May 9, 2026 - Dayco 100 - Delaware Speedway
First race of the 2026 APC United Late Model series at Delaware Speedway. It felt like a long off season, so we were glad to get our Mobil 1 car back on track.
The weather was the big unknown today. We got practice in, and the car felt the best it had been at Delaware and I put down my fastest lap there, so we were happy. Thankfully we got practice in as the rain would come, along with some hail and tornado warnings, therefore, qualifying was cancelled. We would line up based on practice time, with a pill draw for the top runners. We would start 13th. Right from the beginning we would have radio issues! I could hear my spotter, but he could not hear me. A crew member in the grandstands had another radio and was able to take it to him thankfully.
Within a couple laps, we fell back a bit to 16th, which actually worked in our favour when on lap 3, the 23 car of Connor Maltese, would lose a motor and drop a oil from the exit of turn 2 to middle of turn 3. The oil slick collected many cars, including leader 19 Connor Pritiko, 3 Shae Gemmel, 39 Brady Smith, those three would end their night there, but it also collected 30 Ray Morneau, 83 Dale Shaw and myself, all with minimal damage and we were able to continue.
I did not need to pit, therefore, we were able to stay out and restart the race in 10th. On the restart I battled with the 22 of Marshal Shrenk on the outside and made the pass for 8th. Shrenk would end up getting back past me a few laps later.
Mike Bentley 51 would go pit side around lap 25. I continued to race against Shaw for a number of laps before he got past on lap 27.
The second caution of the day would come out at lap 47 when the leader, 30w of Brandon Watson had a flat tire leading to a broken sway bar. My car had been building loose on entry up to this point, to combat it, I added front brake and because of this, the brakes kept fading. As the caution came out the pedal was going to the floor at this point.
On the restart, we would be in 10th position, we would fall to 11th and stay 11th or 12th for the rest of the night since we were down a lap and never got into the lucky dog position.
On lap 78, Ray Morneau 30 would spin coming out of turn 4 and bring out the caution. The front of the field would line up with leader 22 Kyle Steckly, 17 Josh Stade, 28 DJ Kennington and 52 Jake Sheridan. I lined up in the 8th position but was actually down a lap in 11th place.
Steckly got out front with Sheridan moving into second, with Stade, Kennington and Shrenk rounding out the top 5. Luck would not be with the leaders today - Pritiko hitting wall in the oil on lap 3, Watson with the flat tire/broken sway bar while leading and then on lap 83, 22 Kyle Steckly would have a flat tire going into turn 1.
Jake Sheridan would take over the lead on the restart, selecting the outside lane, with Josh Stade on the inside. I was still in the 11th position, but would line up in 9th due to others going into the pits.
In the end it would be Josh Stade for the win with Sheridan second and Kennington in 3rd.
After the mid way caution we gained a bit of brakes back over the run however our car would get tight as we lost 1/2 an inch of rear stagger. All in all it was a great learning race for us!
We had a great first race of the year, fastest lap times we’ve ever turned at Delaware, in the mix before we lost our brakes/handling issues, and brought the car home in one piece. Looking forward to our next race at Flamboro Speedway May 30!
Thanks to our sponsors:
~Mobil 1
~Welsh Meadow Wellness
The plans for 2026 are coming together. The motor is in getting a refresh with Leitch Performance Engines and will hopefully be back soon. We are getting the car ready and working an a new design for 2026.
The plan, at this point, will be to race with the APC United Racing series, hopefully for the full schedule. Tariffs are playing against all of us and securing sponsorship funding in always hard in the best of times, so we do hope to race all 8 races, but this will depend on funding.
Last year was the first time on track for me for most of the tracks on the tour. Now that we have a little seat time at each one, and a better idea how to set up the car at each track, we are hoping to improve on our program from last year.
These guys are tough competitors and there are a few coming back to the series this year, so 2026 should be a great year.