STROUD, ON (September 18, 2017)- “I was just a kid that wanted to race, and here I am a two-time champion.”
Hawkestone, Ontario’s Cameron McGlashan was set to throw in the towel after a slew of mechanical issues and a couple of incidents during the summer. However, he did not give up and driving a borrowed car on the final night of competition, he was crowned the 2017 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Sunset Speedway Mini Stock Track Champion.
Going into Saturday night sitting 25-points out of the lead, he was fast in his first heat with a fourth-place finish. The second qualifier didn’t go as smooth, as a mid-race spin resulted in a ninth.
Starting fifth for the 25-lap feature, he battled in the early stages three-wide for second, before fading back to fifth by the first caution at Lap 3. The next restart did not go as planned as he faded back again, running seventh as of the next caution three laps later. Restarting just outside of the top-five, he was able to battle hard enough to stay up front, continuing to battle side-by-side with competitors on each passing lap, though. He did not lose any ground, though, as he was still seventh when the caution flew with three laps to go.
He got a good strong final restart to complete the event, battling three-wide en route to crossing the finish line in eighth. In post-race technical inspection, another competitor was disqualified, bumping McGlashan up to seventh in the results. While it initially appeared as though he would come up short of the championship, another post-race disqualification saw the points swing in his favor, as he’d be crowned by the champion by a single-point over feature winner Daniel Montanari.
“It’s been a whirlwind year, for sure,” he said afterwards. “We smoked the motor last week, the transmission, crashed, pulled off one night because we were upset – it’s just been a roller coaster ride. Everybody has told me to not give up and let’s keep trying, keep digging, and perseverance paid off. I was ready to quit five weeks ago so this championship is for the team. They’re the guys that stood behind me, and wrench on the car every week, and they got it here. I got to thank Dave Middle for lending me his car the last two weeks. Phil Bullen and Billy Howard – they were up until 10:30 last night, putting the cam and some stuff in this car to get it more competitive this weekend. It really paid off, and luck fell on our side so here we are champion once again. You can’t go wrong.”
Admittedly, he thought his chances were over following the spin in the second qualifier on Saturday night.
“We made a spring change between the first heat and the second heat, and the car was so free that I couldn’t even drive it,” he said. “I spun it off of two and I came down and was throwing stuff, carrying on, and all upset thinking that I lost every chance that we had. But we put everything back and I drove my heart out in the feature. That was everything I had, and thankfully, a few things fell our way and here we are.”
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. Looking back to his first night of competition in May 2015 to now, he says it means “everything” to be where he is now.
“The first night we came out, we didn’t know how to set tire pressures or anything; we were like a lost cause the first year, just going off talent and a good car – until we got hooked up with Rick Walt and them,” he said. “Then last year, we had a lot of growing pains and talked to a lot of guys. I made a lot of friends, like Andy Kamrath, Warren Paxton, the veterans, and even young guys like Jordan Howse and Brandon McFerran that ran mustangs – you talk to these guys long enough, and they’ll give you tips and suggest some things. Then this year, we really went at it. We re-built my car from the ground-up, redid everything, and it really paid off.”
McGlashan was quick to thank Dave Middel for loaning the car for the final two nights, as well as the crew – his dad, his cousin Cody, his girlfriend Andrea, Lisa, Chris, Robert, and the rest of the guys for all the hard work.
Entering the night, McGlashan was also scored 11th in the NWAAS National standings, just 12 points outside of the top-10. The NWAAS puts Sunset’s drivers up against competitors from 60 different tracks across North America, with each driver earning points based on their finishes at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks. The update does not come from NASCAR Home Tracks until Thursday to see whether he was able to crack the top-10.
Cameron McGlashan and McGlashan Motorsports are proud to be supported by England Enterprises, ORVAuto, Polished Automotive, Arbor Aces Tree Care Inc, M&S Metals, Orillia Metal Fabrication, Darrell Eacott’s Custom Diecast with Tammikinz Phileac, and MAK Mechanical.
Keep up with Cameron McGlashan and McGlashan Motorsports by liking their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/McGlashanMotorSports?fref=ts and following Cameron McGlashan on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/McGlashan83.
Press Release by Ashley McCubbin/AM Marketing – ashleymccubbin17@gmail.com.
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