FRANCIS CREEK, Wis. (June 17) – The IMCA Modified driver they call ‘The Hitman’ was a big hit with his 141 Speedway fans Thursday night.
Johnny Whitman took the lead following a lap 10 restart and led Mike Mullen around the oval at Francis Creek the last 40 green flag, lightning fast times around the track in taking the $10,000 Clash at the Creek win.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for 13 years,” he said from victory lane. “It’s crazy, the amount of competition that’s here. I didn’t know if my car was good enough to keep up with them but we got it done.”
Pole starter Josh Long was a distant third as home state drivers ran 1-2-3. Californian Cody Laney was fourth and Missouri’s Terry Phillips rounded out the top five.
Seventy-five Modified drivers from 10 states competed at the 13th annual Clash.
Whitman had started fourth and, after Dylan Thornton and Long took early turns up front, went to the high side of the track on the restart that followed the only caution of the night to take over the front spot.
Two-time Clash winner Mullen caught Thornton for second on lap 17 and the chase was on. Whitman led by just a car length at midway and the front pair were catching, then running with lapped traffic on the next two circuits.
Whitman’s lead was the width of his bumper when lap 33 was scored before he began putting distance on Mullen, running the race of his career with nothing but a clear track ahead of him the last six laps.
A six-time Modified track champion at 141, Whitman was already a Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot candidate.
Wednesday night Clash feature winners were Eric Mahlik in the IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Gabriel Zellner in the Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods.
In Thursday features, Jacob Ambrosius raced from 13th starting to win the Stock Car feature and Bruce Belland took the Northern SportMod checkers from 14th starting.
Modified feature results – 1. Johnny Whitman; 2. Mike Mullen; 3. Josh Long; 4. Cody Laney; 5. Terry Phillips; 6. Ethan Dotson; 7. Tim Ward; 8. Benji LaCrosse; 9. Shawn Kilgore; 10. Kenny Wallace; 11. Kyle Brown; 12. Jordan Grabouski; 13. Justin O’Brien; 14. Jacob Hobscheidt; 15. Joel Rust; 16. Dylan Thornton; 17. Wyatt Block; 18. Kyle Kudick; 19. Tyler Wilson; 20. Travis Hansen; 21. Shane DeMey; 22. Gregory Gretz; 23. Lucas Lamberies; 24. Peyton Taylor.