Tyler Hawn ended 2023 on a hot streak, winning three of the last four points-paying races to claim his third OSCAAR Hot Rods championship.
A racing deal led Hawn to a 16th-place finish in the opener, at Flamboro Speedway, before consistent results led to victories. He recorded five wins and nine top-five finishes in the last 10 races, taking the title by 41 points over Steve Book. Despite building a gap down the stretch, his mindset remained the same.
“You can’t get in your own head, you can’t get a feeling that they’re never going to catch you, you have to go to every race like you’re going into a battle,” said Hawn. “It doesn’t matter if I had a five-point lead or a 500-point lead, I’m still going into the next race needing to get as many points as absolutely possible to keep this championship going.”
Hawn found victory lane in some of the biggest races of the year, with wins at Sauble Speedway, Brighton Speedway (lone dirt race), Peterborough Speedway (Autumn Colours Classic), and Delaware Speedway (Canada Day race two and Great Canadian Weekend). Autumn Colours was postponed by rain and declared a non-points event.
Hawn says the team focuses on preventative maintenance, working on virtually every part of the hot rod. He credits the efforts of his crew as the key to winning the championship.
“Where we won our races was in the shop,” said Hawn. “We do all of our work ourselves, so it just shows how hard we work as a team, to be able to be as fast as we are. It’s just constant work in the shop, going over everything, going over notes, just working our butts off.”
While it’s hard to compare titles, Hawn says this one is big, with the hot rods now under the United Racing Series banner. Tyler’s younger brother Daniel also won a touring series championship; he says that both of them winning, in the same season, is “unreal” and pointed to Daniel’s hard work and drive.
