Looking at the wins column would make it seem like a routine Ontario Sportsman Series (OSS) championship season for Cory McAllister – one where he dominated from start to finish; but 2023 was far from a routine title-winning campaign.
McAllister finished dead last in the opener at Delaware Speedway, where he suffered a blown motor just nine laps in. He then went to Full Throttle Motor Speedway and picked up the win. Not to be denied, bad luck returned, as he lost the lead at Sunset Speedway and had the trailing arm break on the left-rear of his car.
The victory at Full Throttle was McAllister’s first in OSS, but the reality of two DNFs in three races meant it was decision time.
“At Full Throttle, that was an important one to us, all of our local marketing partners were there, a lot of local fans, that’s where I started out racing,” said McAllister. “Then we had the Sunset deal… it was a good thing there was the support of my wife and my crew, we were going to pack it in after race three and they talked me into keeping it going and I’m sure glad they did.”
McAllister purchased a car from Kevin Gallant and had four days to turn it around before a race at Sauble Speedway. His win at Full Throttle was a confidence booster, but Sauble was where the team started to see their season come around, as he recorded the victory in the new car.
Amanda Balson finished sixth as a fill-in driver at Peterborough Speedway, before McAllister finished fourth at Full Throttle and scored the win at his home track of Sunset. Rick Spencer-Walt then grabbed the victory as a substitute at Sauble, with one more race standing between McAllister and a championship.
McAllister enjoyed competition
“We went and tested at Delaware, a track I’m not comfortable with at all and we found a comfortable spot with the car,” said McAllister. “We lost brakes about a quarter of the way into the race and just hung on; it was definitely a challenging race… Delaware’s a track I’ve always struggled at, to go down there, qualify on the pole and lead 97 of 100 laps, that race really stood out.”
The same track where he started the year with a DNF was now home to his team’s third straight win and a championship celebration. He won the OSS title by 41 points over Chad McGlynn; the competition in the series is something he enjoyed.
“Connor (James) was definitely my favourite driver to race against, he raced you with a lot of respect, raced you clean,” said McAllister. “There are a lot of good competitors; I noticed in that series that every person has a different strong point at a different track… with veterans like Chad McGlynn and Kevin Trevellin, everybody was really clean, it was a really respectful series. I think we proved that when we ran 100 laps green at Sunset.”
This was McAllister’s rookie season in the OSS, after previously running in the Qwick Wick Super Stock Series. The longer races, which are twice as many laps as a Qwick Wick event, provided a new challenge for the driver.
“The big difference was the 100-lap races,” said McAllister. “The car conservation. How you drive the car at the start of the race and how you drive the car at the end of the race are two completely different animals. I really enjoyed the longer races. I enjoyed the 10-race series, getting to go to every track almost twice.”
It was a busy season for McAllister, competing in both OSS and Sunset’s weekly Super Stocks division, where he won the championship as well, after losing that title by just one point in 2022.
Having Balson and Spencer-Walt sub-in for two OSS races was important, with Spencer-Walt’s win giving the team 105 of 106 potential points in that race. McAllister says that he’s appreciative of having some close friends jump in and drive for him; he says it also shows that the crew’s really good at setting up the car for different driving styles.
McAllister will return to the OSS to defend his title.
