SOUTH AMHERST, Ohio – Coming off of a third-place finish at Lorain County Raceway Park Saturday night, Trent Stephens and the ACME Racing team led by Steven Stout have secured the Midwest Supermodified Series championship.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic of this year, Stephens and ACME Racing were forced to deviate from their planned schedule, but in the end they were still able to claim the Midwest Supermodified Series crown.
“We’ve got a good thing going,” said Stephens. “We have consistent, good reliable cars. We keep trying stuff and working at getting more speed. But, tonight we just missed it, finished third, but grabbed the Championship with these guys. It’s good. These guys work really hard to keep this car going in the right direction. I think, if I remember right, this is the 10th championship for this team as a traveling series team.
“In 2019 we keep saying No. 19 for 2019, but that did not work out very well for us,” Stephens continued. “So, I guess we can say No. 19 in the COVID-19 season, which seemed to work out a little better. We got a good car, we are just always looking for more speed.”
Originally the team hadn’t planned on pursing a series championship, instead picking and choosing where they raced. The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to change those plans.
“It has been a really weird season,” Stephens said. “To start the season we thought we would run a little MSS and some ISMA shows. After the first two MSS races we were leading the points, while ISMA was canceling everything. So we just had to race were and when we could, just stay where we were at. We just had to adapt and not give up, just keep going. Like tonight, this race was not originally on our schedule. This is most likely it for the supers this year. It looks like the MSS may be the only series championship for supermodifieds this year.”
Stephens believes he’ll be back with ACME Racing next season for another year of racing, though that hasn’t been set in stone just yet.
“We still have some stuff to talk about, but next season should be right back together again, hopefully,” Stephens said. “We will just meet again like we always do as a team on the offseason and make sure our goals are still what everyone wants them to be. I don’t see anything different happening. So yeah, I think we will be back together for next year.”