George Brunnhoelzl III is Honored as NASCAR Touring Banquet as WSMT Champ

Formal Event Comes After a Week Of Activity in Charlotte

It was after he won the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season finale at Caraway Speedway last month that George Brunnhoelzl, III became the Tour champion for 2009.  But it wasn't until this past weekend's NASCAR Champions Gala in Concord, North Carolina until Brunnhoelzl was formally crowned as the champion.

The wait was definitely worth it, as Brunnhoelzl and NASCAR's other Touring titlists and Whelen All-American Series National Champion Philip Morris got the opportunity to take part in a number of public and media events in the week leading up to the banquet.

“This feels great,” said Brunnhoelzl.  “You can't put it into words to finally get that beautiful trophy and this ring.  NASCAR did such an awesome job all week  with all of us.  They made us really feel great.

“The ring is great. It's such a beautiful piece. I almost feel bad wearing it. It's a real honor to have one. We'll get home and put it on the shelf and built on that and hopefully get a couple more.”

In fact, wearing the champion's ring was such a great feeling for Brunnhoelzl, that he wanted to share the experience.

Brunnhoelzl stands on stage as the 2009 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion.  (Jim Dupont Photo)

“I went ahead and got a duplicate ring made for my father for the championship. Without him I wouldn't have one. I know how much he looked forward to this ceremony and the ring itself. He loves that. I figured we'd go ahead and get him his own so we could both have one together for the championship.”

Brunnhoelzl's championship week ended with being called up on stage and introduced at the banquet as the 2009 championship.  Doing that at the black tie affair wasn't an easy task.

“To be honest with you I've been torn up for the past two days trying to figure out a speech and actually keep my composure when I am up here. I went ahead and wrote a big speech. I spent 10 hours on a five minute speech. When I got up here I didn't even read it or look at the teleprompter. I kind of just went off the hip. I think it went smooth and hope it was a good speech.”

Now that champions week is over, Brunnhoelzl is already looking ahead to plan how he can retain the title in 2010.

“It's going to be hard to top a season like this. Hopefully we can come back next year and I'd be happy duplicating what we did this year. We had a really great year and hat's off to everybody.”