Story By: JIM CLARKE / 81 MERCER MOTORSPORTS – PETERBOROUGH, ONT – His classes at Port Hope High School will take a backseat to a different kind of education as Jacob Mercer prepares to make his first start at Peterborough Speedway’s Autumn Colours Classic.
Throughout his stellar inaugural schedule in the Central Ontario oval’s Late Model division, the 15-year-old racer has become accustomed with 25-lap feature events. A recent start in the 70th Anniversary Shootout at Delaware Speedway saw the 3rd generation speedster run a 70-lap headliner. At the 3-day Thanksgiving Weekend spectacular, the youngster will be chasing a strong finish in the Electric City 167, a combined Late Model/Pro Late Model ‘A’ main marathon.
“Even though it is about 5-times longer than our regular Saturday night features, our team is looking at it as another race on the schedule,” said the fast freshman runner. “From the drop of the first green flag, much of the racing we’ve been doing this year has been a learning experience and the Autumn Colours Classic is next on the list. Moving to a stock car after racing karts has been a lot of fun, but it is also a steep learning curve.”
As a Peterborough Speedway regular, Mercer – who finished 2nd in the overall 2022 regular season point standings – takes a home track advantage into the extra-distance tryst. With timed lap qualifying instead of the traditional Saturday night heat races, drivers and teams will be looking at running some extensive practice laps to arrive on what they hope will be a race winning set-up.