Last year, Mack DeMan had a memorable season, claiming his first ever Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget Championship. At the Canadian Motorsports Expo, DeMan said it “finally sunk in. Felt good to bring trophy home to the shop. We had a good year.”
DeMan was one of the six drivers that was featured as part of the Young Gun Panel, a group of young drivers that are looking to make a name for themselves in racing.
DeMan started racing go-karts at the age of seven in the Waterloo Regional Kart Club, winning races and championships. From there, he graduated to the Can-Am Midget ranks and currently races the No. 40 Lucas Oil sponsored Can-Am Midget for car owner Andy Mackereth.
After finishing third in points in 2012, DeMan came out last year, strong all season and was able to take home the championship.
“Each year you learn more about set-up and how to run well on track,” he commented. “Lots of talent is coming up ranks we’ll have our work cut out next year.”
One of the unique things with the Midgets, as DeMan points out, is you have to build them all yourself.
“You got to fabricate everything on them yourself,” he commented. “You can’t buy one. You got to build it and hope it’s fast.”
DeMan will be back with the Midget club in 2014 as he looks to defend his title, though is looking to possibly run some ISMA Super Modified races in the future.
He recently expanded his racing horizons, going to Atlantic City, New Jersey to run the Gambler’s Classic. After finishing fourth in his heat and failing to make the main event by one spot, he started up front in the B-Main and brought home the win. DeMan then started 22nd in the main event and had worked his way up to 14th before a wreck took him out of the running. DeMan has posted videos from the event, which can be viewed on his youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/CanamDriver93.
“We took a knife down to a gun fight but had a lot of fun. Definitely new experience but lots of fun,” he commented. “We plan to go back next year and try again with a list of improvements.”
