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2002 was the ninth year for the Sports Car Club of America’s Pro Spec Racer championship.
The car used in the series was the very popular Spec Racer Ford.
This affordable, low maintenance, purpose-built vehicle is a popular category at Sports Car Club of
America club racing events and attracts large fields with close racing.
The Pro Spec Racer championship receives support from Yokohama Tires and the Ford Motor Company.
The 2002 season consists of nine races over seven weekends. Each contest is approximately fifty-miles in length. The year opens in April with a doubleheader at Phoenix International Raceway. Teams travel north of the border for round three at Mosport International Raceway. Next on the calendar is a trip to the west coast for a race at Sears Point Raceway. Following the event in California, teams stop at a new venue. A doubleheader weekend is held at Pacific Junction, Iowa. Pro Spec Racer competitors head to Lime Rock Park in October. The penultimate event is in mid-October at Virginia International Raceway. The year ends at Daytona International Speedway. The Spec Racer Ford is a single-seat, open-cockpit tube-frame chassis sports racer manufactured by SCCA Enterprises in Colorado. The cars are identical and powered by a sealed four-cylinder, SOHC, 1.9-liter Ford engine with a five-speed transmission. This combination produces 105-horsepower and a top speed of 135-mph. The suspension uses a rocker arm design (front and rear) with coil-over shocks on each corner and adjustable front and rear sway-bars. Round three of the 2002 Pro Spec Racer series was held at Mosport International Raceway. Competitors would race for seventeen laps around the ten-turn 2.459-mile road course.
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The start of round three of the 2002 Pro Spec Racer series. Leading the field of twenty-eight starters into Mosport International Raceway’s corner one is the pole-sitter, Warren Stilwell, driving the No. 28 Stilwell Racing Spec Racer Ford. Beside Stilwell is the other front-row qualifier, Chris Funk, in the No. 0 Pearl Street Brewery Spec Racer Ford. Behind the leaders are Neil Tibor and Trevor Hopwood. |
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The defending Pro Spec Racer champion, Warren Stilwell, entered round three at Mosport International Raceway fifth in this season’s title chase. Stilwell won last year’s event at Mosport and set a new lap record. In 2002, he put the Stilwell Racing Spec Racer Ford on the pole. Stilwell lost the lead to Chris Funk at the start, but two circuits later, he was back in front and was victorious by a margin of 7.639-seconds. |
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Fifth and eighth place results in the opening weekend at Phoenix International Raceway left series veteran Neil Tibor sixth in the point standings. During the qualifying session at Mosport, Tibor posted the fourth-fastest time. Contact with Keith Scharf on lap-4 resulted in Tibor dropping to sixth place. He charged through the field and with two circuits remaining, he passed Shawn Morrison for a runner-up result. |
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Shawn Morrison made his 2002 Pro Spec Racer series debut at Mosport. Morrison drove the No. 26 Spec Racer Ford prepared by Motion Dynamics. He was gridded in the eighth position for the seventeen-lap contest. The contact between Neil Tibor and Keith Scharf allowed Morrison to move into third by lap-3. For most of the event, he exchanged positions with Trevor Hopwood and would finish third. |
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This season’s visit to Mosport International Raceway would be an opportunity for Keith Scharf to redeem himself. Last year, Scharf, driving the No. 82 Tech Hyper-V sponsored Spec Racer Ford, battled for the lead with the eventual winner, Warren Stilwell. Unfortunately, a shifter issue caused him to finish sixth. In 2002, Scharf qualified fifth, but contact with Neil Tibor resulted in a twelfth-place result. |
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Last year a Mosport International Raceway, Keith Scharf challenged the defending series champion, Warren Stilwell, for the victory. This season Stilwell’s main threat would come from Chris Funk. Funk started his 2002 campaign with a pair of seventh-place finishes and was seventh in the title chase. He qualified second and led the first two laps. Funk was in the runner-up position until lap-15 when he retired. |
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After the first two rounds of the 2002 Pro Spec Racer series, Johnny Meriggi was the championship leader. Second and third place in the standings, Lee Fleming and Barney Moen chose not to make the trip to Canada, providing Meriggi with an opportunity to increase his points lead. However, Meriggi was not competitive at round three. He qualified eleventh in the No. 77 Spec Racer Ford and finished eighth. |
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| FINISH | START | DRIVER | SPONSOR / CAR | LAPS | RETIREMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Warren Stilwell | Stilwell Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 2 | 4 | Neil Tibor | Taiyo Edge R/C / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 3 | 8 | Shawn Morrison | Motion Dynamics / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 4 | 7 | L.J. Shumosic | Shumosic Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 5 | 3 | Trevor Hopwood | KML Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 6 | 9 | Steve Rehkemper | Battlebots / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 7 | 10 | Mark Eaton | Robinson Motorsports / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 8 | 11 | Johnny Meriggi | Great Expectations / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 9 | 12 | Cliff White | White Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 11 | 15 | Dr. Bruce Myers | Seacoast Area Physiatry / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 11 | 13 | Mick Robinson | Robinson Motorsports / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 12 | 5 | Keith Scharf | Tech Hyper-V / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 13 | 6 | Herb Sweeney IV | H.T. Sweeney & Son / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 14 | 18 | Anthony Gigliotti | Motion Dynamics / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 15 | 16 | Ralph Mayfield | ICE - 32 / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 16 | 21 | Amy Ruman | Cenweld Corp / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 17 | 17 | Doug Garrison | Albany Communications / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 18 | 23 | Robey Clark | Briscoe Clark Co. / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 19 | 24 | Jeff Bedell | Bedell Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 20 | 26 | Richard Doty | Olfactus / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 21 | 19 | Peter Heintzelman | Heintzelman Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 22 | 28 | Harrison Williams | ICE - 32 / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 23 | 25 | Joseph M. Hrymack | Empact / Spec Racer Ford | 17 | - |
| 24 | 14 | Donald Kahn | KML Racing / Spec Racer Ford | 16 | - |
| 25 | 2 | Chris Funk | Pearl Street Brewery / Spec Racer Ford | 15 | - |
| 26 | 22 | Rick Bellew | M & M Motorsports / Spec Racer Ford | 14 | - |
| 27 | 27 | Tim Butler | D2+Plus / Spec Racer Ford | 11 | - |
| 28 | 20 | Denny Stripling | Lone Star Communications / Spec Racer Ford | 0 | - |
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