Willhite Racing

Round 3 in the books! 🏁

The Quad City Quarter Midget Racing Series brought us to Lansing this weekend, and while both our girls had to fight through some tough heat races, they came alive in the features.

In Light 160, Vivianne shaved quarter second off her lap times from the heat to the feature and nailed her start, jumping up to third by the end of lap one. She held that third spot for much of the race. When she got passed late, she crossed over to fight back and the two cars tangled wheels through the next corner. The other car ended up flipping, but the driver was completely fine and finished the race. Vivianne got sent to the rear and brought it home 5th, but she had a great start which we have been trying to improve.

Alyssa had her hands full in Senior Honda. After a heat race where confidence got the better of her, she rolled off 10th in the feature and went to work. She had a great start as well, slipping down to the inside line and making passes right away. This is the smallest, narrowest track on our schedule and one of the toughest places to pass anywhere, which made her drive even more impressive. She picked cars off one by one and climbed all the way to 4th. One pass with some contact and on a friend, so she probably owes an apology. But we have been trying build some aggressiveness and she is starting to show it. On a restart she briefly slipped into 3rd, but that driver held strong on the outside. Her car tightened up as the laps wound down, one car slipped by, and she finished 5th in a very strong field.

Two solid features, two cars in one piece, and another step forward. That's exactly what these days are about.

Thanks to our sponsors and suppliers that keep us going:
VAST Racing Products | BRE Racing Engines | Hoover Motorsports | Ultimate QM

The Willhite girls are heading to Little Kalamazoo Speedway this weekend for Round 1 of the Midwest Thunder Quarter Midget Series! Midwest Thunder is the NASCAR Youth Series Regional Series and brings out some of the top young drivers in the country. Alyssa and Vivianne are ready to take on the high banks and tough competition May 30 and 31. Let's go! 🏁

Thank you to those that support us and those that supply us with the best tools in the business.

VAST Racing Products | Rogue Carts | BRE Racing Engines | Ultimate QM | Pure Energy Battery

Quad City Series - Race #2 recap:

Alyssa - Sr Honda - B-Main: Started P3 and battled for the lead as they swapped positions several times. The leapfrogging gave the field a chance to catch up. She ultimately finished 3rd putting her starting 9th in the A, but showed she had the speed to run up front flexing that BRE power.

In the A-Main, she had a great start on the inside row and was up to 4th in the first few laps. Once a car got inside on her she got shuffled back. By the time that got straightened out, the leaders were on her tail to lap her. Just as she went a lap down, there was a caution... which trapped her on her own lap. After getting stuck a lap down, she held pace with the leaders and worked her way past a lot of cars, but being stuck a lap down she was only able to work her way to an 8th place finish.

Huge growth this week with both the pace of the car, but also Alyssa's confidence. While it slowed them down, it was fun watching her battle it out for the lead in the B and also making some aggressive moves in the A. She looked like she belonged there and received a lot of compliments from her competitors and their families.

Vivianne - Light 160 - A-Main: Started 10th after a tough heat race. Vivianne drove it great. The car just didn't have the speed that the other cars had. We picked up speed throughout the weekend hitting better lap times literally every time out, but started pretty far off on setup.

In the main, she had more speed but we are still a little off. Have good notes for a return for MWT at this track later in the year. She made several great passes and at one point got caught in the middle 3 wide as she made a pass and another car jumped to the inside of both of them. They made it 3 wide through turns 1 and 2 and came out clean. From that point on she drove on a mission and moved up a couple more spots to finish 7th.

Current series standings after 2 of 4 races.

Vivianne - Lt. 160 - 7th of 15
Alyssa - Sr. Honda - 10th of 24

A lot of changes on the setup table today and Nervo Jesus ( Jason Barrett ) has Alyssa’s historic vehicle moving! She raced her way into the A-Main and will start 9th in Sr Honda at Quad City Racing Series Toledo event, and Vivianne will start Light 160 from the 10th position. We are currently under a rain delay. The only other time Alyssa raced her way into an A-Main at a big race, the features were rained out. Fingers crossed she gets to run the feature as she was one of the fastest cars on the track in the B.

We join the racing community in mourning the loss of one of our sports legends. In addition to being one of the all time great drivers, Kyle made many contributions to the sport. We are praying for his family, friends, and all of those he impacted.

Race day is almost here! Willhite Racing heads to Little Kalamazoo Speedway this Saturday for Round 1 of the Quad City Quarter Midget Racing series. The high banks are calling and Alyssa and Vivianne are ready to answer.

We've been putting in the work all offseason and we can't wait to see what these two have in store on one of the most exciting tracks that we visit. Fast cars, tight racing, and good people... that's what Saturday is all about.

Come out and cheer us on if you're in the area, and if you can't make it, follow along here for updates from the track! I believe Kalamazoo streams all of the races now. I'll post the link here in the morning.

So dad did a terrible job keeping track of our results from the first points race at our local track. It was our first race with 4 cars and dad had his hands full. I believe this is correct though.

Vivianne
Sr Honda - B-Main: 4th bumped to A-Main: 9th
Lt 160: 2nd 🥈

Alyssa
Sr Honda - B-Main: 1st 🥇 bumped to A-Main: 10th
Sr Animal: 5th

New cars, new classes. We did a lot of learning and got better every time out. We have stacked local group this year and a lot more cars racing too. It’s not too often you run B-mains at a local race, but we will be doing it all year in Sr Honda. With a visitor, we had 8 Sr Animals as well. It was Alyssa’s first time in that car and running that class, so we are really happy with a 5th place finish. Her BRE Animal powered ARC was bad fast and she ran as high as 3rd with good pace but got physically tired towards the end after running almost 200 laps between heats, bmain and features. Big change from running a single car last year.

On to Round 1 of Quad City Racing Series in Kalamazoo, MI this weekend.

VAST Racing Products | Rogue Carts | Pure Energy Battery | Xwing and ARC cars by Ultimate QM and available through Vast | BRE Racing Engines.