ONTARIO MIDGET CHAMPIONS

James Making Switch To Cvm After 2022 Title

Stories by Bryce Turner JESSICA JAMES – OUTLAW MIDGETS

Jessica James won her first Outlaw Midgets championship in a dominant season. James started the year with nine straight victories, but that streak didn’t come without drama. In race two, at Peterborough Speedway, she burned a piston and missed the second heat, costing her a potential 30 points.

“If you did the math, whoever was running second, if they finished in the top-four all season, I might not be able to recover that 30-point loss,” said James. “That made us sharpen our pencils after that.”

More drama came in the eighth race, at Sauble Speedway, where her car wouldn’t re-fire at the end of a red flag delay. That issue highlighted the downside of being a frontrunner.

“The realization that all of the sudden your streak’s coming to an end, it felt awful,” said James. “Luckily it did fire, but at that point I realized just how much pressure I was starting to feel.”

The win streak came to an abrupt end at Sunset Speedway, when James was involved in a wreck that left the car with extensive damage and the driver with minor injuries. The team recovered from the DNF to win the last two races.

James says she contemplated whether to race anymore after losing her spouse. Ultimately, with the help of her crew, she decided to make a run for the title.

“I wanted (the championship) for all the guys on the team because I’ve been telling them since the day they started helping me that this is what we’re going to do,” she said. “They were kind of the ones who pushed me to get it done.”

James says she’s taking an offer to run full-time in the Canadian Vintage Modifieds next season and that she’ll run select events in other series.

CORY WHITTAM – QWICK WICK CAN-AM TQ MIDGETS

A self-proclaimed underdog, Cory Whittam won six of 15 races in the Qwick Wick Can-Am TQ Midgets to secure the championship. The third-generation driver can be compared to a one-man band; he builds the motors, fabricates the wings, and turns all the wrenches on his car. He says that he’s had help along the way, but that doing almost all the work himself has been a key to success.

“I’m just really particular on how I do things,” said Whittam. “I find that’s how I got my advantages because I know tricks that people don’t know, and I just use it.”

Finances have been a challenge for Whittam, but he says that his work ethic and driving skills have allowed him to run up front, despite spending a lot less than the competition. A win that stands out came on July 16 at Flamboro Speedway. He was disqualified after his heat race, forcing him to start at the rear, but he gained 12 spots in three laps before taking the lead on lap seven.

“I made all my passes on the high side. I actually made it four-wide on the first lap, both sets of corners,” said Whittam. “That race turned a lot of heads this year and a lot of people were impressed by it.”

Building up his program over time and adding a couple of sponsors allowed Whittam to race full-time for the first time in his career in 2022.

The move paid off with a title, which is still an overwhelming feeling.

“It’s a dream come true for me,” he said. “There are no words to say how excited I was to get it. I’ve had lots of tears over it; I’ve had lots of laughs over it, lots of people congratulating me, it’s amazing.”

Whittam says he’ll defend his title next season. IT