This past weekend at Peterborough Speedway, OSCAAR and the Hurricane Midgets announced a merger of the two traveling series, with the midgets now known as the OSCAAR Midgets.
The Hurricane Midgets have been under the direction of Charles Priestley over the past five years, expanding their traveled tracks and driver count over the years. Per the series press release, “this next step will bring the club and its drivers to the next level of promotion and recognition with the fans and tracks alike. It will also provide the Midgets with the staffing and tech crews required to properly manage this ever expanding group of racers”.
With the merger, OSCAAR president Dave Gainforth will become the day-to-day manager of the midgets, with Priestley remaining in the background to help the drivers during the transition.
“I’m very proud to take over the series,” Gainforth commented on Sunday. “It’s going to get bigger and better in 2015, and it’s our 25th anniversary so we’re very proud of how things have gone so far.”
The announcement makes OSCAAR the biggest touring series in southern Ontario as the midgets join the Super Late Models and Hanover Holiday Modifieds under the OSCAAR banner. Since the inception of OSCAAR, Gainforth has been able to take the SLMs to a wide variety of tracks, with some events featuring more than a full-field of 24 cars. The Modifieds just completed their third year under the OSCAAR banner, with more interest being generated for young drivers to join the ever-growing series.