Weekly short track stock car racing has no age limit. There is no such thing as being too young or too old. A driver’s performance on the track is judged simply by performance and ability.

Bailey Jacobs – a 17 year-old high schooler from Warsaw, Ontario – has just concluded his first season in the Paul Davis Systems Thunder Car division at Canada’s Toughest 3rd of a Mile Paved Oval. When it came to full-bodied racecar experience, the fresh-faced youngster had none. On his first night at the track, the driver and his crew chief/father needed to ask another competitor about the proper air pressure settings for their machine. After a strong performance in the feature race, the team was jokingly told there would be no more information sharing.

A graduate of the Kawartha-Durham Kart Club, everything Jacobs knows about stock car racing, he has learned by doing. Running in traffic, it wasn’t unusual to see the #60 machine take a look to the outside line to see if he could gain a spot in the running order. When the heat was on near the front of the pack, the driver learned to back off a little and save his equipment, while waiting for something to happen. Jacobs says as he spent more time on the track, he could feel his confidence grow.

“My first season was a real racing education,” confessed the freshman runner. “To come away 5th in the final point standings out of close to 30 teams – with a number of top 5 and top 10 main event finishes, along with a couple of heat race victories – is something strong to build on as we move forward.”

With Peterborough Speedway’s biggest event of the year, the 23rd Annual Autumn Colours Classic – presented by Lucas Oil Products – just over a couple of weeks away, Bailey Jacobs and his team are getting ready for their first ever start in the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing. It’s an event the young driver has heard about and even though it’ll be his maiden voyage in the season-ending spectacular, he says he’ll approach things like a regular Saturday night show.

“There really won’t be too much else we can do,” admitted the driver. “I can just hope for a good draw, then drive the car that my Dad and pit crew member Jay Peacock have given me and hope for the best. Like everything else this year, it’ll be a learning experience.”

Bailey Jacobs and the Jacobs Racing Team would like to thank Chemong Home Solutions, Bernardi Consulting, Close Quarters Tree Removal and Cathcart Farms for their support of the #60 Thunder Car program throughout the 2015 season.