BADEN, ON- Super Late Model sophomore Corey Jones continued his breakout season in Round 3 of the OSCAAR Tour, recovering from an early-race spin to salvage a 6th place finish in his first career visit to Delaware Speedway. The impressive showing moved Jones into 3rd in the tour points standings, and set the popular driver up for what could be a vital mid-season run.
“Every time we bring this car back to the trailer at the end of the night, I’m even more proud of this race team,” smiled Jones post-race on July 10th. “When we first came out in 2013, we didn’t have a clue what we were in for. It’s been a long road – and, don’t get me wrong, the work isn’t over yet – but it’s so worth it once you’re able to start tracking your progress”
“Coming out of Delaware with a 6th place finish is a huge boost of confidence for us,” continued the former Canadian Vintage Modified standout. “Our big track program has been a bit of a question mark up until now. We just don’t log the same numbers on the big tracks as we do on the bullrings, so it’s good to know that we can hack it with these guys anywhere in the province”
When asked if his success this season has come at all as a surprise to his family-run team, Jones insisted that the plan all along has been to continue improving with each passing event.
“We’re not here to be an after-thought,” said Jones plainly. “We want to work until we can contend with the Kevin Cornelius and Derrick Tiemersma crowd. There’s a lot of talent on this roster – and it’s an honour to be able to count ourselves amongst the upper echelon of it at the moment”
“But, there’s still a huge learning curve ahead of us,” continued Jones. “Like, now we have to go to Sauble in two weeks. We missed Sauble last season, so that’s another spot that has more questions than answers for us. Our short track setup has been really good this season, so I’m confident that we can go there and put together another top-5 finish. As long as we’re taking steps forward, I’ll be a happy guy”
The soft-spoken up-and-comer is not quite ready to start focusing on his place in the championship points standings, but is ecstatic for the chance to reward his crew of volunteers for their hours of hard work.
“It’s far too early to start talking about a championship push, but seeing how far this team has been able to climb in the standings is definitely a testament to the hours we put in over the off-season,” explained Jones with a broad smile. “It was, honest to god, like having a second fulltime job. We knew that if we just stood around and stared at it all winter then we wouldn’t be any better off than we were in 2014”
“We put our hearts and souls into this car to get it ready for this season, that’s where the improvement came from,” added Jones. “There’s no replacement for hard work. I still think there’s a lot of potential that we haven’t even tapped into yet with this car. So, hopefully we can light the wick through the second half of the season and give [Kelly] Balson and Kevin [Cornelius] a run for their money.”
Corey Jones will return to competition with the OSCAAR Super Late Model Tour on Saturday, July 25th.
Jones’ 2015 season is fueled by Griffen + Highbury, Nelson Aggregate, LaFleche Roofing, Royal Bank of Canada, Accountable Automotive, Castle Building Centres, Anmar Cleaning, Oktane Productions and EPIC Racewear.
Fans can stay up to date with Corey and the rest of the team by visiting the official Corey Jones Racing page on Facebook and by following @CoreyJones82 on Twitter.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
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