Whitey Harris
Franklin, Wis. (August 2, 1980) – Whitey Harris of Lake Villa, Ill., won his first feature since early June, taking home the checkered in the fifth annual Richert Pumps 50 late model double point event at Hales Corner speedway on Saturday night.
The victory was the fifth of the season for Harris, who closed to within 260 of leader Al Schill. It was the second victory for Harris in this event.
Earlier in the evening, Mike Melius of Random Lake became the first late model chauffeur to crack the 18-second barrier on the third-mile oval. Melius came in with a time of 17.88 seconds, eclipsing his old mark of 18.146 seconds set last month.
Bill Strom jumped from his outside front row starting berth in the late model feature to take the lead, followed by Chuck Ostergaard and Don Schumacher.
Strom was hooked up and building a good lead when Brian Jaeger and Ed Kulka tangled in the fourth turn on the only caution of the contest.
On the restart, Strom continued too lead, but Al Schill was on the prowl and moved into fourth place. Harris was two spots back followed by Melius.
From the 11th to the 13th laps, Schill passed both Ostergaard and Schumacher, moving up behind Strom and cutting his advantage from six-car-lengths to nothing. The Franklin pilot took over the top spot on lap 15 with a burst of speed on the backstretch.
Meanwhile, Harris was moving up and took over second from Strom on lap 17. Melius moved up to fourth but was getting serious pressure from Brian Leslie.
With Schill and Harris, a car-length apart on the 26th trip, Harris started using thee outside groove to his advantage and pulled up alongside the leader. Schill was only able to hold off the hard-charging Harris for three more laps as Whitey shot past him on the front stretch at the beginning of lap 27.
As Harris and Schill battled it out, Leslie overhauled Melius for third on lap 29. However, the two frontrunners were well ahead at that point, making the going rough for Leslie, who was clearly the quickest car on the track.
By lap 40, Harris was six-car-lengths ahead of Schill and on his way to victory. Schill held second while Leslie took third and Melius hung on for fourth. Strom rounded out the top five.
In preliminary action, George Miner of Pewaukee won the 15-lap sportsman feature.
Results –
1. Whitey Harris, Lake Villa, Ill.
2. Al Schill, Franklin
3. Brian Leslie, Gurnee, Ill.
4. Mike Melius, Random Lake
5. Bill Strom, West Allis
6. Bill Prietzel, Franklin
7. Ted Dollum, Brookfield
8. Don Schumacher, Milwaukee
9. Ed Kulka, Beaver Dam
10.Rick Schmidt, Milwaukee
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