Category: Featured Other Series

After an incredible first season, the OSCAAR Modifieds return this year with more excitement behind them than last year. After last year’s success, many drivers have stepped up to the plate over the off-season, purchasing cars to join the ever-growing line-up of drivers.

The driver that they will all be trying to upset is Gary McLean after McLean dominated last season on the way to the championship. McLean opened up last year with a win at Sunset, and will look to do the same this weekend.

Though looking to stop him and keep it within the family is cousin Brent McLean, who enters his third year of modified racing. McLean had a successful season last year, finishing second in points.

Heading to the new season, McLean has the same goal as always – win races and go for the championship. He adds that he wants to build on the momentum from last year, by getting a few more wins and trying to be consistent week-in-week-out. He also has some unfinished business at one of the tracks after getting taken out in an early race accident.

“I’d have to say Barrie,” he said earlier this year in talking about what track he wanted to get back to most. “Last year we had got taken out early and didn’t really get to show all of our stuff. Other than that I’m looking forward to all the tracks and showing what the No. 7 has in store.”

Gary and Brent McLean will be joined once again by Brian McLean, who also ran strong last year, picking up a victory at Peterborough in August. The McLeans took all the victories – except one – so they are the ones to beat.

Hoping the spoil the family fun is sophomore driver Davey Terry, who almost pulled off the win last season at Sunset Speedway’s Velocity 250. Terry had an incredible rookie season, finishing third in points after finishing top 10 all but two nights. Terry goes into this season with one “plain and simple” goal in mind – to win.

“It’s a fairly reasonable goal that will result in one hell of a party when it’s met,” he said earlier this year.

Fellow sophomore driver Matt Barton has committed to the first six events of the season after having a successful season last year.

After some solid top 10 runs in his rookie year last year, Josh Gruntz is returning in 2013, looking to be even more competitive.

After suffering some bad luck last year, Tim Burke is back to give it another go. He was competitive last year when he wasn’t being bit by the bad luck bug, so look for him to run upfront each week.

Former Delaware Speedway weekly racer Justin Demelo returns to OSCAAR for another season as he looks to lock down more solid finishes.

One of the families known to be many Ontario racing fans – Burrows – is set to run some OSCAAR events this year once again. Registered drivers include Beau, Bill, Chris, David and Jamie.

Adam Adams, David McCullough, Barry Newman and Monty Kelly have also thrown their names into the hat.

While there are many drivers entering this season with experience, there are also those who enter the season with lots of inexperience. OSCAAR has listed that potentially 11 new drivers could see action this season, with at least half committed to 75% of the schedule or more.

One of those is Bobby Tolton, who brings his experience in mini stocks and late models to the OSCAAR Modified ranks.

“I’m extremely excited heading into this season, with all the time and effort the crew and myself have put into getting the car all geared up we have nothing but high hopes,” he said. “We’re new to the series and we just have to go out and keep our nose clean and earn respect.”

Reigning Canadian Vintage Modified Champion Shane Stickel will compete this season in a new Troyer-built modified.

Former Kawartha Speedway Late Model regular Max Beyore will be driving a brand new Jeff Hanley-built modified.

Dave Osbourne made his OSCAAR modified debut at Autumn Colors and plans to attend every OSCAAR event, except the Friday night events at Delaware Speedway.

Third generation driver Branden Bullen will be behind the wheel of the No. 67jr that he debuted at the Fast and Furious Motorsports show in Bowmanville, Ontario. He made his debut last year and looks for more this year.

Sunset Speedway Super Stock competitor Lane Zardo will make his OSCAAR Modified this Sunday at Sunset. He will be driving a car owned by George Woods out of Elmvale that has ran at Varney Motor Speedway in the past.

They’ll be joined by Mike Westwood, Mike Ford, Albert Traves, Ryan Dick, Tommy Robb and Jessica Spicer.

Known for side-by-side, edge of your seat action and their unique flavor of racing, this is one series that I promise you will be glad to have seen live yourself. So get out to Sunset Speedway this week and join in the fun.

Respected longtime motorsports executive Derrick Walker will become President of Operations & Competition of INDYCAR, effective May 27, Hulman & Company chief executive officer Mark Miles announced earlier in the week. He most recently served as team manager for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Walker will be responsible for all technical and competition aspects of the racing operations at the open-wheel sanctioning body. His job will be report to Miles in regards to decisions and aspects of the series. Some of his responsibilities will stem to:

•Cost management

•Enhancing innovation within the current technical platform and race formats

•Continuing to emphasize and develop safety initiatives

•Sustaining programs and avenues to develop drivers and suppliers for the IZOD IndyCar Series

•Developing plans for future technical platforms

Beau Barfield, Brian Barnhart and Will Phillips will continue to have their roles within the organization, though will report to Walker. Barfield will be in charge of race control, Barnhart will continue to be in charge of operations with Phillips behind the engineering side.

“I have no doubt that they can be more stitched together as a team,” Miles added. “I think one of the things our organization can improve on across the board is the extent to which we work closely together and communicate better and break down silos and plan a little farther ahead. Without any way meaning to be critical of those folks who we will count on going forward, I think Derrick brings a practical approach that’s so well grounded in the technical aspects of it, that they will be a higher-performing team under his leadership.”

Miles went on to say the decision was made in an effort to straighten IndyCar as an organization.

“It’s a good organization but we’ve got a lot to do, and we decided to bring on the strongest horse we can find to help us with our technical and operations and racing, our product, really, and then separately to find additional leadership to help us with our commercial activities for IndyCar,” Miles explained.

Miles added they considered many people for the role, but Walkers’ resume stood out above the rest with his experience from being a mechanic to owning a team. Walker also says he likes the person behind the resume, in Walkers’ personality of being straightforward and a great common sense.

“He’s got the conviction of his principles and his — we know that he’ll help make clear, firm decisions and have the strength of character to stick by them,” Miles added. “And we’ve talked to a lot of people in the paddock. I know that Derrick’s experience is well regarded as broadly as anybody’s could be in the paddock. So we think there’s a lot to do, and Derrick is the right man to lead us through it.”

Walker wasn’t looking to work for IndyCar, but when the pair got talking about IndyCar and what it represents, one thing led to another and he has the job now.

“Obviously I’ve been around enough to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of the competition sports, but that doesn’t deter me,” Walker added. “I think I’ve had probably a good 20-odd, maybe more, 25 years of Indy car, which has really helped me a great deal, and I feel if I can give something back to the sport in whatever way that is, then I’d love that opportunity.”

In making decisions down the road, Walker says he wants to see innovation as that’s always been part of IndyCar. However, there has to be a balance between innovation, speed and the cost of racing.

“I think if you look at what our goal has to be or should be, is to open up that door just enough to allow it to grow and improve and innovate, but yet keep it in a measurable amount, not only the teams but the manufacturers, every supplier that is involved in our business,” Walker explained. “It doesn’t price them out of the market — we can’t have in the U.S., maybe in other parts of the world it works — but we can’t have such a super-expensive series that the fans can’t afford to come along and buy a ticket. And we’re racing in front of, you know, lots and lots of people that don’t turn up.”

Last year, Takuma Sato came very close to winning the Indianapolis 500. In the final laps of the race, he made a move on Dario Franchitti for the lead, however would end up spinning and hitting the wall.

“The ‘500’ last year is just unforgettable day for me, and I just seconds by seconds what happening the last six laps — not just the last six, but the whole entire weekend and month,” Sato commented. “You could say that it was special and spectacular show. I think at the end of the day, obviously, I was disappointed with the result, but still it was just tremendous support from the team and had a great experience to experience really to leading the ‘500’ the first time.”

12 months later, Sato is a race winner having won earlier this year at Long Beach and comes into the weekend leading the points. He also built on that success at Brazil, finishing second after a thrilling battle to the checkered for the win with James Hinchcliffe.

“Every single event is counting for the confidence,” he said. “Brazil was one of the most exciting races we ever had. In the end, I was obviously disappointed being second, but still I think it’s a great satisfaction for the series doing a fantastic job, and to be able to be leading a championship after Brazil is an extra bonus for me.”

Sato at the top of the board remarks an incredible return for A.J. Foyt Racing to the top of the charts. Sato made the move from Bobby Rahal Racing to A.J. Foyt’s team during the off-season, which has added a new challenge for the Japanese driver. Though he says, it’s also an honor.

“A.J. is someone special and having an opportunity from him to race for him and his team, it’s really honor to me,” he said. “And I really feel proud to be part of the racing team there because the guys, it’s a small team, relatively small team — well, say not big team. But I think it is a bunch of quality people, a bunch of the people who already having a tremendous time from A.J. Foyt time and are still there. That’s something that’s very unique, I think.”

Sato said from the first test at Sebring during the winter with Foyt, he felt they could be strong.

“The car was a bit different from what I was used to from last year but it was very, very consistent,” he said of that test. “I thought, ‘Hmm, this consistency, if you can maintain it, just sharpen up the speed, we could have been really, really strong.’ And that’s what we did.”

In his career to date, Sato has already had the honor to race for some of the biggest names in the sport, starting with Jimmy Vasser. It was Vasser that gave Sato his opportunity to come over from Europe and race.

“He’s probably the, knowing the latest of all, in terms of the age and the closest for us, that he experienced as at very least in formulas and IndyCar,” he said. “So he knows how to do it in current format of the IndyCar racing. So it was really great advice. Everything, of course, we go on ovals and how you do it. It was a good time.”

Sato added that Vasser was good in giving him tips in how to run the ovals, as Sato wasn’t used to that.

Though the focus is now on winning the Indy 500 and returning A.J. Foyt to Indianapolis victory lane as Foyt’s last Indy win came a decade and a half ago with Kenny Brack.

“I think by any team and any person winning ‘500’ would be so special,” he said. “And I think but doing that with A.J., I can’t imagine how he’s going to be. It’s going to be really, really huge moment for the team and for himself and myself. So — but we’re here for it. We are here aiming to win the ‘500.’ So there is no reason why we cannot. We’ve been showing solid performance on the last two days in testing, and hopefully we continue the progress, and hopefully we’ll be competitive. But out there, it’s so competitive and the last four events it was successful for us, it doesn’t necessarily translate to the oval because just completely new environment.”

This weekend at Sunset Speedway, the OSCAAR Super Late Models will begin their 2013 season with the Lucie Aylwin Memorial Night. Teams have already been out testing in preparation for the event.

Lucie Aylwin was the fiancé of Gary Gendron, a crewmember for driver George Wilson, who was tragically killed in the collapse of the Algo Centre mall in Elliot Lake, Ont. on June 23, 2012.

George Wilson, ‘The Steel City Outlaw’, has stated that he will not be running the full schedule as he is going to focus on his son’s career. However, you may see him at Sunset this weekend.

One of the drivers to watch right off the top will be Brandon Watson. The defending series champion has stated that he will be running some events this year, though may miss some due to racing in the States. Watson is always a threat to win when it comes to Sunset, having won there last year in a Super Late and in an Open Late Model.

Though if you want to look at an early championship favourite, then turn your eyes to Glenn Watson. Watson is always fast in his No. 22 Super Late Model and has been testing at Sunset Speedway, dating back to April. His early laps looked to be fast as always and with being a four-time champion, don’t let doubt set in your mind there.

You may see him out at Sunset, or you may not, but if he is there, you better watch. I am talking about 2012 Velocity 250 winner Jeff Hanley as he always is quick every night he comes out during his part-time schedule and one to watch.

Derrike Tiemersma (pictured above) was out at Sunset on Wednesday testing his Super Late. One of the veterans of the season, Tiemersma had a solid season last year, though struggled to find victory lane. Could this be his year?

A past winner at Sunset Speedway and veteran of the series – Rob Clarke. Who can forget about Magic Shoes’ duel with Glenn Watson a couple years ago? Clarke is one of the most consistent drivers who finds himself up front each week. Look for that to continue.

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series competitor J.R. Fitzpatrick is hoping to pull off the daily double come Sunday. He will be competing in the NCATS race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, though also hopes to run at Sunset on Sunday night in a super late. He will be running Roy Passer’s Super Late, as Fitzpatrick has put in hours during the off-season, working at the car to make it better.

Speaking of the Passers, Gary Passer has been out testing his Super Late as he looks to improve on last season. He will be joined on the Passer Super Late team by Kyle Passer and Quinn Misner.

After missing some races last year, Tyler Hawn looks to be making his return as he was shaking down his car on Wednesday afternoon. A new look will dawn the sides of his super late so look out for something different.

A veteran of the series, Charlie Gallant is back in the roster again this year as he was another driver that was out testing.

Sophomore driver Rob Poole looks to have a much better year this year after struggling with some mechanical issues in his rookie season. Poole was out at Sunset on Wednesday, turning some strong laps as he looks for his first super late model win. As a three-time Thunder Car Champion at Sunset, Poole is one of the drivers who has many laps under his belt –but noted, those championships were under the old configuration.

A past winner of the series, Jesse Kennedy may be a driver that you see out this year. He won at Barrie Speedway and produced a solid rookie campaign last year.

They’ll be joined by fellow sophomore drivers Jim Bowman and Paul Law.

Shifting forward, this year’s rookie class looks even more impressive than last year’s, no offense to Poole, Kennedy, Bowman and Law.

2011 Sunset Speedway Limited Late Model Champion Kevin Cornelius will be campaigning a brand new McColl Racing Enterprises chassis this year. It marks the first M.R.E OSCAAR chassis so there may be some bugs to work out. However, combining a driver with numerous laps around Sunset with an organization known for success looks to be a combo that could bring success.

Another Sunset Speedway Limited Late Model driver is stepping up to the plate in the form of Sean Cronan. Cronan had success at Sunset, finishing top five in points while winning the Velocity 250 and M.R.E Shootout Series Championship in 2011. Cronan will drive a car previously piloted by Jeff Dunford in the OSCAAR Series.

Speaking of late model drivers stepping their game up, another to watch is Andrew Gresel. Gresel will make the move to OSCAAR after having tons of success in the Pro Late Model ranks at Sauble Speedway and Delaware Speedway. Gresel did head south this past winter to attempt to qualify for the ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway, though missed qualifying by mere tenths of a second.

Ethan Cournyea will also be vying for rookie of the year after moving up to OSCAAR from Sunset’s Super Stock ranks. Cournyea had some success in Super Stocks with some solid finishes and has looked decent out in testing so far.

Rob Gibson is the fifth driver joining the ranks as he makes the move from Sunset’s Mini Stock division. Gibson has stated that he is going to run a part-time schedule, though, making his debut mid-summer.

With this being the first of five events for the Super Lates at Sunset Speedway, there’s no doubt that it could preview what to expect for the rest of the season as far as not only who is strong on the 3/8 Innisfil oval, but also who is strong from here on out.

In all fairness, this list could go on and on forever as there are many names that are registered and have been strong in the past, but geez, that’d be a chapter full of writing. Just mentioning a couple that are not listed includes but not limited to – Todd Campbell, Jeff Dunford, Mike Taylor and Rudy Oppersma. All I can say is make sure to be at Sunset Speedway this weekend to see for yourself this great line-up of drivers, as well as a great event.

In the fourth day of testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it would once again be an Andretti Autosport driver topping the charts. James Hinchcliffe would take his turn at the top of the charts with a speed of 224.210 mph. Though he didn’t make that lap in his own car – he was driving his teammate Marco Andretti’s car.

“Marco (Andretti) is pretty angry with me now,” Hinchcliffe commented afterwards. “Not only did I rock a big tow, which he is famous for, but I did it in his car, so “Marco Tow-dretti” is pretty upset with me now. It’s good to be up there, but at the end of the day, those numbers don’t mean a lot right now. It’s about the work you do on the race car and making sure the No. 27 GoDaddy car is going to be good not only on one lap, but over 200 (laps).”

Hinchcliffe joked that he was driving Andretti’s No 25 RC Cola DW-12 Chassis to see how he looked in red and blue.

“There are some things we wanted to see and suss out, and that’s the way to do it,” he added. “It’s not uncommon. Guys have done it in the past — especially this team. I think TK (Tony Kanaan) drove every single car on the team at some point during the month. It’s standard procedure to feel a couple of things out.”

J.R. Hildebrand would time in second fastest behind the wheel of his Panther Racing Indy Car, 0.1001 seconds off of Hinchcliffe.

“With the qualifying situation and the added boost for Friday and Saturday, you see a lot of race running these first few days,” Hildebrand commented. “Besides trying to make the No. 4 National Guard car better and head into Thursday and Friday with some idea of what’s going to happen when you qualify, we spent the entire day running around in some form of traffic. We weren’t trying to put big laps up. We’re trying to understand how the car works behind one car, two cars, three cars, four cars, different speed of cars. It was nice at the end of the day to join the Andretti tow battle that was going on. At the end of the day, you want to figure out how your car is going to work with other cars that you might be able to race with. That’s where the speed comes from, and that’s where the focus is going to be today and tomorrow.”

Andretti timed in third behind the wheel of his own car after taking his teammate’s car out for a couple of laps.

“I think today went well. I’m quite pleased with how things are going for us so far,” Andretti commented. “Working with the car in the heat of the day can be challenging, but we made a lot of progress to get where we are. We are going to continue to look at things and try to be faster by Race Day.”

Of the four days of testing, Andretti holds the quickest time across them with a speed of 225.100 mph from yesterday. Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves is second, followed by Andretti’s teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe’s lap from today and Penske Racing’s Will Power.

Castroneves was fourth on today’s charts with Hunter-Reay in fifth.

“It was another good day today for the Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Chevrolet,” Castroneves commented. “We feel we’ve identified the places where we can improve and so now we have to continue working. Finishing near the top yesterday and today shows we hopefully have the consistency that it takes to win the race in the end.”

“It’s certainly getting interesting now with the heat and the wind,” Hunter-Reay said. “Conditions are changing every day, so it’s keeping the team on our toes, and we’re just trying a lot of different settings now. We have five cars, so we have a lot of options, and I think as we work through the week, we’ll work ourselves into a good car. But it’s a work in progress.”

Also, Connor Daly completed the Rookie orientation program and is cleared to start the Indianapolis 500. He joins A.J. Allmendinger, Carlos Munoz, Tristan Vautier and Kurt Busch as drivers to complete the program this month.

“Today was good,” Daly commented. “We upped our personal-best speed. We also made some setup changes so that I could feel what it did to the car. At the end, I got to run with Bia (Ana Beatriz) and feel what that was like to run close to a car. Slowly but surely gaining experience.”

A total of 42 cars are at the Speedway, with 41 passing technical inspection. Thirty-two drivers have been on the track to date and turned 2,226 laps today and 5,235 laps this month.

Practice will continue tomorrow as teams continue to work towards the Indianapolis 500.

With a last lap, last corner pass on Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe would pick up his second IndyCar Series victory in the Italpava Sao Pauo Indy 300.

“There’s no cooler way to win a race — in the last corner of the last lap,” Hinchcliffe commented. “Takuma was making that race car really wide and he was defending the inside pretty well, almost too well a couple times. He just outbroke himself just a little bit and I was able to do a high-low (pass) and got the win.”

It marks Hinchcliffe’s first top 15 finish since his win at St. Petersburg earlier this year as he has failed to finish the past two races.

It also marks the third win in four races this year for Andretti Autosport after Hunter-Reay’s win at Barber Motorsports Park.

“That’s IndyCar racing,” Michael Andretti said. “That’s what it’s about. It seems that so many of these races go down the last turn of the last lap. That’s what makes this such a great sport. I’m glad we came out on the good end of the stick for sure.”

Sato would finish second for his second straight podium after winning at Long Beach.

“Hinch did a great job and the guys did a good job,” Sato said. “Today we started from 12^th so it was a really solid day for us. It was a great, great race, and we’re carrying good momentum into Indianapolis. ”

Marco Andretti would finish third for his second podium finish of the year.

“It was a lot of fun,” Andretti said. “It was dicey at some points. Really it was just about conserving the push-to-passes for when it counts. At the end I was kind of using it when people weren’t expecting me to use it so I could kind of snooker them. Looking from practice 1, I’m quite pleased with where we ended up today. Congratulations to the Go Daddy crew. The RC Cola car is looking good in points now.”

Oriol Servia and Josef Newgarden rounded out the top five. EJ Viso finished sixth, followed by Dario Franchitti, Simona de Silvestro, Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Kimball. Last year’s series champion and pole sitter Ryan Hunter-Reay would finish 11th.

During the off-season, Marco Andretti went to work – he wanted to improve. He met up with a driver coach and spent time learning how he could improve.

The result of that experience is paying off as Andretti is off to a strong start this season with finishes of third and a pair of sevenths.

“This is what used to be the weakest part of the schedule for me, and I find myself just a few points out of the points lead,” he said. “I’m super thrilled about my progress in the off-season. Working on these weak points I think definitely has helped, but it’s definitely good to see results translate through.”

As far as stepping it up a notch and picking up his first victory of the year, he says it will come if he keeps driving like he has been.

“I’ve worked on my street courses in the off-season in a big way,” he commented. “Really I need to give my teammates credit, especially Ryan (Hunter-Reay). He adapted to the street courses a lot better than I did. I was really over-driving the car. In the off-season I really studied how I was over-driving the car. It ended up working against me, causing more problems for myself, leaving me on the outside looking in.

“This year, qualifying, there’s a couple hundredths of a second (that keep us) out of the top six, but it’s a lot better than looking in on the top 12, which is where we were last year. I think we’ve improved. But to get wins we just need to keep driving the way we are.”

Andretti added that, “this is the first time I can actually say that I can see myself winning this championship.” He says he feels much better where he is this year in points and being a couple hundredths off, rather than being on the outside of the top 12 and a couple tenths off.

“I look at our competitiveness in general,” he added. “I’ve been working on consistency in the off-season, and I’m pleased so far. We have that. But I need to be consistently better.

“I think if we keep driving the way we’ve been, the wins are going to come. So it’s hard not to get excited about that because I just know it.”

Andretti hopes to carry the success so far this year into Sao Paulo this weekend as he tackles the tricky street course. Known for its long straightaways and some passing zones, the biggest challenge is stay out of trouble.

“Qualifying is also important because of the stack-ups in Turn 1, if you’re able to be ahead of most of that, that will help,” he added. “From there, it’s just going to be about doing everything right. Obviously, it’s easier said than done, but it’s going to take just that in order to be victorious there.”

To try and minimize the turn one pile-ups, the track officials have widened the corner a little bit and changed the curbing. Andretti feels that will make it better as there wasn’t enough room there before.

“We didn’t have enough room to get it done,” he said. “We had to really be all the way through by the time you got to Turn 1 in order to make a clean pass. There’s no way two cars are fitting through there.”

With it being the month of May, there is a lot of talk already about the biggest race of the year – the Indianapolis 500. For any driver, that’s the ultimate goal for a driver and that’s no different with Andretti.

“I think it’s always been a realistic goal,” he commented. “So we just need to capitalize on it. Unfortunately I already have a similar record to dad, which is the most laps led for a non-winner. That part of it’s frustrating.”

In seven starts at Indianapolis, he has three podiums, including a second in the first race he ran there.

Following Indianapolis, Andretti also gets the treat of returning to his hometrack of Pocono Raceway to race and if he could both the Indy 500 and Pocono, it’d just be – spectacular.

“If we’re able to win Indy and Pocono, then we’re in it for the Triple Crown, which would be spectacular,” he commented. “I think I’m going to have a huge hometown fan base which will feel very good. We had a very good test there, as well. It’s a pretty daunting track at first. If you get it right, it could be very fun.”