ABOVE - Widdis (left) and Dehanke holding their 2003 Rookie of the Year trophies immediately after the completion of the 2003 Thunder Valley Raceway Banquet.

Rookie of the Year Honors Go To Dehanke/Widdis

10/24/03
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Don Erickson
WiddisRacing.com

Sands, MI - Bret Widdis and Jeff Dehanke both took 2003 Rookie of the Year honors at the 2003 Thunder Valley Raceway Banquet earlier this month for all their spectacular racing abilities!

The camaraderie between the Widdis Racing Team and the Dehanke Racing Team is impeccable. Both teams have tremendous amounts of accomplishments individually, yet they still work together as if they were all family!

Young Bret Widdis (18 years old) accepted his umpteenth Rookie of the Year trophy this month! Widdis now has the right to call himself the youngest driver to ever win the Rookie of the Year award at Thunder Valley Raceway! It is definitely evident that the driver of the number 15 Oldsmobile Cutlass did not simply stumble upon this award. With eight feature wins and countless runner-up finishes, Widdis was the obvious choice for Rookie of the Year in the late model division.

While Widdis was the obvious choice for Rookie of the Year due to his many years of racing experience, Jeff Dehanke was a first time driver at Thunder Valley Raceway this season! Dehanke's very first race came in this 2003 season at TVR making his award all that more special. In only a few races Dehanke had driven his number 23 Buick Regal under the 18 second mark slashing his earlier times with a whopping 17.79!

We here at WiddisRacing.com had no doubt either driver would take home those prestigious Rookie of the Year trophies, and we "tip our hats" at both drivers' unmatched success this year! Congratulations Jeff and Bret!