Category: Featured Other Series

On Saturday night at Kawartha Speedway, Jason Hathaway did everything that he needed to do, leading the most laps en route to scoring the victory in the Pinty’s 250 at Kawartha Speedway.  In the end, though, it wouldn’t be enough as Scott Steckly would claim his fourth career NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Championship with a runner-up finish.

“It’s amazing,” he commented. “People don’t realize how much work goes into it by the crews and how much time it takes away from family and friends, and how much the whole team sacrifices. To be able to do it four times is amazing.”

Starting on the pole, Steckly would lead the early laps in the event, leading all the way till lap 47. It was at that time that Hathaway would take the lead, never looking back as he led the rest of the way, able to hold off Steckly and the field in each of the following restarts.

For the driver of the No. 3 HGC/Williamson/Choko Chevrolet, it marks his third victory of the season and second in a row after winning at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“We wanted to come in here and lead the most laps and we did that so that’s all I can control with my car and nothing else,” Hathaway said. “I knew we had a good car in practice. We were eighth but I told the guy to not worry about it. We had a good car with a good balance, felt real consistent. It’s all good. We’ll take it. I have a party planned in the campground.”

Steckly did what he needed to do throughout the night, running no lower than third during the event as he kept himself at the front of the field. Crossing the line in the runner-up spot gave the veteran his seventh top-five and 10^th top-10 in 11 races this season, to along with three victories.

“It was really uneventful, which was really good,” Steckly commented of his race. “We started to get a little bit tight on the long run and Jason then got by me. I just ran in second behind him and didn’t force the issue. I knew that we didn’t have to pass him or do anything, and that’s what we did for the whole day. There was no challengers from anyone else and it was a good, solid day.”

D.J. Kennington battled to the front in the final 35 laps, moving from fifth to third for a podium finish. It marks a great effort for the past series champion as he had to battle back to the front after getting front-end damage in the early stages of the event.

“It started off rough getting the front end smashed in a little bit, but by the end of the night we had the car pretty good,” he commented. “It was a good night for our sponsors – Castrol and Mahindra. We’ll take it and run with it.”

Last year’s series champion L.P Dumoulin finished fourth, followed by Marc-Antoine Camirand. Cayden Lapcevich finished sixth in his sixth career start, followed by Alex Tagliani, Joey McColm, J.P. Dumoulin and Andrew Ranger.

Gary Klutt would finish 11^th, clinching the Josten’s Rookie of the Year Award. Josh Collins finished 12^th, followed by Mark Dilley, James Van Domselaar and Noel Dowler.

When the season started and Jason Hathaway took a look at the situation before him, the plan didn’t include running the full NASCAR Canadian Tire Series schedule.

“We were just going to do the first four races but ended up leading the points so we headed out west,” he recalled. “We were able to get a sponsor for Saskatoon, and a little help for Edmonton which helped us out. My owner (Ed Hakonson) has been real good this year. He’s been helping out where he cans, and setting us up with people that can help out.”

Rather than simply running the first four races on the schedule, Hathaway has ran each of the 10 events thus far this season.

“We’ve made it through,” he continued. “We’ve won some races and won some money, which that helps. Last week winning at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park helped us out huge. That was a big payday for a big race for us, and close to home.”

Their perseverance as a team has paid off, as Hathaway will now head to the season finale with a chance at the championship, currently sitting nine points behind Scott Steckly. If Hathaway leads the most laps and wins the race (finishing the season with 442 points), he wins the championship if Steckly finishes worse than fourth without a leading lap, worse than fifth if he led a lap, and worse than sixth if he led the most laps. There are many other mathematical scenarios that could hand Hathaway the championship, as well. Either way, the driver of the No. 3 Fast Eddie/Choko/HGC Chevrolet is looking forward to this weekend’s event.

“For my team, it’s just a privilege to be racing for the championship because we didn’t think that we’d make it this far,” he commented. “So to be invited to the party at Kawartha to race for it, it’s exciting for our team. So same thing goes – just try to win the race and lead as many laps as you can. It’ll be fun.”

Going into the event, Hathaway is hoping for a smooth day, that starts off with a good qualifying effort and starting up near the front of the field. He says the goal for everyone this weekend is simple – win the race, lead the most laps and get the most points that they can. That is no different for Hathaway and his team, either.

He heads to the perfect track to make that happen as he has been successful at Kawartha in the past, picking a victory in 2008 with four top 10s and an average finish of ninth in the previous eight Kawartha events.

“Kawartha has been a great race track for me,” he noted. “I actually went to the first event there when it first opened in like street stocks back in the day, and ended up winning there. I’ve won in a Late Model there – won the Summer Sizzler, and won in a NASCAR there, and in a CASCAR Sportsman car. It’s been great for my career. With the NASCAR deal, we’ve always had cars there that are on the podium. It’s a great track and lots of room to race. It makes for a great race track to decide a championship with two grooves, ability to race up on the high-side. I think that’s why the fans like it. It’s a good track to close it out.”

The race will be a little different this year, though, as rather than having live pit stops, NASCAR has mandated a five-minute break at the halfway mark of the event. Hathaway says while he prefers the “strategy of live pit stops”, break races are something that have worked out well for the team. Earlier this year, Hathaway’s team made the right adjustments underneath the break to set him for a strong run to the checkered at Saskatoon, where he finished second.

“If you’re in a position when you can come in and set yourself up for the break and see what you need, sometimes it can be a good thing,” he commented.

Since the victory at CTMP, Hathaway has been left with three weeks to think about the season finale and his chances. He says he rather would’ve just went straight from winning at CTMP to the finale as during the break, “you get bent over thinking things too much”. He did use the break usefully, though, as he was one of the teams that was at Kawartha testing ahead of this Saturday night’s event.

“We’re ready to go,” he said. “We’re just going over things, checking things over and getting spares ready and things like that.”

With plans up in the air for next season, a victory and perhaps the championship to go with it could be huge for Hathaway and his team. Hathaway noted after winning at CTMP that plans for next year are up in air, depending on sponsorship. Certainly having a trophy, or two, to show those sponsors could help.

Following a season that has been highlighted by three trips to victory lane – including a sweep of both east coast events – Scott Steckly now heads into the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season finale, the Pinty’s 250 at Kawartha Speedway, with a nine point advantage over Jason Hathaway and Andrew Ranger.

For Steckly, a finish of fourth or better without leading a lap, fifth or better with a lap led, or sixth or better with leading the most laps would hand him the championship with no math involved as he would have more points than Hathaway or Ranger could possibly score in the event, even if either were to win and lead the most laps.

“As a team, we’re looking forward to the Pinty’s 250,” he commented. “I wish it would’ve been two weeks ago instead of waiting this long. But, anything can happen in racing and we’re going there to win the race and hopefully get Canadian Tire another championship.”

With the points lead in hand, some would believe that perhaps the three-time champion will lay back and see how things play out, before jumping up into the fight for the lead. However, he doesn’t think there will be any laying back when the green flags flies on Saturday night as “there’s so many good cars that you have to run up front and lead laps”. While the championship is the first priority, he says going into the event that they’re “definitely going to be going for the win and not sitting back”.

Though with that said, he says the way they play the race out will depend on how the car is handling, as well.

“We don’t know if we’ll be able to run in the top-three all day, or if we’ll struggle to be able to run in the top-five, or what,” he commented. “We definitely have to play it smart to win the championship as that’s our main goal. To do that, we feel that we need to lead laps and run up front all day. Obviously though to win a championship you need to be there at the end, and you’re not going to be there at the end if you get in a wreck or anything like that. So obviously I have to race very smart, but the goal is to run up front all day.”

Steckly is heading to a track that he knows how to run up front at, having two wins and an average finish of fifth in his eight Kawartha starts.

“I love racing at Kawartha,” he commented. “It’s a fast race track. There’s lots of room. It’s very forgiving, and good and wide. We love going there. The fans are great in the Peterborough area and all over Ontario. It’s great race track to finish the year at.”

One of the differences this year compared to others years, though, will be no live pit stops. NASCAR announced that rather than live pit stops, they will have a five-minute break at lap 125 of 250 for pit service. Steckly admits that he would’ve rather seen live pit stops as he has a great pit crew behind him, however feels that this could work out better without having to worry about a team pulling a late-race strategy gamble.

“We don’t have to worry about getting beat by strategy and the position that we’re in, it’s maybe a good thing,” he commented. “So, we basically just have to not worry about strategy and make sure we have a good car on the long runs and make sure we can stay up front the whole night.”

Heading into the event, the teams have also had a little break – three weeks between the previous event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and this weekend’s race at Kawartha. During the time, Steckly says the 22 Racing team has kept busy, “testing and working on the cars a little bit”.

“We’re just obviously going over everything that we can so we don’t have any parts failures, and have spare parts and stuff like that,” he added. “It’s been nice to have a break, but like I said earlier, I would’ve rather raced two weeks ago.

“But, we’ll see what happens.”

Throughout his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series career, Jason Hathaway had visited victory lane on six different occasions, but never on a road course – till last Sunday. On Sunday at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Hathaway was able to get by L.P. Dumoulin in the closing laps and score the victory.

Hathaway ran strong throughout the race, putting himself in the top-five when it came time to battle for the win late in the restart. He then stayed out of some late-race contact to move into second on a final restart with three laps to go.

“We probably had a fifth place car by the time things shook out but kept track position and was able to see the front and get a couple of late cautions to give ourselves a shot at winning,” he commented.

As the field headed through turn two, Dumoulin would make a slight mistake off of the corner, which opened the door just enough for Hathaway. He would then get the run into turn three, taking the lead.

“L.P just didn’t get the run off of turn two there, and I got a good run off there – it’s been a good corner for me all day – and just capitalized on it,” he commented.

The driver of the No. 3 Fast Eddie Racewear/Mustoka Aircraft Center/HGC Chevrolet would then lead the rest of the way en route to scoring the victory.

While it marks his road course win, Hathaway has had success at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park before, scoring a third place finish a couple years ago.

“I’m no road racer – I’ll be the first to admit that,” he said post-race. “I had good track position, good pit stops – everything went well – and had a shot at the top-five. When it comes to the last five laps, anybody can win. Look at Gary Klutt – he did it in the spring. Like L.P. said, he just made one little error of two and I had some momentum and cleared him into three. He ran me real clean, and Jeff (Lapcevich) too. They were quicker than me – I’ll be honest. I just hung on and did what I could to win. We need some points heading into Kawartha.”

The victory allowed Hathaway to close the gap on the championship, now only nine points behind Scott Steckly heading into the season finale. With his future plans up in the air, a first championship for the Ed Hakonson Racing driver could be huge.

As noted post-race, Hathaway wasn’t planning on running the full schedule this season, but rather than just the first four races and Riverside.

“We ended up leading the points heading out west so we figured we better pack the trailer and see what happens,” he commented. “

Hathaway says that the plans for next year remain up in the air and will depend on whether sponsorship can be found.

“I have a couple sponsors to pitch – three big sponsors to pitch in the next three weeks and that’ll decide it,” he stated.

Hathaway added that series needs to also decide what they’re doing, in regards to a title sponsor, as Canadian Tire is leaving at the end of the season.

“We need a title sponsor, we need to make some changes and improve what we have already,” he continued. “I think the teams are very successful in making the series bigger, and we have a lot of young drivers that are coming up that are talented.”

Though in the midst of a lot of questions, there’s one thing for certain – Hathaway is having fun right now.

“We’ve done 108 races now and it’s still fun, enjoyable and there’s a lot of respect between the guys that run every week,” he said.