WESTFIELD, Mass. -- With Central New York rain cancelling Friday night’s races at Brewerton Speedway, Andrew Schartner took Saturday to travel to Westfield, Massachusetts’ Whip City Speedway for their 20-lap TUSA-sanctioned mod-lite feature. Schartner, 18, raced in the top 10 for the entire event before attempting to make a late-race pass for fifth that caused him fall back to the eighth position, where he finished.

“The car was awesome,” Schartner began. “We blew a coolant line in the heat so we started last in the feature. I made a good move on the start and got up to ninth pretty quickly. I passed a few more to get to sixth, and ran their most of the race. I worked on the fifth-place car and finally had to make a move to try to get there, and went in too deep and thought I’d catch the cushion but it sailed up the track and we lost a few spots and ended up eighth. It was still a good run for us.”

Saturday marked Schartner’s first trip to Whip City, a tight quarter-mile dirt oval in southwest Massachusetts. Schartner says he and his father, Karl, had to make a few changes to their No. 9 mod lite to meet the TUSA rules.

“We had to run a different tire with a wider sidewall so we had to change the gearing of the car and a few other things to compensate for the different tire. I actually think the tire we ran out there made the car the best it has been all season. I was happy with the way the car handled so maybe we’ll take some of that and it will help us at Brewerton this week,” says Schartner.

The 18-year-old Weedsport, N.Y., native will race again Friday at Brewerton and then Sunday night at his hometown track, Cayuga County Fair Speedway.

Andrew Schartner is a former microd (quarter-midget style car) champion with approximately 130 feature wins to his credit. He moved to the mod lite division in 2006 and won the ESDCA Rookie of the Year award while finishing fourth in ESDCA points.

Entering his sophomore year at UNC-Charlotte this fall, Schartner resides in Charlotte, N.C., throughout the school year and spends his summers racing in Upstate New York.

Schartner is a member of the Team Full Throttle Driver Development Program and is represented by Driver Development Services, Inc., Charlotte, N.C. His marketing partners are Arnold’s Family Restaurant, Airgas, BBD Coaters, SAVES Auto Body Supply, and Fastline Performance.

Team Full Throttle is a Mooresville, N.C., based driver development program that specializes in all areas of personal and professional development, including leadership, teamwork, and communications as well as marketing, promotion, and on-track driving skills. TFT currently comprises over 30 racers who reside and race in all regions of the country.

For more information on Andrew, visit www.andrewschartner.com. For more information on Team Full Throttle, visit www.goteamfullthrottle.com or contact (704) 664-1755.