Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
In past seasons, Jamie Cox was one of the late model drivers that kept to Delaware Speedway, racing just their schedule. He ran a couple of events outside of Delaware, such as the Triple Crown at Flamboro and Sunset’s invitationals, but for the most part kept to his home track. However, that all changed in 2016 as he was one of the many drivers to partake in the APC Auto Parts United Late Models of Ontario Tour presented by Grisdales Auto Parts.
“I don’t think it totally prepared us, but we knew what we were going to be against,” he said of the previous experience at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show. “We knew the caliber that we were racing against now.”
Cox had a solid season in the inaugural campaign for the series as while he didn’t reach victory lane, he picked up three top-fives and four top-10s en route to finishing fourth in the final standings.
“Last season, I thought we had a couple bad nights that we wish we could’ve gotten back, but that’s the way it is,” he told OnPitRoad.com. “I thought the season kicked off, the series took off unbelievably. People came into and really embraced what it was about, and everybody seems to be on board this season. We’re just going to keep building on that.”
A successful inaugural season for the series was welcome by race fans across Ontario with the fact that pro late model racing seemed to be on a downhill slide prior to 2015.
“You could see the car counts were getting down and all the different tracks seemed to have their own different set of rules,” Cox commented. “It was not good. The Limited Late Models seemed to be the stars, and the Pro Lates were going downhill. We didn’t know where it was going from there.”
Now, though, it seems that the Pro Late Models are garnering attention across the province with fans tuning in to see the happenings of the APC tour.
“I’m pretty happy with how things are,” Cox spoke of the tour. “I think we have a good package with the way things are now. Obviously everybody wants to try and input some stuff, but for the most part, I think everything is rolling smoothly and everyone can run the same level.”
Cox is set to return to the series once again in 2016, looking for more success.
“I think it’s going to be a good season,” he said. “Everything established itself last year, and especially the racers know as they know what to expect from each other. There’s going to be a few new guys coming in, but I think there’s going to be some good hard reason and a good half of the field could win any race.”
Out of all the races on the schedule, Cox stated that he’s looking forward to getting to Sunset Speedway as despite not pulling off a win there previously, he’s been strong in the past. In last year’s pair of events at the Innisfil, Ontario oval, Cox finished second and fifth.
