OHSWEKEN, Ont. – Two special events highlight Ohsweken Speedway’s 25th season of racing this week, with the 17th Running of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals set for Monday, August 15 and the inaugural Pinty’s 100 for the NASCAR Pinty’s Series on Tuesday, August 16.
The second of three Canadian Sprint Car Nationals this season, Monday’s Pinty’s Knights of Thunder 360 Sprint Car event pays $10,000 to the winner, and features a star-studded entry list.
NASCAR and dirt racing standouts Christopher Bell and Stewart Friesen will make their CSCN debuts, though both have previous Ohsweken wins on their resumes. Friesen’s victory is especially notable as it came against the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series and was the first WoO win by a Canadian on home turf.
Bell and Friesen will have plenty of competition from a very tough field of regional 360 Sprint Car drivers. Ryan Turner became the first Ontarian with a CSCN victory when he won the 16th Running of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals on July 1 and heads into the event with a new team – the Nitro 54 No. 15 owned by Dan Nanticoke. Turner has been locked into a season-long championship fight with his brother Cory, who currently leads Ryan by just five points in the Kool Kidz-Corr/Pak Sprint Car standings.
Four-time Ohsweken track champ Dylan Westbrook took a podium finish on July 1 and comes into Monday’s event fresh off his Knoxville Nationals debut, while New York driver Matt Farnham has a pair of top five finishes in his two CSCN starts.
2021 Knights of Thunder series champ Jordan Poirier leads the Quebec contingent back to Ohsweken, while Jason Barney is another New Yorker with a very strong CSCN resume.
The emergence of young drivers has also been a theme of the 2022 sprint car season, as Crate Sprint Car grads Josh Hansen, Liam Martin, and Nick Sheridan have consistently challenged for wins, while 2021 Action Sprint Tour champ Jacob Dykstra and Australian Brayden Cooley have been steadily gaining speed each week.
Veterans such as Glenn Styres, Jim Huppunen, Mikey Kruchka, brothers Mitch and Jake Brown, Todd Hoddick, and Ryan Coniam are also more than capable of challenging for the win as well; Coniam charged from row eight to finish sixth in the July 1 CSCN event.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s event features the long-awaited dirt track debut of Canada’s premier stock car tour, the NASCAR Pinty’s Series. The inaugural Pinty’s 100 will pay a whopping $25,000-to-win, and features an eclectic field of drivers.
Christopher Bell and Stewart Friesen will be back in action with fellow NASCAR star and dirt track ace Ken Schrader joining the fun. Fans of Ohsweken Speedway’s Friday Night Excitement program will have several drivers to root for in the Pinty’s 100 as well, including five-time sprint car champ and Pinty’s Series rookie Glenn Styres, five-time Thunder Stock champ Dave Bailey, and sprint car standout Aaron Turkey.
Several of the Pinty’s Series regulars have been racing and testing – and sometimes winning – on dirt tracks across the country in preparation for the Pinty’s 100, which will be contested in three stages; two 25 lap stages will comprise the first half, with a 50 lap stage to finish. Heat races will set the feature lineup on Tuesday, while the NPS drivers will compete for extra cash on Monday night in the Qwick Wick Hot Lap Dash.
The NASCAR Pinty’s Series contingent is led by points leader D.J. Kennington, while Marc-Antoine Camirand, Kevin Lacroix, L.P. Dumoulin, former IndyCar competitors Alex Tagliani and Andrew Ranger, Brandon Watson, Treyten Lapcevich, Gary Klutt, J.P. Bergeron, and Sam Fellows are just some of the others looking to prove they have what it takes on dirt.
The Pinty’s Knights of Thunder 360 Sprint Car series will also compete on Tuesday night, while the Action Sprint Tour Crate Sprint Car series fueled by Pinty’s will race both Monday and Tuesday. Ryan Turner, Cory Turner, Mack DeMan, and Nick Sheridan make up the current KoT top five, while Jacob Dykstra, Mathieu Bardier, Allan Downey, Darren Dryden, and Brett Stratford have top five spots in the AST standings.