OWEN SOUND, Ontario (March 19)— This season, Wally Wilson has a couple opportunities ahead of him in both Queenston Chevrolet Buick GMC OSCAAR Modified presented by Scott Reinhart Trailer Sales Ltd., Touchwood Cabinets, and The Fyre Place & Patio Shop and Pro Late Model competition.
None of those would have been possible without a deal that was cut late in the 2019 season between Wally Wilson Racing and Gary Elliott Motorsports, with WWR acquiring both GEM’s modified and pro late model.
As a result, WWR will pay it back to Gary Elliott, with him set to run both Fall Velocity at Sunset Speedway and Frostoberfest at Flamboro Speedway behind the wheel of his familiar modified.
“I’m really excited about it as I’m looking forward to running at Sunset (Speedway) and Flamboro (Speedway),” Gary Elliott said. “I’m really looking forward to it, and I appreciate the Wilson family for giving me the opportunity to drive my modified again. I love the modified and I just enjoy racing in that series.
“I’m looking forward to coming back and racing two races in my old car. It’ll be nice to see everybody when I come back. I have a lot of friends in the modifieds so it’ll be nice to see them.”
The opportunity is something that has caused excitement throughout the whole team going into the season.
“It’s always cool to see Gary race, let alone race with him, but it’s going to be even better with him running our car,” Wally Wilson commented. “He really loved the modified, and was sad to see it go, so we’re happy to give him the chance to race it once again!”
Entering those events, the goals are simple for the Iron Man – have fun, load the car in the trailer at the end of the night with no damage, and try and finish as hig has possible.
“That’s going to be depending on a lot of things, but I just want to go out and race hard,” he added. “I just want to go out and have fun driving the modified.”
Through the back half of the season, there was certainly pressure on Elliott from not only preparing to move from Ontario to Nova Scotia, but ensure the delivery of both cars to WWR after their respective season finales.
“It was really hard to have two cars that you sold and you didn’t want to beat up either one of them,” he commented. “That was really the biggest pressure on me, plus moving. There’s always moving with pressure, but moving a thousand miles away is crazy. But Wally was a big help with that, and then other people who helped me pack – some cousins, neighbours, and friends.”
He would place sixth in the year-end OSCAAR Modified standings with eight feature top-10’s, including a season-best fourth in the second feature as part of the Iron Man 72 at Sunset Speedway.
“I think my highlight of the year was the Iron Man 72,” he reflected. “That was such an unbelievable event, first of all to be created by Dave Gainforth, and between him and Brian Todish, they brought that together. We made it a twin 36 – well, how cool is that? And I’m 72 so 36 and 36 is 72, so it was just perfect.
“The first night everybody got lapped, I think, by the super late model, but on the second night, he won again – but I finished fourth, and I had an unbelievable run. I had by far the best race in that modified at Sunset Speedway in the second feature on Sunday. So that was really good. My family was there, I had cousins there, had a lot of fans there cheering and they were ecstatic. They wouldn’t had been any happier if I won; that’s how excited they were to see me be right in there. I drove on the outside the whole race, and that was my highlight of 2019.”
Elliott has been part of the OSCAAR Modifieds since 2014, and notes the most memorable moment was being able to score the 40th feature victory of his career at Sauble Speedway in 2018.
“But last year, the Iron Man 72 was a home run in every aspect, by all the people that supported and bought laps,” he added. “Maybe the other thing too that was really good about last year was I take a lot of pride in my racecar – always have since I started racing, and we won best appearing car at three different events last year with the modified – Rick Woolner Memorial, Velocity as Brad Pearsall presented us the best appearing car, and then the banquet. That’s the first time that I won best appearing car three times in one year; I had done it twice in one year at two different events but not at three events so that’s pretty cool.
“So those two things would be the highlight for me. The Iron Man twin 72 finishing fourth in the second feature – we almost could have gotten third, maybe second, if things would’ve fallen right, but we got fourth. But it didn’t matter; I was so excited. That was just a great race.”
For fans of the Iron Man in Ontario, you will also get to see him on two more occasions as he plans to run his own late model at Flamboro Speedway’s Frostoberfest / Grisdale Triple Crown finale, and Peterborough Speedway’s Autumn Colours Classic.
Wally Wilson Racing is proud to be supported by The Fyre Place & Patio Shop and Have1.com in 2020. Additional sponsors, along with the team’s full schedule for the season, will also be released in the future.
Keep up with Wally Wilson by liking his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Wally-Wilson-Racing-443805665798939/?fref=ts, while following on twitter at https://twitter.com/WallyWilson69.
Keep up with Coltin Everingham by liking the Everingham Racing Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/everinghammotorsports/, while following the team on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/everinghamracing48/.
Press Release by Ashley McCubbin – AM Marketing – ashleymccubbin17@gmail.com
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