Ollie entered his second full time season with the Ontario Sportsman Series. Ollie unofficially kicked off his 2024 season at the Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo. Over the course of the weekend the second year OSS driver would meet thousands of people as they stopped by his shinny new race car. Once the weekend was over the team was busy preparing Ollie for the 9 race schedule which would see the young driver compete at Delaware, Flamboro, Full Throttle, Peterborough, Sauble and Sunset.
In the first race of the season Ollie didn't get off on the right foot. At the first race of the year at Delaware Speedway Ollie would only complete 10 laps before having to retiring for the night finishing 18th. The second race of the season was a turn around for the young driver from Lindsay, Ontario as the series travelled to Full Throttle Motor Speedway. Ollie would qualify third and have hard fought battles with Cory McAllister. Sadly with a late race caution with Ollie on the outside he just couldn't hang and fell back to third when the checkered flag fell.
Next up for the OSR team was heading to Sunset Speedway for their first visit to the high banked 1/3 mile oval located in Innisfil, Ontario. It was an up and down day for the team as they struggled with the car with Ollie qualifying 8th. In the feature, Ollie would drive the wheels off the car as he raced his way up to 5th before his radio came unplugged. Got it fixed and was the last car on the lead lap. Restarting 11th and racing his way back up to fifth before a brake issue appeared which ultimately ended his run for a top 5. Ollie would finish the race 8th. June 29th is a day to remember for Ollie and the entire Olliestrong Racing team at Sauble Speedway. After struggling in practice the team went to work and got the 55 machine pointed in the right direction where Ollie would qualify 6th. When the checkered flag fell it was the 55 machine driving into victory lane for his first career win. Ollie is now the youngest winner ever in the Ontario Sportsman Series at just 14 years old!
As the season trucked on we saw Ollie stay committed and growing as a driver both on and off the track. When the season rolled back through Delaware Speedway for their second visit it was a rough night for the youngster as he was involved in a first lap crash. The team went to work and got him ready to roll for their July 27th trip to Peterborough Speedway. Ollie would qualify third and raced his way and finished second. On August 3rd Ollie had an opportunity to go down south and compete at Bowman Gray Stadium for Team Ore Racing to drive one of their sportsman late models. Ollie made lots of practice laps at the famed track. Though he was supposed to start scratch if he pulled pole. Well surprise, that is exactly what happened. After showing great speed throughout practice the team agreed he should start where he pulled. Ollie got the full Bowman-Gray treatment starting pole in the first feature as he was bumped, banged and even got divebombed on. With a damaged car Ollie was still able to come home 15th in his first trip to the famed speedway.
On August 10th, the series rolled through Full Throttle Motor Speedway for their second stop of the season. Ollie would grab his first career pole but ultimately finished second. The team made their way to Flamboro Speedway next but sadly due to Mother Nature the feature racing did not run. The OSR season of highs and lows continued when the team returned to the track of Ollies first career OSS win at Sauble Speedway. Ollie would qualify 4th but only completing 56 laps before having to bow out due to mechanical issues would relegate him to a ninth place finish. On September 20th the team travelled back to Sunset Speedway for Championship night. Ollie qualified 6th and finished with another podium finishing third. Ollie finished the season fifth in points.
Ollie had this to say about his season. "I feel great about our season outcome after it being only my 2nd year in a full size stock car, we had a couple mechanical gremlins take us out of a couple races but we didn’t let that get us down and we kept working at it and ended up 5th in points. My goals heading into this year was to be competitive in the top 5 regularly and run lead lap every race and we completed those goals in only the 2nd race of the year with a podium at Full Throttle, then winning at Sauble the goal had changed to more podiums and that we did getting 3 more by the end of the year! We chased mechanical gremlins all year with electrical and brake issues almost every race but the car was still super fast and I can’t thank my dad enough for what he does on the car".
Ollie's season wouldn't be possible without the support of his amazing marketing partners.
Fusioncorp Developments Inc.
Kawartha Home Hardware Group of Stores
ExcellCare Inc.
Steelcon Group of Companies
alter ego
BUDO Canada - Fitness MMA Boxing
MBRP
Tile Plus
Northern Force Hydrovac
Northern Performance
Legendary Motorcar Company
Epic Racewear
Team Parmar
Butch's Synthetics
Village Dallas Masonry
We are thankful to have worked with Ollie in 2024 and look forward to watching this young driver grow. Thank you for choosing JoMo Media & Promotions to work with in 2024.
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