiting out a long cold winter, Luke Whitteker has stretched his season right through to the end of the 2011 calendar year.
The 18-year-old Iroquois youth’s involvement in the Race 101 program has opened plenty of doors of opportunity this year. Whitteker has made several trips to North Carolina to attend classes, plus weekly online seminars that were also part of the curriculum for Race 101. One of the program was the opportunity to run laps at the famous Hickory Motor Speedway in Hickory, North Carolina.
Aside from the on track portion of the Race 101 program, and the wealth of knowledge that he learned over the course of the year, Whitteker has also enjoyed meeting new people, and making several connections that will last a lifetime with prominent people in the racing community.
As a group, some of the Race 101 staff, and several of this year students attended the annual P.R.I. (Performance Racing Industry) Trade Show that was held in Orlando, Florida recently. The objective of attending this show was to learn, and also to interact with other people from the racing community,
The P.R.I. Trade show hosts over 1000 racing related vendors, and takes in sellers from all over the United States, Canada and many other countries. The opportunity to interact with people from other forms of racing at a large trade show such as this is phenomenal.
“The PRI show was well worth the time,” says Whitteker. “I would recommend any racer that is looking to get a jump start for the upcoming season or learn more about new and up and coming products to check out similar expos. I made a lot of great new connections and learned a lot about products available to the dirt racing market”.
Whitteker also had other exciting events in November, as he was able to take to the track in the Race 101 house car at the famed Hickory Motor Speedway.
This was the first time Luke ever raced a car on pavement, and posted very consistent lap times that were comparable to other students with pavement experience. The Race 101 premiere driver will be chosen in January when the class returns to North Carolina for their graduation.
“We had an awesome practice session with Tony Blanchard from Race 101,” says Whitteker. “Asphalt racing is a lot of fun. It is very comparable to the go-kart racing that we did earlier in my career, and we enjoyed a lot of success with that.”
Whitteker also attended the annual Parts Peddler trade show in Syracuse during the month of November. The show is similar in nature to the P.R.I. Trade Show, only more scaled down, and typically more specific to the Northeast region.
Also the Whitteker Motorsports team participated in the annual Christmas Parade along the streets of Morrisburg. The Whitteker team prepared a float that included the race car, as well as a Christmas tree, and several Christmas decorations.
“I’d like to thank everyone that helped put the float together and represent Whitteker Motorsports in Morrisburg’s annual Christmas parade,” says Whitteker. “I hope every one appreciates the hard work that was put into the float as much as I do.”
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