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A CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM SOS OWNER PETER TURFORD

By Peter Turford

SELKIRK, Ont. (December 20, 2022) - The last couple of months have been the craziest of my racing life. On Sunday, October 23 I wrote an email to then SOS President Warren Mahoney offering to take over the Southern Ontario Sprints (SOS). His and the SOS board's acceptance of my offer was a quick, neat and tidy affair. The plan was to hopefully revitalize the SOS through some financial shuffling and sponsorship support. I had a plan in place that would see minimal disruption for the series. Then I received a phone call. It was Clinton Geoffrey shaking things up mightily. Clinton quite frankly has a lot of balls in the air, and advised me that he would like to fold his successful Knights of Thunder (KoT) series into the SOS. This idea made so much sense on so many levels. I immediately jumped at the opportunity, knowing this would make for some difficult challenges but ultimately it would be great for the Southern Ontario sprint car scene.

The melding of the two series meant an immediate fee increase to all of our tracks to cover increased purse costs to get them to the minimum KoT level. To do otherwise would be seen by the teams as a negative. I believed the fee increase would see the tracks pare their schedules to a more moderate level. That did not happen; fortunately or unfortunately, we now have a jam-packed schedule of over 20 races - stretching from Merrittville’s Spring Sizzler on April 22 to our $4,000-to-win season finale at Brockville on October 14. The promoters more than came to the plate! It is an aggressive schedule when combined with Ohsweken’s, but we have been assured by those around us that it will be manageable for the teams.

The hardest merger issue to dance around was right rear tires, and I’m a lousy dancer. We put together the best possible package to fit everyone’s needs, wants, and desires during challenging times. This was looked at, top, bottom and sideways - this is our best shot at it.

That covers the recent past. I am truly looking forward to 2023. The SOS has never seen more sponsorship in its history. Nathan Ackland kicked things off with his very generous support of the Ackland Insurance Quick Time Award. Then, John and Wendy Brush along with their company Tammy 10 Media gave us 10,000 reasons to put the fear of no points fund to bed! Christmas indeed came early. Since then many more sponsors/partners have come to the plate, as more news releases in the coming weeks will show. This has also had the very positive effect of focusing our efforts on increasing purses on individual shows, and we are already seeing some great results which we will expand on in January of 2023.

On a very sad and somber note we lost three friends of the sport this fall who we never got a chance to say goodbye to. The SOS will make it a mission to make sure Paul, Noelle, and Roy are properly remembered.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Ann Soleski and Peter Turford

Please stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks. Drivers, team members, and team owners interested in competing with the Southern Ontario Sprints in 2023 can contact SOS owner Peter Turford at pturford@tdpracing.com

SOS Media
Website: www.southernontariosprints.com
Twitter: @SOSsprints
Facebook: SouthernOntarioSprints
Instagram: southernontariosprints

About the Southern Ontario Sprints tour: Founded in 1996, the Southern Ontario Sprints series is a traveling winged 360 Sprint Car tour based in Ontario, Canada. Each points-paying event on the 2023 schedule will pay a minimum of $2,000-to-win and $250-to-start, and selected events will be broadcast live on GForceTV. A $10,000 points fund will be divided among competitors thanks to the support of Tammy Ten Media. Visit www.southernontariosprints.com and www.tammytenmedia.ca for more information.

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