Fourth of July race at Kinross Speedpark memorializes fallen driver

SAULT STE. MARIE — Kinross Speedpark is inviting racers and fans to attend the Allan Yelle Memorial Invite during their annual Fourth of July holiday weekend celebration.

The holiday weekend celebration is a yearly race at Kinross lasting two days and attracting stock car drivers from all across Michigan. 

The two day event begins on Saturday, July 2, and continues on Sunday, July 3. Both days will feature several show events including practice races, qualifying rounds, preliminary events such as dashes, heats and last chances races, and features.

This year the entire weekend is dedicated to memorializing a well known driver in the community Allan Yelle who grew up in the Upper Peninsula and raced at this and other local racetracks for decades. 

Yelle was a lifelong stock car driver, he started racing inn 1956 in his first racing car which was a ’32 ford coupe, he raced for 65 years, and continued racing until his death. 

Yelle was born in 1936 and grew up in Sands Township on a small farm with his family. He would go on to work at Associated Constructors for 32 years as a mechanic and a truck driver.

Yelle had many hobbies related to racing, for 10 years Yelle was also a snowmobile racer. Yelle also enjoyed building and maintaining his own engines, in 2018 HE restored a car that he originally built and raced in the '60s.

In his 65 years racing Yelle drove on many tracks, he raced in Norway, Sault Ste. Marie, Canada and at many tracks closer to home such as Escanaba. He also raced many times on the tracks at Kinross Speedpark in the Chippewa County Fairgrounds. 

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Allan is survived by his wife; Jonelle, and his three stepchildren, Brad, Bobbi, and Michelle, his second wife, Roni, and their two children, Ben, and Justin; and his first wife Judy and their five children, Julie, Karen, Diana, James, and Todd, his sister, Karolyn, and 15 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.

Starting times are the same for both Saturday and Sunday races; pit gates will open at 1 p.m., practice begins at 1:30 p.m., grandstands open at 3 p.m., qualifying races being at 4 p.m., and the races begin at 6 p.m.

Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com