13-year-old Jake Watson posts solid performance over course of season

Despite being only 13 years old, Jake Watson has been racing for a couple years in the Mini Stock ranks. This year marked his first full season at Sunset Speedway and despite having a motor issue that saw him miss a night of competition, he would finish 10th in the point standings.

“I feel like I have been getting better and better,” he noted. “I think the worst thing I had this year was a DNF. Other than that, it’s been pretty good.”

Throughout the course of the year, Watson improved behind the wheel, posting stronger finishes throughout the second half of the year versus the first half. He also came close to scoring a heat victory a couple of times, though would miss it by just a tiny bit.

Watson noted that getting to understand the handle of his No. 88  SPIRA, HYPE ENERGY, Process Group, Race2way.ca, Fast Eddie Racewear, Plasti-kote, Stewart’s Farm Equipment, Chetty’s Hot Sauce, Wix Filters, GUNK Products, TireCraft, Spencer Lewis Promotions, ARbodies, Cloverleaf Farms, Expressway Ford , Automotive Truck and Tire and Oktane Productions Mustang better.

“Last year was my first year in a car and I didn’t have the handling right down,” he commented. “This year, I got better at that.”

Watson also had to make a couple other adjustments behind the wheel this year as he ran his first full year of competition at Flamboro Speedway last year, before making the switch to Sunset Speedway. The biggest part of making the adjustment between tracks was getting used to the different track size.

“Flamboro is a much flatter track and Sunset has more banking and is a shorter track than Flamboro. I think Sunset is much better than Flamboro, but they’re both good tracks,” he commented.

Now with the regular season under his belt, Watson is set for the Short Track Playoffs. Watson has started them off strong with a pair of solid finishes in Sunset’s Frequent Flyer 50 and Velocity 250. He hopes that momentum carries forward as he heads back to Flamboro Speedway to run both Ocktoberfest and Frost Fest.