NASCAR honours Ranger; Canadian team waits in wings

Woodbridge racing team would give Canadian Tire Series a real boost

Nov 14, 2009

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Motorsport Writer

I have two pieces of good news today.

One: Andrew Ranger, the 2009 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion, is being honoured in Charlotte, N.C., this Saturday night for winning his second title in three years.

Two: One of Canada's most respected racing organizations is taking a very serious look at entering a team in the 2010 Canadian Tire national championship.

If No. 2 happens, it will be a real shot in the arm for a series that has boasted great racing and ever-increasing corporate interest in the three years since NASCAR took over from Tony Novotny and CASCAR.

What's been missing, however, is the presence of teams whose only business is full-time-nothing-but-racing; whose involvement would give the series professional legitimacy.

And that's where AIM Autosport of Woodbridge comes in.

AIM is one of Ontario's (and Canada's) best-known and successful racing organizations. It has entered a Daytona Prototype team (primary driver, Mark Wilkins of Toronto) in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series the last three years and also has had cars competing in the international open-wheel Star Mazda Series.

Ian Willis, who founded AIM – with partners – in 1995, told me this week that his company is currently seeking commercial support to enter one, and perhaps two, cars in the Canadian Tire Series next season.

"We're seriously looking at putting a program together," he said during an interview.

"NASCAR has done a great job raising the profile of that series and we're excited about it. I've been to some races and they've got some damn good teams and some damn good drivers. I think we'd like to be a part of that."

A guy who's very happy to be a part of it is Ranger, the 23-year-old Quebec star (he turns 24 next Friday) who raced in Formula Atlantic and the Champ Car World Series before turning his attention to stock cars in 2007.

Interestingly, he started his climb up the auto racing ladder in the 2003 Fran-Am Championship, which he won, while driving for AIM Autosport. ("Andrew has a very good work ethic," Willis says.)

Ranger has been in Charlotte since Monday for Champions Week, in which a big fuss has been made over the winners of NASCAR's five major touring series (of which the Canadian Tire Series is one). Press conferences, go-kart races, radio shows, dinners, NASCAR Hall of Fame construction photo ops and so on will culminate tonight in a gala banquet at the Concord Convention Centre, which – if you're interested – will be streamed live at www.nascarhometracks.com

In an interview before he flew south, Ranger said he'd enjoyed a career year in 2009.

"I had an amazing car and an amazing team (Dave Jacombs Racing)," he said. "I had amazing sponsors – Wal-Mart and Tide (who have supported him for the seven years he's been racing professionally) – and I won six races out of 13. I won three road-course races and three ovals. I think it was my best year ever."

Like most young professionals, Ranger would like to try his luck "down south," but he's smart enough not to let his dreams get in the way of reality.

"It's a tough economy right now," he said. "Sure, we've talked to some teams but there's nothing really open unless you bring a lot of money. I've got good sponsors and I won the championship so I'm happy to stay where I am."

Ranger said he was excited to hear that AIM is considering an entry because, he said, AIM reminds him of NASCAR in the way they go about their businesses.

"NASCAR is a very professional organization and just to have the name NASCAR is good for the series," he said. "They work really hard – AIM is like that – to make sure that everything is done right."

Willis said he got his feet wet in stock car racing by helping out driver Ashley Taws with her Ontario Sportsman Series stock car program.

"We hired Scott Steckly (2008 Canadian Tire champion) to set up the car for us and I was very impressed with him. He's a smart guy, very talented. I learned a lot from him about stock car racing and the Canadian Tire Series."

Willis said he has no immediate expectations of success if AIM attracts the support needed to enter the Canadian Tire Series.

"There will be no illusions of grandeur," he said. "This is a tough series and the people in it are hard racers. I would hope we would be competitive by the end of our first season, definitely by the second, but I don't expect we'll be running at the front right out of the box."

Willis said he's talked to a couple of drivers about the program.

"I'm not in any position to name names," he said. "Ideally, it would be great to be able to have an experienced driver and maybe bring along a rookie, but that depends on our commercial support.

"But I expect to walk before we can run, so one car will likely be our entry. It would probably be best for us to start small and work up.

"We've just started to reach out to our commercial partners but the series has such great potential. I remember when I was younger and the great national series were the Export A, the Rothmans-Porsche and the Player's-GM. Those series generated a lot of young Canadian talent.

"Now, this is the national series and already Andrew and J.R. Fitzpatrick are making names for themselves. It's an exciting time to be a part of it."

Meantime, there's really no auto racing "off-season" any more. Ranger has to stay in shape for the Toyota All-Star Showdown in California in January (in which all of NASCAR's champions – national, regional/touring and weekly series – gather for one big shootout race) and AIM will be in Florida with the Daytona Prototype early in December for the first official practice session leading up to the 2010 24 Hours of Daytona.

Busy days all round.

Toronto Star