Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
Each day of the week, the column will highlight a division from Sunset Speedway, highlighting five drivers and mentioning things that you should know going into the next week of racing.
The Signs of Innovation Mighty Mini division was created as a division for the young teenagers to get their feet wet in racing, without having to compete against the super fast Mini Stocks that run at Sunset Speedway. Though thrown among them were some veterans, who are keeping their budgets limited, and as a result not matching the top notch speeds that we’ve seen. Two weeks in and it seems to be delivering the right combination as the students are learning, while the veterans are teaching.
The opening night saw a sophomore visit victory lane while last weekend, a veteran made his return. Bob Phinnemore led the final laps of the 20 lap feature on Saturday night en route to scoring the victory. It gives Phinnemore a solid start to the year as he finished fourth on opening night, and the racing action this past weekend was a nice hat trick for the veteran as he won the heat and Dash for Cash, as well. No doubt he’ll be one to watch as we progress through the year.
While Phinnemore (pictured left) is giving a node to the veterans, the less experienced of the division are already impressing. Stefan Woyslaw is now in his second year at Sunset Speedway and so far this season, he’s off to a solid start. Woyslaw finished third last week, after finishing fifth on opening night. Woyslaw started off his career last season on a struggling note. Though through the year, he began to lay down solid laps and break into solid contention. It shouldn’t be long till he scores his first win.
On the flip side, there’s Fred Jordan, one of the many rookies who are getting their feet wet this season. Jordan did decent on opening night in the feature, scoring a ninth place finish after running up front early. Beyond that, he opened up his career with a heat victory. This week, though, he continued to improve as he led the majority of the feature before finishing second to Phinnemore. Jordan is already showing that he could be one of the many names that we’re talking about for years to come at the front of the field. Be sure to keep an eye on the No. 70 moving forward.
While many drivers in the division are off to a good start, there are others who wish they could say the same. Josh Inglis found himself watching the feature from the sidelines after suffering heavy damage in a wreck during his heat. Making the shift from Barrie to Sunset, he was hoping to have some success – but it seems the bad luck that took him out at Barrie a couple times has followed.
Chris Allard came into the season with a lot of promise entering his rookie year. After all, he has plenty of years of experience working as a crew member with some of the top notch drivers in the division, and the car that he bought was one of the fastest cars in the province last year. He proved that he was capable, posting a seventh place finish on opening night. However, things didn’t continue as he hoped as a blown motor in his heat resulted in missing the feature. Once he gets a new power plant under the hood, keep an eye on him as he could surprise as we go forward this year.
