(May 16, 2023) Wight Motorsports Inc (WMI) race shop has been humming for months in preparation for the 2023 NASCAR Pinty’s Series racing season. Racers Andrew Ranger in his #27and Glenn Styres both hit the track this past Saturday in the season opening 250-lap event at Sunset Speedway near Innisfil, Ontario. While the overall finishing results were less than expected, the WMI team remains upbeat and eager for the season ahead.
In a brand new #27 GM Paillé Chevrolet Andrew Ranger showed good speed in practice and qualified in the eighth starting spot. The three-time series champion moved forward in the field in the early going but handling issues later dropped him back in the pack. There was plenty of hard racing and the #27 suffered some body damage along the way but Ranger muscled through. However late in the race hitting some debris ripped one of the engine belts and forced an early retirement.
Glenn Styres in his sharp looking #0 GSR/Ohsweken Speedway/Chanterellie Chevrolet also looked strong in the early going running consistent laps and making steady progress. However, during a restart, the #0 car was collected in a corner one incident and suffered some major damage that included an oil leak. Styres would spend significant time on pitlane while the crew completed repairs before he could return to the race. During the final 50-laps of the race, Styres showed impressive form moving through the field and avoiding some of the other mishaps.
Quotes:
“It was a great start for Andrew with a brand-new car, we tested it before and that went really well. It didn’t quite go the way we expected in the race, and we adjusted. It was just some tough luck that he hit some debris and that ripped the belt off the motor, so we had to stop with only a handful of laps remaining”.
“Glenn looked really good in the early going, he was doing everything right and in a good rhythm. He got collected on that restart and the damage took some time to repair and we went a lot of laps down. Once he got back out, he was right back at it, very consistent lap after lap and getting everything, he could out of the car”.
“Certainly not the day we wanted or expected to have but nobody’s down, the whole team is upbeat and really motivated”.
“Glenn has done a lot of racing since the end of last season and he’s continuing to improve his performance”.
“We’ve got another new car for Andrew next week at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) we’ll be testing this week and we’re going there to get a checkered flag.”.
-David Wight, WMI Principal
Next up:
The Wight Motorsports team take to the famed road course at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) for round two of the season on Sunday May 21st as the feature race in the Castrol Victoria Day Speedfest.
TV & Live Streaming
The NTN Ultimate Bearing Experience 250 will air on TSN Sunday May 21st at 4PM Eastern and on RDS2 Sunday June 11th at 1:30PM Eastern. All races are streamed live on TSN+ and through FloRacing in the United States.
The 2023 NASCAR Pinty’s Series will consist of 14 total races in five provinces on a mixture of oval tracks along with road and street courses.
Race fans can get the latest information regarding WMI and the drivers on these social media channels:
Wight Motorsports Inc Twitter @Wightmotorsport Instagram @wightmotorsport
Andrew Ranger: Twitter @AndrewRanger51 Instagram @andrew_ranger27
Glenn Styres: Twitter @GlennStyres Instagram @glennstyres
