2016 Season

UPDATE ON NASCAR DRIVE FOR DIVERSITY
FEBRUARY 5, 2016

I received notification today about the drive for diversity program.
The D4D program was simply amazing. I applied for the program unsure of my chance in being accepted.
When I was notified that I was accepted to participate in the combine, it was easily one of the most amazing accomplishments for me. I’ve only been racing for 3 years, so to have this experience so soon in my career was huge. Going to North Carolina to test at Concord Speedway was the most unreal experience. Something so many people dream of having the opportunity to do and I was actually living it. I will forever be grateful for being accepted to participate in the youth combine and to have this unique experience.
Unfortunately, today I received word that I was not selected to represent Rev Racing at the summer shoot out in 2016. The competition was fierce and the selected drivers are top talents and fully deserving of this amazing ride. I wish them luck with the D4D program and the awesome experience they are about to begin.
Hailie Deegan and Austin Geer will represent Rev Racing and the Nascar Drive for Diversity program.
Thank you to everyone that supported me thought this adventure. The support and backing that I had from everyone was overwhelming and I can’t thank everyone enough for going through this journey with me.

2016 Racing Season is HERE!!

The car is finally ready and the race season is about to start. Opening night at Sunset Speedway is this weekend, April 30, 2016.
We spent last weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, as well as this past Wednesday, at practice. It was good for me to get into the car, with everything built around me and my size, and get used to the car. When I drove the car last year, it was fit for my Dad since he was racing it full time, so it wasn’t comfortable for me to practice.
Practice went really well, I got a good feel for the car, for the line that worked for me, and my lap times consistently got better with each practice. I am looking forward to the season starting and getting back on the track each week. Being at practice is one thing, racing with a lot of other cars is another.
There are 40+ super stocks registered at Sunset this year and only 26 cars make the feature each night. It’s going to be tough to qualify every night in my rookie year, but that’s my goal. I have a lot of learning to do with this car and this year will be a good year to do that. The Rookie battle is insane with 10+ rookies and as much as I’d like to be a part of that, my goal is just to keep my nose clean, make the feature and learn to race this car in this division.
Fibe TV Barrie is doing a documentary about me and they will at Sunset filming on Saturday. Hopefully the super stocks put on a good race for them while they are there!
See you this Saturday!

April 30, 2016 - Opening night

April 30, 2016 – While the end result wasn’t what we were looking for, overall, the day and the car were fantastic.
In practice, the car felt great, we made a couple of small changes and went out to start racing.
In the first heat race, I started on the pole position, which didn’t work out well. Coming out of corner four to take the green flag, the 6 car got underneath me and by the start line we were three wide. Not exactly the start I was looking for in my first race with my new car, but I held my line as the middle car of the three and managed to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately in doing this, I would end up falling back into 6th place. The car stayed clean and ran great so, although the start didn’t work out for me, I was happy with the end result and the car.

Unfortunately, because I finished outside of the top 4 in my heat race, this would put me in the consi to attempt to qualify for the feature. I started on the outside pole. My starts from the front row need work! I don’t want to jump the start and be the cause of a restart, so I need to work on when is the right time to go. I am clearly not used to starting up front. I fell back to third on the start, but managed to pass the 48 on the outside, and then set my sights on passing the 4 car. However, a caution came out and we had to do it again. On the restart, the exact same thing happened and I fell back to third again, but managed to pass the 48 on the outside to settle into second, again with my sights on passing the 4 car, but out came the caution again. On the next restart, I ended up in third and stayed there.
This 3rd place finish would put me into the draw for starting position for the feature. For those not familiar with how Sunset qualifies our division – the top 12 qualify through the heats (4 from heat each race) and the remaining cars go into one or two consi’s depending on car counts. From each consi, the top three will round out the top 18 qualifiers (12 from the heats and 6 from the consi’s) and those top 18 will draw for starting position. The remaining cars from the consi’s will line up according to their finishing positions in their consi’s. So this put me in the draw and I drew the 8th starting position for the feature.

I was stoked for the feature as my car was running great, I wasn’t starting on the front row and my starts are much better with a car ahead of me!   However, the night wasn’t going to turn out as I had hoped. My finish did not show what this car was capable of. On lap 1 of the feature, I was running side by side with the 49, with me on the outside. Going into corner 3, the 21 drove under the 49 car, putting us 3 wide and with some contact that turned me around in front of 20 other cars! Fortunately for me, not a single car hit me and there was no damage to my car. But unfortunately, as an involved car, I had to go to the back of the field. Unfortunately, for the 49 car, he was also deemed an involved car and went to the rear of the field as well. As much as I hated to be at the back of the field, I hated this for the 49 car as he didn’t deserve to go to the back, as the spin was not his fault, it was getting put three wide in the corner that caused the incident. But to the back we both went.

The car was handling great and we were able to make a lot of passes to get back up to the 19th position. I felt good in the car and I was happy with the car and myself during this race. Unfortunately, more bad luck was coming. On a restart, everybody stacked up heading to the green, but the 11 car behind me didn’t get slowed down and drove hard into the back of me down the back straight. The yellow would come out again before the green, as the 11 was right underneath my car, and turned me sideways. He was so far under the rear of my car, the tow truck had to lift my car so they could roll the 11 out from underneath me. This resulted in a bent drive shaft.

So off to another restart, from the back, with the car shaking badly, I was just looking to finish the race. Out of corner 4, the 61 car got into the back of me and turned me toward the inside wall. I managed to collect the car and get it straight again, however, he would connect with me again and the end result would be me with a broken rim and a flat tire. Because of the earlier incident with the 11 car, which resulted in a bent drive shaft, the car was already shaking badly, and now with the flat tire, we just opted to park the car for the last 8 laps.
Overall, the finish that I got was not great and it certainly didn’t show what we could have done with the car on opening night, but I feel that I showed I am very able to run with this class.
We’ll fix the car this week and be back at Sunset Speedway on May 7th!
Fibe TV Barrie was at the track yesterday filming a show about me and it was an amazing experience. The show will not air the late summer or fall, but I’ll let you know when I know.   Unexpectedly, CTV Barrie also showed up yesterday and we were on the evening news. I had no idea they were coming to interview me, so this was a nice surprise. Thanks to everyone that was a part of this amazing day.

EPIC Weekend at Dover Speedway

I was at the Dover Delaware Nascar race over the weekend and I can easily say it was one of the best experiences of my life. I can’t thank Gloria at Nascar enough for giving me the Hot Passes for the garage. What a unique opportunity! We walked 30kms over the 4 days that we were away, but it was worth every step we took.
Getting a behind the scene look in the garage area, in tech, on pit road, just simply everything, it was more than I expected.
Easily the most accessible driver of the weekend was Ryan Newman and he was so nice. The drivers that are the least accessible are the Hendricks drivers. I saw Chase in the garage area, and Jimmie running to his car, but that was it.
Matt DiBenedetto has a new fan in me. Easily one of the nicest people I met all weekend. He was literally running to his drivers meeting, that he was late for, and he still stopped and took a picture with me.
The absolute highlight of the weekend for me was meeting Joey Logano, who is my favourite driver. He was busy getting ready for practice, but luckily David Penske saw me with my Logano Tshirt on and asked me to wait until practice was over and he would introduce me to Joey for a picture. I’ll be eternally thankful for that.
I met so many drivers, Keselowski, Dillon, Custer, R. Smith, Rico and Jennifer Jo Cobb. I even went to the driver introductions with JJC.
I got to meet Kyle Rickey, an announcer for MRN Radio. Kyle and I have been friends about a year, but this was the first time I was able to meet him in person. I got to see Joel Martino from KBM and I haven’t seen him in a few months so I was happy about that as well.
Getting my picture taken with Matt Kenseth was awkward since I was wearing my Logano shirt, but I did that mostly for Gerrit Tiemersma since his favourite driver is Kenseth! lol
I am so upset that I missed getting a picture with Tony Stewart.   He was the first driver that I saw on Friday and he was all by himself and I just couldn’t get the words out quick enough. I never saw him the rest of the weekend. That was the only disappointment over the weekend. Maybe the next time.
I’ll post some pics from the weekend in the photo gallery as soon as I have a chance to resize them.
Thanks again to Nascar for this most amazing experience.

May 21, 2016 - Spring Velocity

It was an amazing weekend at Sunset Speedway. Originally I wasn’t going to run in the spring velocity and I was going to let my Dad run my car, but then they decided to let me run and get some seat time.
On Saturday, we had our heat races. I would start the first heat last. I wasn’t concerned about not qualifying for Sunday’s feature so we decided to race smart, get some laps, and not push the car. I finished the race in 7th position.

In the second heat, I started on the pole, but knew that would last to long with the #8 on the outside pole. Kept the car clean, logged some more laps and finished the race in 4th. Overall, I would accomplish my goals for the day – seat time, keeping the car clean and qualifying for the feature, which I qualified 10th over all. The top qualifier for the day was the #21 car and he would pull the number 4, which would invert the top four and put the #8 on the pole for the feature on Sunday.

In the feature, starting 10th on the outside, my goal again was simple. In my second super stock feature, I wanted to finish all the laps, keep the car clean and get more seat time. The field had an issue getting through the first lap when the 07 would spin on the front stretch on lap one, and then on the restart, the 36 and 73 would spin out of corner 2, which brought out the caution. The 21 would spin as well, but was deemed to have been spun after the caution came out, and not as an involved car, therefore he would keep his spot. After the initial issues on lap 1, the field settled down and we would do 49 green flag laps.

I was now restarting in the 8th position and shortly after the restart, I would get tagged from the car behind me, which sent me up the track a little bit and he dove down to get underneath me, causing another car to go into the infield, but he was able to collect himself, in the meantime, about 6 cars went by both of us. I fell back as far as 16th, but had a good race and was able to get back to the 11th finishing position.
On the final lap, the leader, #8 would be intentionally hit by a lapped car, but made the save of the weekend (with two camera’s I wasn’t in the right spot to get this on either camera  but I hope someone did) to keep the car on the track and maintain the lead for the win. Congrats to #8 for his first super stock feature win in his rookie year.
Dan Bailey from Epic Racewear drove my Mini Stock this weekend, making his debut in a race car. He had two short practice sessions about a month a part in the car and did some practice early Saturday morning. People don’t realize that my mini stock, being front wheel drive, is very easy to spin. With the set up in the car, it’s straight line braking only or there’s a good chance you will spin the car out. Once Dan got the hang of this, and using the throttle to straighten out the car, he did amazing. In the first heat race, Dan would start in the 4th position and have a problem early on that would put him back to a 9th place finish. In the second heat, he also finished near to the back, which unfortunately would not qualify him for the feature, so he’d have to do it the hard way through the consi.
Dan started 6th in the consi and needed a top 10 finish to move on. He was safely in a transfer spot, but decided to make it interesting for us with a last lap, dip the tire into the infield, move. He went from being in the feature, to being out of the feature, to being back in the feature, to passing a car, with an amazing save that had him, with a tire in the infield, then facing the outside wall, and back to getting the car straight! Dan started his first feature ever in the 26th starting position and ran a smart, smooth, clean race. Brought the car home in the 19th position. Great Job Dan. It was an honour to have you racing with us this weekend. A lot of fun and I hope that you can do it again this summer. So grateful for everything that you do for me, and so happy to give something back to such an amazing sponsor like Epic Racewear / One Promo.

May 28, 2016

We started out the day with some good expectations. The car felt fantastic in practice, other than being extremely hot in the car.   I was to start the heat race on the pole and was hoping to maintain a good finishing spot. There were a lot of cars at the track this weekend, and qualifying was all important as not everyone was going to make the feature.
Started on the pole, but before the green, the outside pole sitter and I hit, door to door, and I had to lift coming out of corner four which was just the start of trouble me. I’d end up three wide, again, and by the time the field straightened out, I’d find myself in 6th place and this is where I finished the race.
I would have to go in the consi and I was starting outside pole this time. I thought I would be able to have a good finish. While waiting in the line up area, I shut off the car until my race and then it wouldn’t start. The push truck had to come and give me a push, we got the car started and as I was under pace lap, a piece of my exhaust was hanging down. I had to leave the track and not start. Lucky for me, 2 other cars had issues before me, therefore I would make the feature without starting the consi race. It turned out to be a blessing that a piece of the exhaust broke because once I got the car back to the pits, my Dad found that the fan wasn’t working on the car and just from the two pace laps, my car was starting to over heat in the extreme weather we were having. Seems we had an electrical issue and this is why the car wouldn’t start and why the fan wasn’t working. There was enough power to light up the test light, but not enough to start the car or run the fan. If the exhaust hadn’t have broke, I would have started the race and could have over heated the car. My Dad and Phil Bullen direct wired the fan to the alternator and removed the exhaust from the car. We put the battery charger on, and hoped for the best. We weren’t sure if the car would last the whole feature, but we’d collect what points we could.

For the feature, I started in 26th place. The start of the feature was terrible as all the cars weren’t lined up at the back and we were way behind when they threw the green flag. Fortunately for me the caution would fly shortly after the start and we could get lined up properly. The unfortunate part was after the restart, the 48 and 16 would get together through corners 3 and 4 which would send the 16 up into my lane on the front stretch and I tagged the back of the 16 and spun him around. This would bring out the caution again. There was minimal damage to my car, which Dad and I fixed tonight, and I was able to continue on in the race. However, since I made the final contact with the 16 car which spun him around, I would be deemed an involved car and was sent to the back.
On the restart, we took the green and coming out of corner two, something happened to the 17 car and he was basically stopped outside of corner two. The 11 car got stopped behind him, and I couldn’t see this at all as the 16 was in front of me. The 16 swerved around the two cars, which were now right in front of me, and I was able to swerve around them, just barely. The 17 and 11 continued and the caution was not thrown, but that was very close to a few heavily damaged race cars.
That would leave me battling with the 16 car for many laps as he is extremely hard to pass. My car is better through the corner but he has a huge motor and gets a much better run out of the corner than I do. He pulled off the race track, and then I set my sights on catching back up to the pack. In the end, on the restart, I picked the lane that I thought was going to be faster and move me up a few positions, but it ended up being the wrong choice and I fell back behind a slower car for the end of the race.
The result wasn’t what I was hoping for as I finished in 17th, but over all, I was happy that the car lasted the entire feature, that I learned a lot and brought the car home, mostly, clean.
We fixed the body damage and the exhaust tonight and my Dad will rewire the car later this week. Thankfully there wasn’t much damage, between Dad being away for work this week and me working three days/nights this week along with school, there isn’t much time to work on the car.
We’ll hope for a better week next week. For me, it’s about getting on the track and doing better than I did the week before. My goal is to work on myself, get seat time, get more comfortable with the car and really, it’s about learning to trust my car and trust myself.
Thanks as always to SE Telecom, Mobil 1, Epic Racewear / One Promo, Paul Quail Transport, Speedy Auto Machine, Tyger Shark, The Leading Edge Earthworks, The Mortgage Station, Radical Rods, Rides and Restoration, JT & Company, Infinet Motorsports, Human 2.0, Wix Filters and Design Enginerring for their continued support that allows me to continue racing. And of course, my parents and my Gramma Lynne.

June 4/16

It was a great night of racing. I feel I made a lot of gains and learned a lot tonight.
In my heat race, I started in 7th spot and moved up to 5th in the first couple of laps. I was catching the top four but my car got a little loose coming out of 4, which allowed the 3 to catch up and going into corner 1, I thought he was already inside me and I gave him the lane, turns out he wasn’t there yet, but he ended up getting by me and allowed the 49 to get under me as well. I ended up finishing the heat race in 7th. Not enough to transfer to the feature, so I would have to race the consi tonight as well.
In the consi, I would start 7th again. I still need improvement on my starts since I do lose some ground there. I fell back to 8th in the first lap because of this. All cars qualified tonight, so this was only about starting position for the feature, so my goal is to log some laps and get seat time. The caution would come out early when the 17 would spin off corner 4. I would restart in 8th on the outside. I had a better start this time but still lost a little ground. This allowed the 6 and 48 to get by me on the inside. In the end, I would finish the consi in 11th position.
In the feature, I would start deep in the field in 23rd position. I quickly moved up through the field and was running in 16th when the 400 car was trying to make it three wide into corner 3. He turned my car and I was sideways through the corner, facing the infield, which brought some other cars in contact with me as well, but I was able to straighten the car out and drive away while the race remained green, and I didn’t lose a spot. Unfortunately, some cars behind us were spun and the caution came out. I restarted in 16th and moved up to 14th however the 400 would again make it three wide, with me on the outside coming out of corner 4 and the car was out of shape again and I had to lift to get the car straighten out and I fell to last place, but the race stayed green as I recovered.
I fought my way back up to 15th position in the late stage of the race, but in the last couple laps, again it was three wide racing with me on the outside and I would end up making contact with the front stretch wall coming out of 4 for the checkers and I would drop back to 18th for the finish. I made a lot of good passes tonight, made some good saves, and learned a lot in the car tonight. The finish didn’t show what the car was capable of, but it was a good night, I gained some confidence and hope to continue improving from here. Unfortunately, the battery in the go pro died so I have no footage from the feature race tonight, but the heat and consi will be on my youtube channel.
Dad raced in the mini stock division tonight. We haven’t put any money into the car this year simply because the car is for sale and we really don’t plan to race the car much. The mini stock class has out classed my car in the last two years, and it would really best be suited for the Mighty Mini division, or a different race track where the competition in mini stock isn’t as big, but Dad can’t race in that division because of his past experience. He started 3rd in the heat race, got a little out of shape and fell back to 10th. He would start the feature race in last place.
On lap one of the feature, the field would get out of shape when someone tagged the 17 car, which turned him into the 33 and shot him up the track. The top lane of the race track was open and the track was still under green, so Dad went high, unfortunately the 33 would come up and hit the 83 and close that lane quickly and Dad had no where to go. Dad sustained damage to the bumper of the car, which is a good indicator of how well that car is built, since he was able to continue with the race.
He managed to move the car up to 14th position before he had to take the car off the track as it started to run hot. Turns out that the rad cap must has loosened off after the wreck, causing it to be hot and ending his night. Dad had fun and showed that the car can move through the field.
All in all, it was a good night. Although neither of our finishing positions showed it, both cars worked well, my car was actually awesome by about lap 5 of the feature, and we had a lot of fun, which is what racing at this level is supposed to be about.

June 11, 2016

We had a busy day with racing and our sponsors yesterday.
We spent the morning at Radical Rods, Rides and Restoration for their charity custom Car Show and BBQ. There were some extremely nice cars there and the people are always awesome. Made some arrangements to take my car back for some touch ups to make it look new again.
I had the pleasure of having David from Mobil 1 at the race track tonight, along with his wife Margaret. Both amazing people and I am glad we had a good night while they were here watching. David, and Mobil 1, do so much for me and I can’t even begin to thank them enough. Got some cool experiences coming up with Mobil 1 that I am extremely excited for.
In the first heat race, I started in the 8th position, got past the 61 car on the outside in the first lap and then worked on the 27 car, making the pass on the inside. I spent the rest of the heat race trying to catch the 4th and 5th place cars, but simply ran out of laps. I finished in 6th and would move to the consi.
In the consi, I would start in 6th and should have had a good shot at the top 4 and making the draw for the invert for the feature, but this wasn’t meant to be. On lap 1 the 400 would get up too high in the first corner and I had to lift coming out of 2 in order to not make contact and I lost a spot to the 6M and 16, falling back to 8th. The 61 car would make contact with the wall and bring out the caution.
On the restart, coming out of 4, the 6M car seemed to have an issue as he simply didn’t go and I got into the back of him. We lost some ground here and the 07 went by on the inside. At this point, the caution would come out again and we would restart in 9th. Apparently, the 07 wouldn’t get going as quickly as I did and I got into the back of him and had to lift and lost a spot to the 88 on this start.   I finished the race in 10th with a little damage to the front of the car and the car running a little too hot. The 21 would win the consi. It says a lot about the quality of the field we have at Sunset when your points leader is in the consi race!
In the feature I would start deep in the field again, starting in 23rd. On the second lap, the 97 car would spin through corner 3-4 and the field would all miss him. However, the 6M would get into the back of the 48 car hard and would cause significant damage to both cars. I had moved up and would restart in 17th. On the restart, the 400 would get loose and go up the track in corner 3 and 4 but the field went by without incident and he would keep going.
On about lap 15 we would have another caution when the 49 car broke. I was up to 15th position at this point. My restart wasn’t the best and the 3 car would get around me on the outside. The 7 car and the 31 made contact, which stacked up the field and we came out of the corner and had to lift, which allowed the 97 to go three wide to get by us. The caution would come out again for the 83 car on lap 19 and at this point we had fallen back to 18th.
On lap 24, the caution would come out again as the 5 car has spun. On the restart, I was now up to 14th position. I passed the 16 car on the outside to move into 13th and was working the 97 on the outside for 12th but ran out of time and would finish the night in the 13th position.
I am extremely happy with the way the entire night went and happy with coming from 23rd to 13th, without a mark on the car.
Next week, we race on Friday night at 7pm.

CHARITY - KIDS HELP PHONE

I reached out to the Kids Help Phone about a month ago to see if I could work with them, to help bring awareness and raise money to support the program. We’ve been discussing different things and have agreed to move forward and work together.
Why the Kids Help Phone? Because EVERYONE needs someone to talk to. This is a program that I believe in. I have been very lucky to have a great support system in my life, but not everyone does. I’ve watched people I am extremely close to go through some terrible times and as much as I would always be there for them, they need someone with more insight, experience and knowledge than a friend. I’ll talk about my personal experiences in upcoming blogs.
Working my sponsor, SE Telecom, we’ll have an announcement soon of an upcoming fund raising event. There will be a number of ways to help support this throughout the rest of the season. Hopefully we find some people that would be interested in supporting this organization as well.
I’ll keep you posted!
www.kidshelpphone.ca 1-800-668-6868

June 17, 2016

Well, it’s been a week since this race, so I’ll post what I can remember. I didn’t get this posted earlier as I was busy fixing the car, working and studying for exams this week.
Right off the trailer, the car was garbage. Which was disappointing as the car was really good last week. We only had two practice sessions since it was a Friday night race. Even more disappointing since it was my sponsor, Leading Edge Earth Works, that was sponsoring the race night.
We made some changes to the car through the practice sessions, but things weren’t really getting better. By the first heat race, I started in 5th position and the car was so loose out of the corners I just couldn’t work with the car. I ended up finishing the race in 7th position and would be in the consi again.
In the consi, I started in 7th position, and I knew I wasn’t going to make my way into the top four, so I just tested the car to see what different lines might make the handling better. The car was still loose and we finished the race in 8th place.
For the feature, we would line up in 20th for the start. The car, even after adjustments, was still not at its best. The feature ran a lot of green flag laps and we managed to remain on the lead lap throughout. On lap 27, there was a wreck on the front straight which would bring out the caution. There was extensive clean up, which left a lot of quicki dry on the track and huge clouds when driving down the front stretch.
On the restart, one car decided to go three wide on the front stretch which wouldn’t work out well. A number of cars got together and three cars in front of me were into the wall and into each other, which brought me into the wreck as well with no where to go. I hit the back end of the 49 car and then spun into the infield. In total, 5 cars sustained heavy damage, more with minor damage. Four left on tow trucks, but I was able to continue the race. Thanks Dad for the well built front end on the car. I hit the 49 car hard, but just bent up the bumper, some body panels and the rad box. I didn’t even have to pit after the wreck, the car felt no different than it did before this happened…..not sure if that is good or bad, since the car was bad all day.
The next three laps to finish the race were uneventful and I finished the race in 15th place.
We’ve been working on the car this week and it will go up to Radical Rods, Rides and Restoration for paint touch up next week. The damage from the wreck wasn’t the reason for repainting the car, just simply due to the fact that we have some events coming up and we want the car to look it’s best.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have the night we had hoped for when Leading Edge Earth Works was sponsoring the night, but things could have been worse. Shout out to Eric Beaudoin for coming to help out our crew that night. Always nice to have an extra crew member….especially since we really don’t have many.
We’ll be back on track on Saturday July 2, 2016.
Congrats to Gerrit Tiemersma on his first Mini Stock Feature win last weekend. So Proud!!   Great job!

July 2, 2016

Today was not our best day at Kendra Adams Motorsports.
First, the mini stock was running at Sauble Speedway today, but didn’t make it out of practice as we blew the head gasket on the car. Hopefully we will be able to get that fixed before the end of the season and get Dan Bailey back out in the car.
As for the super stock, in first practice, the car was amazing. It handled better than it has all season and I was extremely happy with the car. We decided to go out for one final practice and it was a good thing that we did. The caution came out in practice and when I slowed down, the crate motor blew up.    We don’t have a spare motor so I went looking to see if anyone had one that we could borrow, and I got lucky and found one. Since we only had me, my Mom and Dad at the track, I asked a couple people if they would be able to help change the motors and they agreed. From there, people just came over to help change the motors and get me back on track. There were so many people there helping out, and everything was happening so fast, I am pretty sure that I am forgetting people, and if I have forgotten you, I am sorry, I would like to thank:
Paul Genioli Sr, Paul Genioli Jr, Phil Bullen, Branden Bullen (Sorry about your shirt and pants lol) Josh Bullen, Jordan Howse, Paul Howse, Wally Everingham, Coltin Everingham, Steve Tiemersma, Gerrit Tiemersma, Mike Robinson Jr and Sunset Speedway.
Everyone was so amazing and I can’t thank them enough for getting me out on the track. I didn’t even miss a race. I am a very lucky person to have so many people that are willing to help out. Thank you everyone.
In the first heat race, I started in 3rd position. Dad and I talked about going scratch for this heat since it was a borrowed motor and we just finished getting it in the car, but I wanted to start 3rd, so we did. The handling of the car in practice was so great, but in the heat race, the car was tight through the middle. I stayed in 3rd for a bit but was passed by the 8 car and fell back to 4th and was having a side by side battle with the 57 car for a couple laps when the car behind us decided to drive to the inside and put us three wide, battling for 5th. I backed out of the three wide to save the car. I ended the heat race in 6th and would move to the consi.
There were 28 cars at the track tonight and all 28 would advance to the feature. This was only to determine starting position. I started in 6th place in the consi. Three cars got by me on the inside, then I got loose coming out of the corner and another car got by. I would finish the race in 10th place.
For the feature, they would start 28 cars and I would be starting in 22nd place. I have something coming up next weekend and I have to have my car in one piece, so I just went out with the thought to finish the race, not hurt the borrowed motor and finish cleanly. With needing to buy a new motor before next week, there is a lot of work to do on the car so finishing the race with little to no damage, was the ultimate goal.
I started the race in 22nd. The first few laps were unreal. Cars were all over the place, lots of bumping ahead, I kept waiting for something to happen, but everyone managed to stay clean. I got loose coming out of corner four and had to lift to straighten the car and lost a spot. The race stayed green for a number of laps before the 07 would spin in corner three, bringing out the caution, and he would have to take his car behind the wall. The 49 car saw the spin before I did and came down a lane in front of me to slow down and I would get into the back of him, sorry about that Frank.
On the restart, I would be in 20th position. The race stayed green until the end, I would loose a position or two, but brought the car home in one piece. I believe I finished in 22nd.
We have a long week ahead of us. Dad and I took the motor out of the car this morning before I left for work and we’ll buy a new crate to put in the car for this weekend and work on the set up on the car again before next weekend.
We have a huge weekend on July 9th with our sponsor, The Mortgage Station, sponsoring the night at Sunset Speedway, as well, Mobil 1 will be in attendance. This is going to be an amazing weekend for our team.

July 9, 2016

I am very late in updating this! On July 9th, it was an extremely busy day for our race team. My sponsor, The Mortgage Station, was sponsoring the night at Sunset Speedway so we spent some time in the VIP area with them signing autographs and taking pictures, which is always a fun night. We also had Mobil 1 The Grid TV from the UK at the track filming a “grass roots racing” segment, as well, David, Chantel and Jason from Mobil 1 were at the track. Great time filming with Grid TV and can’t wait to see the finished production. Thanks very much to everyone for this amazing opportunity.
In the first heat race, I started dead last and was hoping to just keep the car clean and put in some laps. We had blown the motor the week before and just finished putting in the new crate motor Saturday morning an hour before heading to the track. It was not to be. The 2nd place car spun out the leader and they would both come to the back on caution. Coming into corner one, one of the cars would go into the corner hard as I was coming down and we connected and he hit my rear left tire, causing me to have a flat and that ended my race.
I would then be in the consi, starting 2nd last. It was a pretty uneventful race. All cars qualified to move into the feature so I was just trying to log some laps and keep the car clean. I passed three cars and would move on to the feature.
However, the rain started and after drying the track, it rained again. The night was called and we will race this feature on August 13th, which means we will have double features that night.

July 16, 2016

This weekend was a weekend of changes. We made some changes in practice and I was making some changes in the way I was driving the car and it paid off. My car was okay in first practice but by last practice I was 4th fastest in practice and extremely happy with the car.
In the first heat race, I would start in 3rd. I was passed early and fell back to the 5th position for the finish of the race. It wasn’t good enough for a transfer position into the feature, but it was good enough for pole in the consi.
In the consi, I would start on the pole. I got a good start, which anyone who knows me, that isn’t my strength, so I was happy with the start. I pulled out into the lead and pulled away. Lead a lap for Laps4MD, unfortunately, the caution would come out on lap 2 as a car spun at the back of the field. We’d line up again, and I would still get a good start, just not good enough to pull away from the 6 car and we battled side by side for two laps until he would pass me on the outside. I got sideways coming out of corner 4 and the 07 would pass me, putting me back into 3rd position. I held 3rd until the 2nd last lap when the 88 would get underneath me. I settled for 4th as it still moves you into a transfer spot in the feature, and into the draw.
In the feature, I would start in the 5th position. I got a decent start but unfortunately, would be put 3 wide coming out of corner two and lost two positions and got hung up on the outside waiting for an opening. Managed to get in line behind the 32 car and shortly after a caution would come out for the 82 spinning. On the restart, I didn’t get a great start and lost three spots within a lap. I ended up falling back as far as 22nd in the field, something was either bent, or the tow was knocked out in the earlier contact, but managed to make up some ground and made my way back up into the 15th position. There was another caution and on the restart, the cars in front of me checked up and I had to lift and go wide to avoid them, which allowed another car to attempt to go under me, making it three wide again, and I ended up losing two spots on the restart due to this and finished the race in 17th position. Not too bad for a car that wasn’t handling well through the race.

July 16/16

Early in the day we decided to try a gear change to see if we could get more bite out of the corners. In the first two practices, we were just breaking in the new gears. In the last practice, I tested the car and found that we had some issues and some changes were needed.
In the heat race, I was originally to start 3rd, but the car that had pole decided to go scratch, along with another car behind me. This opened the field right up. I was on the outside now, starting 2nd, with a long line of top runners right behind me. Not getting trained was going to be the goal at this point. It wasn’t going to work out. The 6 got ahead of me on the start and the cars started going by on the inside. I would end the heat race in 6th place.
In the consi, I would start in 4th place, there was an early caution and then a 2nd caution a lap later. Once everyone settled in, it was a good race. My car was good in the early laps of the race and I was able to make the outside pass on the 83 and was closing on 2nd place and the car just wasn’t handling right. We’ve been fighting tight through the centre of the corner and loose off. The 49 ended up getting under me and then the 83 came through as well putting me back to 5th and at this point, it was better to back out of it than risk wrecking the car in a consi. I would end up finishing in 7th.
In the feature, I would start 20th. There was a caution on lap 2 when a few cars got together coming out of corner 2. A couple cars went around and I got minor damage when the 49 spun and the 57 checked up, but the car was fine. On the restart I would be 17th, a couple of laps later, making the pass for 15th, another car came down and I would spin to the infield in the corner. The caution would come out. My car was loose off still so I went to the pits for a change since I would be going to the back anyways. I would restart in 26th position.
I passed a couple of cars in the first couple of laps and was back up to 23rd when the caution came out again. The car still didn’t feel as good as it could so I decided to come in for another adjustment. I should have stayed on the track and left the car as it was, as I think that we went too far with the adjustment. I restarted the race in 25th. I passed 4 cars in the next number of laps, but then I was boxed in behind two cars racing side by side, once they got single file, I was able to get by one of them and then just ran out of laps.
The car felt great tonight, other than being loose off the corner, but I feel that the result doesn’t show what the car was capable of tonight. Each week we make improvements and we are getting there!
The car came home in one piece, which is important, and good for me. I have a busy week as I am flying to New York City tomorrow to film a TV show and then working the rest of the week. Hoping for better results next week.

July 25, 2016 - New York City -WonderamaTV

This week, I had to privilege to fly to New York City to be on a TV show that will air in the fall 2016.
A couple of weeks ago, WonderamaTV contacted me through my website, and told me about a new TV show they are making. It’s actually a remake of an old show. WonderamaTV aired from 1955 to 1986 and they are bringing it back now. They offered to fly me and a guest to New York City for filming so we started to make plans.
It was quite the adventure getting there. Jennifer and I flew out of Toronto at 2:25pm on Monday and got all the way the NYC, but they were having severe thunder storms in NYC, to the point where the pilot could not land the plane and we had to turn around and head back to Toronto. Once in Toronto, we had to book a flight to Ottawa at 8:30pm. Toronto had no flights leaving Tuesday morning that would get us to NYC early enough, which was why we flew to Ottawa. Spent the night in Ottawa, or a couple hours anyways! Slept for 3 1/2 hours and then were back at the airport at 4am to catch our next flight. We finally got into NYC at 7:30am Tuesday morning.
Jennifer and I did some shopping, sight seeing, and went for a quick lunch before heading over to the studio for hair and make up. We filmed for about 2 1/2 hours in front of a live audience, questions, did some fun stuff and then just chatted at the end. The host, David Osmond, was incredibly nice, as were Karlene, who arranged everything, and Alex, who did my hair and make up.
The whole experience was amazing. Filming in a NYC studio was far different than the filming we’ve done at the race track or even Breakfast Television. It’s just a totally different environment, so much energy and different in front of a live audience.
I can’t thank WonderamaTV enough for the amazing experience. The show will air in the fall, anticipated date is October 17, 2016. Thanks for everything!!
Thank you to Jennifer Thompson of JT & Company for coming to New York with me! I had a great time with you and I hope we can do it again! And to Chris Logan for taking me out Monday morning and driving us to the airport.

July 30, 2016

In practice today, the car was awesome out of the corner. We’ve been working on getting bite out and Dad made a bunch of changes this week and it worked. But I was loose in and tight through the corner. We made some more changes and the car was still loose going into the heat race.
I started last in the heat and I got loose coming out of corner two and I had to back out of it.  On the next lap the 61 would hit the wall hard bringing out the caution.  I went to work on getting by the 27 car and in a lap or so, made the pass, but would be too far behind to do much else in this race. I would finish the heat in 7th. We need to make some changes to tighten up the car for the consi because it was terrible in the heat race.
In the consi, I started 7th and the car felt better but it is still so tight in the corner making me loose off. I fell back to 8th but changed up my lane a bit and was able to get a spot back and finished the race in 7th.
For the feature I started 19th and on lap two I came down in the corner and spun off the bumper of the car behind me bringing out the caution. Went to the pits to pull the fender out and restarted 25th.
The car was running great after the caution and I made my way back to 20th in two laps. Lost a spot on the outside. We ran green until lap 26 when two cars would spin to bring out the caution. I would restart in 18th. We had a four lap shoot out and the car was moving!  I restarted on the outside and quickly made my way to the bottom and made some moves. In the last lap, someone slowed and I drove to the bottom and passed some cars to finish either 13th or 14th. The car was awesome, the changes were the right ones and I was happy with the finish to come back from 25th.
Unfortunately I didn’t have my go pro for the feature.
Off to North Carolina now for the week!  And we are off next weekend.

August 20, 2016

The first practice started out well, the car felt good. We went out for second practice and the car had a horrible vibration, when I brought the car in to the pits, we found that the steering shaft was broken. A quick fix on that and back out for some final laps and the car felt great.
We had double features this week, to make up for a rained out race from earlier in the season. Our first race would be a feature and I would start 19th. At the start of the race, a few cars would tangle in corner two, I moved up the track to go around but just didn’t get clear of the 6 car and our tires hit and I ended up on the side of his car, causing damage to both. I pitted a number of times over the next few laps, not for damage, but for issues with the car not getting power. I parked the car for the rest of the race. Turned out we had an electrical issue. Finished in 19th.

In the heat race, I started on the outside in 6th. I fell back as far as 10th place getting trained by the inside line. I got to the inside line and moved back up to 7th, but lost a spot in the end and finished 8th.

For the consi, the plan, as always, was to get a transfer position and move to the feature. I started in the 8th position, and it was pretty uneventful race, and I finished in 7th.

The feature race, I was one spot out of the draw for the invert, which would have me starting 19th position. The race would go green until about lap 10 when the 6 car would be involved with another car and have damage, bringing out the first yellow. At this point, I had moved up to the 16th position. On the restart, we would make it up to lap 18 before the next caution would come out when the 31 would get into the 88 in corner four. I restarted the race in 13th position.
A few laps later the 57 and 07 would get together after the restart in corner 2 and they would bring out another caution. Unfortunately, the points leader, the 21, would sustain some rear damage, but he was able to stay on the track at this point. I would restart the race in 11th position.
Back to racing and another caution would come with the 97 and 7 making contact causing the 7 to spin. At this point the rear damage to 21 was too bad and he had to go into the pits for repairs. I would restart in 10th position. I made a few more passes before the end of the race, moving myself to 8th in the final laps. I started working on passing the 14 car, got to the inside and thought I had a shot at him at the time, but got myself very sideways coming out of corner 4 and had to settle for 8th position.
I am very happy with our team. We had some early trouble and then they gave me an awesome car for the feature. This was our best feature finish this year!
Going into the next week, we start time trials and double features. One feature will be for Nascar points only and the second feature will be for Sunset points only.

August 27, 2016

Today was the first day that we would have time trials and one Nascar Feature and one Sunset feature to accommodate the drivers under 14.
I’ve never done time trials before, so we weren’t sure how this would go. On my first lap, I ran a 16.564 (I think) and then picked it up for the second lap with a 16.297. This initially put me in 6th place, but with a lot of cars still to follow. In the end, I would qualify 14th fastest of the 29 cars that were to start the race. I was happy with this time and hope to improve upon it as we time trial more. This would get me into the draw for starting position for the Nascar Feature and I would end up starting 9th.
The first 10 laps or so of the Nascar Feature we alright. The car was so loose out of the corners. I got passed by the 8 car in the early laps, and then about 5 laps in, I was loose off turn 4 and had to lift, which would allow the 7 to get by (which was driven by Tom Walters tonight) on the outside. Still fighting a loose condition, a couple of other cars would get underneath me over the next few laps. To make matters worse, I had brake problems and very little brakes at all.
I was trying to make a pass on the inside of the 14 car when the car was so loose out of corner 4, I got sideways, almost into a lapped car, and had to lift to collect the car. I fell off the lead group and opened the door for those that were behind me. A caution came out for the 6 car, I am not sure why.
On the restart, something would happen to the 57 car and he would go up the track and everyone checked up. I got into the back of the 14 car and the 11 and 6 would go by on the outside. However, a full lap wasn’t completed after they made the pass as the caution came out immediately. We used to go back a lap when the caution came out, but I don’t know if the rule has changed, because both cars were lined up in front of me on the restart, so I lost two positions. We ran green a couple of laps after the restart before the 11 would spin off corner 2.
On the final restart, I would lose a position to the 64 car and end the race in 17th.   The 07 made the end exciting as he crossed the finish line backwards. Not the finish I was hoping for after qualifying well, but fighting a loose car and almost no brakes, it wasn’t too bad.
Because we had a second feature, and very little time between races, we set to work fixing the brakes and making a couple adjustments to tighten up the car.
In the second feature, for Sunset points only, I would start in the 14th position. Early in the race, there would be a caution and I would restart in 16th. There would be a lot of cautions to follow, 8 in total I think. There would be another quick caution and I would restart again in 14th.
After the restart, a lap later, the 6M would spin in corner 1, also involved would be the 16, 57 and 21. The 16 wouldn’t be able to continue the race. I would restart in the 11th position. I didn’t get a good restart and I fell back two positions early in the lap. Another caution would come out and under caution, the official let me know that my left rear was going low and I would have to pit. It was disappointing to have to pit and then restart back in 28th, however, this ended up being extremely lucky for me. My awesome crew, Branden and Josh, got the tire changed and sent me back out, with a lot of ground to make up.
On the restart, we did a lap and then coming through corner 3 my Dad, on the radio, said stop.   The front stretch was blocked with cars. The 7 and 3 got together and collected a lot of cars, and then a fight broke out! I’ve never been so thankful for a flat tire before. I had been running right in the middle of those cars before the flat tire, so it actually ended up being a good thing.
Because of the number of cautions we had already had, and the lengthy clean up, our race was shortened from 30 laps to 20 laps.
I restarted in 21st position. On the start, the 07 and the 64 would spin bringing out another caution. On the next restart, I would be in the 19th position. At this point, we were no longer doubling up for the restart, but would have single file restarts. I passed the 17 and the 11 in a couple laps and then I was closing in on the 48 when the 52 car would bring out the final caution of the night.
I would restart in 17th for the final run. I had the 07 coming in a hurry and he was going to get by me whether I wanted him to or not so Dad just said to let him go. I made the pass on the 48 car and was on the inside of the 22 attempting to move into 15th place when I hooked the car coming out of corner 4 and got myself loose. I would end up finishing in 16th. I feel the car was better than the result, but I am happy with the day over all, and the fact that the car came home with no damage at all.
Congrats to Treyton Lapcevich on his first super stock feature win!

FAMILY CHANNEL - We are Savvy

Back in February, I filmed a segment for the show, We are Savvy, which is a new TV Show on the Family Channel. It is geared toward “tweens”, especially girls. The concept of the show is to present positive attitudes, to know your own self worth, to be a positive role model, and to know that you can do anything!
I had a great time filming the show. They came to my home to film, the super stock was stripped down at the time and all footage on the TV show is from my Mini Stock since I hadn’t raced the super stock yet.
I had a great time filming. It’s amazing how many hours go into filming a 2-3 minute segment. They were at my house filming for about 4 hours. But it was my first experience filming a television show, that wasn’t a news broadcast, and the experience was amazing. I can’t thank the crew from We are Savvy enough. They were wonderful for work with and make the whole experience awesome. The show was recently nominated for a “Joey” award, which is amazing.
Check out the show on youtube at the following link:  We are Savvy Be sure to watch We are Savvy on the family channel Thursdays at 7pm.

Mobil 1 - The Grid TV

This past weekend, we went international! The Grid TV aired their grass roots racing segment world wide.
The Grid TV is based out of the UK and they came to Canada to film the segment at Sunset Speedway. They spent the entire day at the track with us filming. Unfortunately the feature was rained out that night, but they were able to get enough footage in the 8 hours that they were there.
Being included in The Grid TV program was incredible. I never thought I would be included on such an amazing television show – in the same segment as Tony Stewart and the Knoxville Nationals. Simply amazing!
Everyone at The Grid TV, as well as David Swain, Chantel Pauley and Jason Gulas (who were all there that day) were wonderful. It’s a privilege to be able to work with a company like Mobil 1.
Check out my segment on youtube at:  Mobil 1 The Grid TV

September 3, 2016

To be honest, with the start of school this week and working every day at my two jobs, I haven’t had any time to update my website and don’t really remember much of what happened last week at the race track.
My Dad wasn’t there as he was at Mosport spotting for Cole Custer, so first off, I need to thank Richard Imhoff and Branden Bullen for their help at the race track while he wasn’t here.
In the first practice, the car was okay, but I thought it could be improved. We talked to my Dad on the phone and he suggested some changes. For the second practice, I went out and took 2/10th off my lap time, posting the best laps I’ve done in the car. It was decided that we would make a small adjustment because the car was slightly tight. Then we went out for time trials. The adjustment went a little too far and I lost time from my practice times, but overall, it wasn’t horrible and I time trialed 17th.
In the first feature, I started 11th. The car was pretty good, until the caution came out. I was running 9th when caution came out on lap 10. On the restart, another caution would come out on lap 11 and I was still running 9th. The car wasn’t the same as it was before the caution and it was loose. Coming through the corner, back on the gas, and the back end just wanted to come around, and it did, spinning into the grass.
I went into the pits, made an adjustment and went back out, restarting in 23rd. The car was terrible but we managed to salvage an 18th place finish.
In the second feature, I really don’t remember much, other than the car was handling better. (I don’t have any video from last weekend, and after a full week, I don’t remember exactly what happened). I know I got up to 14th at one point, but then ended up getting passed and finished the race in 15th.

September 10, 2016

The car was okay in practice today, but we struggled with the battery. Car started with no issues at home, no issue when we got to the track, took the car over the tech to check ride height and weights and when I went to start the car, the battery was dead. This carried on all day with needing it on charge every time we came in from practice. So we took the battery out of the trailer, for the winch, and used it for the rest of the night. The car was okay in practice, not quite where I wanted it, so we kept making changes to make it better.
We went out for time trials, and went second on the board at that point, unfortunately there were still a lot of fast cars to come after me, so I ended up 15th.
In the Nascar Feature, I would start in 4th position. The car felt good and the first feature was a good race. We raced for 13 laps before bringing out the first caution. I was running in 5th place at this time and would restart 5th. The restart was tricky, because I had the 8 car behind me and he is very fast out of the corner low and makes a lot of his passes out of 4 on the bottom. I knew that if I didn’t protect that line down low, he would get under me, putting me in the middle of a three wide situation, and I didn’t want that. I came out of the corner low and the 8 went high around me, we were three wide, but I was at the bottom of the three wide instead of the middle. I ended up getting put in the dirt in the corner and lost 4-5 spots over the next lap or two. I knew the three wide racing was coming, this just allowed me the option of where I wanted to be in the three wide racing. In the end, I would finish this feature in 12th.

In the Sunset Feature, I would start in 15th position. There were a lot of cautions in this feature race unfortunately. The first caution came out on lap 3, I would line back up in 14th position. After this, caution would come out on Lap 9, on lap 9 again, on lap 13 and again on lap 16. At this point, I was running in 12th position.
We ran until lap 24 before the next caution would come out, unfortunately it would be for me. The car behind me got into corner 3 way too hard and spun me out, and we would make contact again as I was spinning and he was going by, damaging my left front tire/rim. I would have to pit and restart 25th, ending the good run we were having. There were two more cautions in the last six laps and I would end of finishing 20th. Not the end result I was looking for.
Next week is the final points night for the season.

September 24 & 25 - Fall Velocity

With the final points race in the books, and our division championship won by Matt Bentley, we moved on to the final invitational race of the year, with racers from other tracks coming to race. Congratulations to Matt on the championship, it was so well deserved.
The superstock division was stacked with top talent from acrossSouthern Ontario. We had 39 drivers attempting to secure a spot in the 26 car field for the feature race.
On the Saturday, each driver had two heat races for an attempt to qualify for 18 starting positions open for the Saturday. Basically, you had to have an average finish of 6th or better in the heat races in order to qualify in the top 18.
In the first heat race, I had a good starting position in 3rd. There were 13 cars in each heat race, so I knew I needed a good finish in each race as I did not want to be in the last chance qualifier race on Sunday. I needed to get this done today. The race went flawlessly for me, I started 3rd, the car was awesome and I finished in 3rd, which was the type of finish I needed to qualify.
In the second heat race, I’d start in 11th place and I knew I needed to make some forward progress if I wanted to qualify. The car was great, I was just having some difficulty getting by the cars in front of me without be overly aggressive and maybe taking myself out of the race, and out of a potential qualifying position. I was very patient, almost too patient. In the end, I would move up only to 9th spot. But in the end, it was enough as my average finishing spot was 6 and that would be enough to qualify myself in 17th for the feature.
In the feature, starting 17th, I knew that I needed to move and that I needed to be patient all at the same time. It’s 50 laps long and no one is winning on the first lap. Unfortunately, the 400 car had the pole and for whatever reason, didn’t get going on the start, which started stacking up cars, which resulted in the cars that started 16th and 18th, all around me, making contact, and bringing out the caution. The first caution would be on lap 1 and I would have moved up 2 spots, to 15th for the restart.
After the restart, the 81 car would get underneath me, putting us three wide, with me in the middle. We ran a number of laps this way, with the end result of me falling back to 20th position. I managed to get by two cars before the next caution would come out on lap 11 and I would restart in 18th.
Restarting in 18th, I passed three cars in the next few laps and would be up to 15th when the caution came out on lap 16. We ran green until lap 30 at which point the caution would come out and I was up to 13th. Another caution would come out 5 laps later, when the 73 car was on the inside and got a flat tire. He would enter corner 3 and go up toward the wall, with me going with him as I was on the outside. No contact was made, I was able to get around him when the caution fell on lap 35 and I would restart in 12th.
Over the next five laps, I hung on to the 12th spot, until the caution came out on lap 40. All race long, everyone wanted to be on the inside line, so I opted to go to the outside and it paid off. My car works so well on the outside, and I am comfortable out there, so we kept going to the outside and were able to pick up numerous spots doing this.
We’d continue with this for the whole race and by the time the final caution came out on lap 45, I had moved up to the 8th position, which is where we would end the race.
With the level of competition in this race, in my first appearance at velocity in a super stock, to have qualified through the heats, and to have raced my way up to 8th position, this is like a win for me and my team. We couldn’t be happier to have ended the season with such a great finish.
We also met our season goal of finishing in the top 15 in points, with a 14th place. All in all, it was an amazing year and I couldn’t be happier with the progress that we made.
See you all in 2017!!

2016 Super Stock Season in Review

As usual, we like to do a recap of our season
This year, we moved from the mini stock division, to our Rookie Year in the Super Stock division. The change wasn’t as difficult as I expected it to be. Going from FWD to RWD and 4cyl to 8cyl, wasn’t as much of an adjustment as I expected.
I took some time driving the car, to become more comfortable with the faster, bigger car, and did my best to stay out of people’s way. My goal for this year was to learn, keep my car clean, not cause any accidents and earn the respect of the drivers in my division. I believe I’ve achieved all those goals.
I think I achieved all my goals! I also wanted to finish in the top 15 in the year long points battle and I accomplished this by finishing 14th in the Sunset Speedway Points.
One of the biggest differences was learning this car and what would make it better or worse. Air pressure adjustments, adjusting sway bar, changing lines on the track to find the best line for how the car was performing and giving feedback to my Dad to make the right adjustments.
All in all, I was happy with my performance over the 2016 season. I was a mid pack car for most of the season, partially due to the fact that I had to be careful with my car to keep it in one piece, which makes racing the car difficult when you are not racing as hard as you could or should. We had too many big opportunities this year, involving our sponsors, and media coverage with Mobil 1 Grid TV coming to film in July. After the filming, we would be able to race more aggressively, no having to worry as much about the car getting damaged and not be available when The Grid TV came from the UK to film.
Once this time came, we unfortunately spent the majority of our remaining budget, having to replace the motor after we blew it up the week before Grid TV was to film. We were then on a limited budget for the remainder of the season.
But we had a great second half. I was more competitive and had a few top 10 finishes, which I was very happy about.
All in all, it was a good season.
Outside of racing, I was lucky enough to attend the two Nascar races at
Dover as well as the Truck race at Mosport. Met a lot of drivers, met Joe Custer and Ron Devine, finally got to meet Kyle Rickey and had a behind the scenes tour of Stewart Haas racing. I filmed 5 television shows (see media page) and overall, had an amazing season both on and off the racetrack.
We bought a Limited Late Model at the end of the season, and at this time, we are not sure what the plan will be for 2017. Time commitments, sponsorship and my own progress will determine what we do in 2017. At this point, we will be running a full season in the super stock in 2017, with attempting to get as much seat time in the Limited Late Model as possible. I am looking forward to a good 2017 season and learning to race this LLM. There is a lot to learn in the LLM, for both myself and my Dad. So much has changed in LLM since my Dad last raced these cars.
We have a few exciting things we are trying to work out during the off season, which seems to be my busiest time trying to get everything sorted out for the next season. I have a couple of things on the go that I am hoping to be successful in achieving and being able to share with you in the near future.
For 2017, we will still be supporting the Kids Help Phone and Laps4MD. Proud to be associated with these two great organizations and helping where we can.
As always, and most important, thank you to my marketing partners for 2016.
~SE Telecom, Mobil 1, Epic Racewear, Paul Quail Transport, Tyger Shark, Speedy Auto Machine, The Mortgage Station, Leading Edge Earthworks, Radical Rods, Rides and Restoration, Infinet Motorsports, JT & Company, Wix Filters, Permatex, Design Engineering and my Gramma, Lynne Tipton.
Special thanks to SE Telecom for hosting and financing the Kids Help Phone Charity BBQ this past August. We raised $572 for the Kids Help Phone through the BBQ and a total of $1700 through donations and shirt sales. Thank you to everyone that helped us.