Story By: ASHLEY MCCUBBIN / MCFLASHAN MOTORSPORTS – HAWKESTONE, ONT – Coming off one of the biggest seasons of his career, there is no secret about the amount of questions surrounding McGlashan Motorsports entering 2018. However, one thing is certain – he’s ready for whatever is in store.
“I’m going to go with Sunset (Speedway) and test the new tire,” he said. “We’re going to run as many nights as we can. I’m hoping to go out to Peterborough (Speedway) and run their opening night, because it’s on the May long weekend. Hopefully we’ll see how Peterborough goes, but the plan is to run as many Sunset races as I can – hopefully do them all. I might need someone to cover one as I think I have a wedding that I have to make it too, but we should be able to try and make it happen.”
Although it had been discussed that McGlashan may step away after 2017, those plans changed shortly thereafter the season. However, the variables returned following a series of rule changes by Sunset Speedway, in relation to the bodies and mandating the Hoosier tires.
“I think we’re in a big flux right now because they made a few changes in the rules – some I can already tell aren’t being followed with bodies and such, but that’s another discussion for another day,” he noted. “But the tires are going to play a huge factor. I think night one, we may see (Andy) Kamrath come out and clean up, but then once you get into the dog days of summer – because of only getting seven tires all year unless you blow a tire, so that’s not even a new set every four weeks. You’re going to see guys eight or nine races on the same set of tires so it’s really, tire management is going to come into play and how much you practice, who buys the practice set.
“There’s going to be so many factors at Sunset. I’m scared because it sounds like a lot of people have left Sunset in fear of these tires and not wanting to switch, so I hope we have a good car count this year but I guess we won’t know until we get two or three weeks in. I think the scene as a division as a whole across Ontario is in a really good place. At Sunset, I think it’s in a bit of a flux right now.”
Despite the future questions, there’s no denying the past couple of seasons. Last year, McGlashan took home the Signs of Innovation Mini Stock Sunset Speedway Championship. The success for McGlashan has been tremendous over the past three years, as this marks his second title in three years after winning the NWAAS Mighty Mini Division title in 2015.
“It was a crazy year,” he said. “We were third or fourth most of the year and there were some protests near the end there, and it was a crazy twist turn of interesting way to end it because everything was up in the air.
“Everybody thinks that we just got lucky with those guys being protested and disqualified, but we went through a lot of stuff ourselves. Four weeks in, we blew the bellhousing; we blew the tranny at Sauble, we had a crash, I pulled off one night – we went through a lot of stuff this year, too. To be even be close enough to be in reach – I was driving a borrowed car the last few nights, a car that wasn’t even an eighth of a car that we ran most of the nights. To be able to battle through all of that and still be close enough to have a chance and get it, it’s a season we won’t forget – that’s for sure.”
Hopefully there are some more memorable moments to come, too.
