19/09/2017
What an incredible time I have had in two years running the WSA SLM championship. Hard to believe it is all over already.
From the people I have met and become friends with, to the immense knowledge I have gained, the experience has been surreal. I experienced so many highs with putting down blistering fast laps and winning so many heats, and so many lows with mechanical problems and crashes - I have not only matured as a driver and an engineer, but as a person. I have learned the importance of having good relationships with competitors, how to pick myself up after having my car wrecked, and how damn lucky I am to have had this opportunity to race such bad-ass cars with such awesome people.
My experience with this #15 car was rocky. Not once have I had a raceday without a major mechanical problem - no matter how hard we tried to get ontop of the issues. Despite all these issues, out of 8 starts (7 WGR, 1 EIR), I managed to run a sub 14.2 lap time on 6 of the racedays at WGR (with several sub 14.1's), win 5 heats, get 2 feature second place finishes, and qualified top 5 every race but one. Also a note, I only ever finished 4 feature races, one of which was a WSA race.
My stats may not have been the best, but despite having a horrifically unreliable car, my team was able to make that thing bad fast. I cannot thank my team of Garry Hardy, Zach Manton, Cory Ernst, Chris Eyerley, Howard Crossman, Gary Lanzer, and Wayne Sellar enough. I need to thank the people that have helped me so much this year: Rob Howlett, Shawn Deagnon, Aaron Deagnon, Alex Leschenko, and Tom Vangool.
Also, I need to thank my amazing sponsors for supporting my racing endeavors: D&S Homes, Greenbryre Golf And Country Club, Speedy Collision on 51st., W5 Properties, and OK Tire on 8th.
And last but not least, I have to thank my parents for letting me participate and supporting me with this crazy sport. Whenever I was down and frustrated, they always pushed me to keep going. For not being a "car family", they sure sacrificed alot to let me pursue my dreams. Thank you.
I'm not sure if I will ever be behind the wheel of a stock car ever again since I will be graduating from engineering this year and looking for a career as an engineer in motorsport. We will see how things work out.