Category: Featured Interview

Earlier this month, Chip Ganassi Racing made a groundbreaking announcement, stating that they would be fielding two entries in the Global Rallycross Series in 2015.

“As a fan of motorsports I’m particularly interested in the GRC cars, their horsepower levels and the absence of traction control but make no mistake about it, we are in this series to win – both on and off the race track,” Chip Ganassi stated per the press release. “Also, GRC has proven to be a very innovative and fresh take on today’s motorsport product. The series is targeting a new demographic and aligns with ours and more importantly with our partners’ focus on connecting with Millennials.”

One of the drivers that will be driving for the organization this upcoming season is Fort Frances, Ontario native Steve Arpin, as he enters his third season in GRC.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have this all put together and to talk about it now,” he told SpeedwayMedia.com. “This was a big secret to try and hold on to. Just to be involved like Chip Ganassi Racing, and to bring partners in everyone at Loenbro and all of their employees over there, it’s huge. I think a dream come true is an understatement. I don’t think is something that I could’ve dreamt up. For any racer to be able to drive for a gentleman like Mr. Ganassi, it’s an honor. It’s an accomplishment that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Arpin says discussions started about the possibility of CGR forming a GRC team when some of CGR’s higher management attended the X-Games event.

“When I saw their higher management poking around at the X-Games last year, it really just opened up the opportunity to have some conversations,” he stated.

The Canadian has competed in the series over the past two year, saying that he was originally attracted to the series, from a sponsor/marketing standpoint.

“One of the things that I’ve always been active in is my relationships with my sponsors and trying to pinpoint exactly what they’re looking for, and wanting to achieve with the programs they get involved with,” he explained. “One of the hardest things to do anymore is to communicate with the younger demographic. Today’s youth is really tough to communicate with a marketing platform, and that’s one thing that the GRC has that makes it unique compared to other forms of motorsports.”

Combining the good marketing platform with racing that “looked like a blast,” it began the perfect puzzle for Arpin in moving his career forward. Last year, he had a solid season, finishing seventh in points with a podium and four heat wins.

“I think the year started off great last year,” he commented. “The last couple of years have been a great learning platform. It was a frustrating year for sure. To run the first half of the season in the top three in points and within striking distance of the lead, to fall back to eighth without even an opportunity at the top-five if nobody showed up was frustrating, and that was all mechanical problems. We didn’t crash a single time. With that being said, it was frustrating – but at the same time, it was really good to learn and prepare myself for an opportunity like I have today.”

Arpin hopes to carry what he has learned the past two seasons into having success this year, and scoring his first career oval victory. Going into the year, the goals are simple – be competitive each and every week, and win races. Though he also recognizes that with the new team, there will be some growing pains.

“It’s a start-up program and no matter what you do and how prepared you are, you’re going to encounter some growing pains,” he stated. “I want to be like a leader for our group that really helps the guys pull through those growing pains, learning from them, and making the best of them, and being strong enough in the areas that we have complete control over so when we encounter those kinds of stuff, we can absorb it and keep pushing on.”

The potential to have success in the GRC is high this year, though the opportunity with Ganassi opens other doors for Arpin, it may seem. Ganassi fields cars in NASCAR, Verizon IndyCar Series, and TUDOR Sports Car Series. Arpin has NASCAR experience under his belt, having ran some Camping World Truck Series races for Turner-Scott Motorsports and some XFINITY Series races for JR Motorsports. Could he run some NASCAR races in the future?

“I’ll tell you from my perspective, my 100% focus is solely and strictly on the GRC. That’s the only thing that I’m interested in at this point,” he said. “I want to do this with 100% of my focus and do it right. As we get rolling and taking care of themselves, I can promise that I will be the first to start poking around and seeing what those opportunities might be. It’d be an honor to get into something with that level of equipment and level of teammates, and people involved. It’d honestly be a really neat opportunity.”

For the first time in her racing career, Erica Thiering is going to run the full NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule. The Alberta native announced earlier in the off-season that she has joined Canada’s Best Racing Team in 2015 as a teammate to Joey McColm.

“I can’t wait,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a good season with Joey and the CBRT team. It’s awesome.”

Thiering made five career starts last season, scoring a pair of top-10 finishes. One of the five events that she ran last season was Edmonton International Raceway, which is her home track. She has had success there in a late model, winning the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Championship for Alberta five times. Reflecting back on last season, she said it was fantastic to run in front of the hometown crowd.

“I think it was a little more motivation to do well because that’s where I raced every weekend,” she added. “I really had a good time, and I’m really looking forward to going back there this year and doing better than I did last year.”

Earlier this month at the Custom Car and Motorsports Show, Thiering unveiled a special livery that was designed by a six-year-old.

“About a month ago, a young girl named Ava tweeted what she thought the car should look like and I thought, ‘Why not surprise her with it?’,” Thiering commented. “She was beyond surprised to see the car.”

Ava commented at the show that she had the idea in mind, and while bored on a Snow Day, she got her dad to put it together in a racing game that he has.

Beyond the success that she has been able to have behind the wheel, Thiering says it means the world to her to inspire little girls, like Ava.

“It means the world to me, honestly,” Thiering said. “What I do on the track is great, but it’s what you do off the track. Being involved in stuff like this and inspiring other girls like this to do what I do, and showing them that you don’t have to be a boy and you can set your own pace and do great things. That’s what so important, and it really shows.”

Entering the 2015 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Season, Mark Dilley is wearing two hats. He is the General Manager for Sunset Speedway, which will host their inaugural series event this June, while also being a driver in the series.

About a month ago, news broke that Sunset Speedway would be part of the 2015 schedule, with the inaugural Leland Industries 300 presented by Johnsonville scheduled to take place on June 20th.

“We’re really excited at the speedway to have the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race there,” Dilley commented. “It’s something that we’ve been working on for a while and it’s finally come, so we’ll try to make the best of that. I think it’ll be a great track to watch a race at with Dwayne (Baker) and all the guys and gals. Racing all those guys over the years, I know the caliber of show that could go on there. It’ll be excellent. It’ll be a good time.”

Dilley will once again race in the series, splitting the schedule with Kerry Micks for the third straight season. Dilley is set to run the ovals, including Sunset Speedway, while Micks runs the road courses.

“Obviously I’d like to race every weekend, but with Kerry and I, it has worked great,” Dilley commented. “With running Sunset and all the stuff, the road courses are a lot of time away on weekends. Kerry and the guys in the shop do a great job getting the cars ready. I was at Trois Rivieres last year, sitting there and laughing. I thought ‘this was pretty cool’ with him, (Andrew) Ranger and (L.P.) Dumoulin battling. You know, he can still run – he’s fast. I don’t know how old he is – I think he’s 50+, a couple years older than that. But they call him the energizer bunny for a reason. He goes fast, and keeps going and going.”

Being Sunset’s track promoter and having ran a couple late model events, some have hinted that Dilley could have an advantage over his competition. However, that isn’t something that looks to be the case, so far.

“I thought I was doing good and Baker came and tested and went three tenths faster,” Dilley commented. “We test there a little more for stuff – we’ll probably test a little more this year trying to get ready. But we go to all kinds of different race tracks and the teams are good, they adapt fast and the drivers adapt fast.”

Rather than focus on who should be quicker, Dilley points the race winner towards the driver that is able to be there at the end of the event.

“After 300 laps, whatever is running and has all the panels on it, has the advantage,” he commented “I think it’s going to be a great show. We’ve had a great response, and as a whole, I’m looking up here and there’s lots of new blood. That’s a good sign for racing, the Canadian Tire Series and NASCAR in Canada. It’s exciting for us, for sure.”

At the Short Track Night of Champions as part of the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show, Andrew Gresel would be honored with the top spot in the Inside Track Motorsports News/London Recreational Racing Short Track Power Rankings.

“I’d like to thank London Recreational for supporting this event,” he commented. “2014, man, it was an awesome year for us. Every year, it’s hard to finish in the top-five and good finishes like that every weekend. I don’t know – it was an awesome year, and I hope to have another one as good as this.”

Gresel gave credit for the successful to the whole team, and the work that they put in behind the scenes to make sure the car was prepared.

Last season, the driver of the No. 81 SAUBLE Falls Tent and Trailer Park, CUSW, London Recreational, Hy-Grade roofing and Raden Givari of eHomes Realty SLM had an impressive year that saw him score five victories en route to the championship. He started off the 2014 season right near the top with a fourth place finish at Sunset Speedway, only to back it up with a win at Kawartha Speedway. He then put together a string of three top-fives throughout June, before winning three straight wins in a row. He then round off the season with a second at Sunset Speedway, fifth at Peterborough Speedway and second at Sunset Speedway, before claiming his second straight Autumn Colors Classic feature victory in dominating style.

Gresel said he enjoyed his time in the series with how it was organized by Dave Gainforth and the series officials.

“It allows guys to try different stuff and change body styles, and basically do everything you want to do to the car,” he commented. “It’s awesome that way and I had a lot of fun last year running with the OSCAAR series.”

Now with his focus set on the 2015 season, Gresel plans on running the full APC United Late Models of Ontario Tour, as well as five to six OSCAAR Super Late Model races. Looking to top this past season is something that Gresel recognizes being a tough challenge ahead of him.

“We got a lot of good drivers getting involved with this APC tour,” Gresel commented. “Even for our team, we’ve kind of switched chassis so we’re in a Port City deal and everything is going to be different, new to us. It’s going to be a big challenge to try and win as many races as we won last year.”

The OSCAAR Modifieds have been in existence for three years, and each of those three years, there’s been only one champion. Last season, Gary McLean won his third straight OSCAAR Modified Championship and was honored for those accomplishments this past weekend. McLean was on stage at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show as part of the Short Track Night of Champions, and was slotted in the ninth spot on the Inside Track News/London Recreational Racing Power Rankings.

“I just want to thank the guys that work on the car,” McLean said. “I’m just the lucky guy that gets to drive the car – I keep saying that and everybody laughs, but that’s the way it is. The work is done at the back of the shop, and realistically, we had to tear apart the car so many times this year or we would’ve been a lot better off. We had about four or five nights that were just a disaster, and the guys did the work and put it back together.”

McLean is quick to give all the credit to his team after each weekend, mainly crew chief Greg Gibson whom leads the team throughout the season.

“We’re good friends, and have been for a lot of years now,” he commented. “We get playing with the car, doing a lot of stuff. He’s great. Everybody knows what he’s like building racecars and he loves to keep working on them and stuff. I’m pretty excited for this year because they changed the rules up, and kind of threw the challenge out there to them so I’m thinking that it’s going to be pretty fun.”

The 2014 season didn’t start out as warranted, though, as McLean would post a 13th place finish in the season opener at Sunset Speedway as a result of a late race wreck. However, like a champion, McLean came back stronger than ever. He would kick off the month of June with a victory at Kawartha Speedway, before heading to Barrie Speedway a couple weeks later for another victory.

Though, unfortunately, bad luck would strike the Conn, Ontario native again as he would finish 16th in the first feature of the Don Biederman Memorial weekend as a result of a flat tire. Determined not to let it get him down, McLean would come back the next night and put forth a strong effort all feature long, en route to finishing second behind Cayden Lapcevich.

With luck back on his side, McLean looked to make the summer stretch one to remember, and he certainly did just that. Behind the wheel of his No. 8 McLean Industrial Design and Fabrication Ltd. and McLean Farms Modified, he would have a great inaugural trip to Capital City Speedway, scoring a victory in the first feature, before finishing second in the second feature. A trip up to the beach would result in McLean’s second straight Rick Woolner Memorial victory in dominating fashion, taking the lead on lap three and never looking back.

However, the good-bad luck pendulum would swing once again for the veteran, with bad luck coming his way at the Chase for the Colors event. Despite being the top qualifier for the event, McLean would end up finishing 13th as a result of a mid-race incident. The rest of August, though, would fall his way as he would finish fourth at Kawartha, fifth at Delaware, before returning back to Sunset Speedway to capture his fifth victory of the year.

Looking to end off his season on a good note, McLean returned to Sunset Speedway a month later and captured the victory in the Velocity 250 for his sixth victory of the season. unfortunately, the Autumn Colors Classic a couple weeks later didn’t go as planned as a mid-race incident resulted in a 19th place finish. Still, the veteran had lots of celebrate with the championship on his hands.

In each season that he has won the championship, he has watched the competition get increasingly tough, highlighted by rookie Max Beyore finishing second behind McLean in the season ending standings.

“We’ve got guys that are looking at the modifieds and wanting to try it, and they’re good,” McLean commented. “Loved racing with Max (Beyore) last year – solid competitors; that’s more of the guys that we need. The guys that are going to take pride in their cars, bring a good piece and race respectfully.”

With over 25 years of racing experience, McLean has seen it all across the board, and continues to prove no matter the track that he is one of the best to ever sit behind the wheel of an open-wheel car. Entering another season of competition, it’s likely that you will find the No. 8 Modified in a victory lane near you.

“I think this year, we’re more motivated then we were the last few,” he commented. “This year looks to be a lot more fun (already). With the rule changes and what not, there’s going to be a lot of tinkering with the cars and lots of great racing.”

Following a solid season that saw him finish second in the OSCAAR Super Late Model Points Standings, Kevin Cornelius would be ranked in the 10th spot for the Inside Track Motorsports News/London Recreational Racing Ontario Short Track Power Rankings. The past Sunset Speedway champion was on hand at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show to accept the honors.

“It was a decent year,” he commented on his 2014 season. “It was good to get those big wins, but we need to put our program a little better together and come out next year with a better run.”

The season didn’t start off as hoped, though, as a pre-season motor issue would force Cornelius to run a pro late model for the season opener at Sunset Speedway.

“Those motors are a funny thing. You have to have oil in them – I didn’t know that. Its $40,000 – you’d think they’d come with oil in them,” he commented. “That wasn’t the way that we wanted to start off the year and we just couldn’t get rolling from there on out. But like I said, we had a pretty good year, as far as speed went; we just have to get past those mechanical errors.”

Beyond the season opener, mechanical errors reigned their hand in the  second race of the season at Kawartha Speedway as power steering issues relegated Cornelius to a 14th place finish after running inside the top-five throughout the afternoon. Those issues came back once again later in the year at Peterborough Speedway, with Cornelius leading till power steering issues forced him pit side. His return trips to Kawartha and Peterborough weren’t much prettier, as between the two tracks, his best finish was seventh in the five races.

Though beyond the eastern swing of the province, there was success to be had.

Cornelius would out-duel Andrew Gresel in the final laps of the 50 lap feature at Barrie Speedway to score his first career OSCAAR Super Late Model victory in the third race of the season. The driver of the No. 17 Super Late Model would carry the momentum into the Don Biederman Memorial a couple weeks later, hoping to better a second place effort from 2013. He would start off the weekend solidly, posting a second place finish to Dwayne Baker in the first of the two features. He would then come back on the Sunday night, leading the majority of the feature en route to scoring the victory. As a result of his average finish over the two nights, Cornelius would be crowned the 2014 Don Biederman Memorial Champion.

He was also able to score a pair of third place finishes at Sauble Speedway and Sunset Speedway, before returning to Sunset in September to put forth one of the strongest performances of the year. Despite the power steering letting go early in the race, the sophomore driver pushed forward, taking the lead just before halfway to dominate the rest of the feature and score his third victory on the season.

Now heading into 2015, there are a lot of people that have stated that Cornelius is the championship favourite. However, as of right now, the KDR Motorsports will only be running a partial schedule.

“We actually lost Halton Crushed Stone this year; they’ve been with us for 10, 12 years,” Cornelius commented. “We’re currently looking for a primary sponsor to get us through the 2015 season and as it stands right now, we’re going to run a limited late model season right now.”