Top Stories of 2015 on TimsCorner.ca

From big wins, fires, announcements and everything in between, we saw it all in 2015.

The year featured many different stories that helped shaped the landscape of our racing world over the past 12 months. From the story of an Island Mini Stock racer that swept far and wide in January to the announcement of a five time champion scaling back in November to one of the biggest race weekends of the season in September, there was plenty of topics that made waves in 2015.

We’ve taken a look at our statistics on site from the past 12 months, along with our Facebook insights and have come up with the top 12 stories, by month, that shook the ground in Atlantic Canadian racing, along with a few stories that had our social media followers liking and sharing throughout the past year. Some of the stories are sure to jog some memories, some might even have you shaking your head as to how they got there. Nevertheless, without them, we wouldn’t have the racing community we have today.

Without further adieu, here are the most viewed stories, by month, from the 2015 season on TimsCorner.ca.

*Note – Maritime related Ballot or Voting Pages (Petty Fan Choice, TCM Best Looking Car or TCM Most Popular Driver Award) have been omitted from the top content rankings, as have individual pages and contest posts on our social media platforms. Below are the news stories that got the most page views within their respective month.

Featured photo by McCarthy Photographic. All photos in story from McCarthy Photographic or from the TCM Facebook page, unless otherwise indicated.

JANUARY 2015 – Top Content

Injury Ends Perry’s Driving Career, Urges Teams to Think About Safety

TOP STORY OF THE 2015 SEASON ON TIMSCORNER.CA!

Perry’s story reached across North America in January and wound up being TCM’s most viewed piece of unique content in 2015. Photo by Marlie Paynter.

FEBRUARY 2015 – Top Content

AUDIO – Denver Foran and Josh Collins Size Up Night Five at New Smyrna Speedway

MARCH 2015 – Top Content

Carnahan Announces Speedway Miramichi For Sale, Commitment to 2015 Season

APRIL 2015 – Top Content

MAY 2015 – Top Content

Scotia Speedworld Announces Fanfest, Free Admission for Fans on June 12th

JUNE 2015 – Top Content

Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2015 Inductees

JULY 2015 – Top Content

Oyster Bed Speedway Celebrates 30th Anniversary with a Rowdy Night

Photo by Scott Sinclair

AUGUST 2015 – Top Content

Petty International Raceway Announces Changes to Second Annual Mike Stevens Memorial Event

Photo by Scott Sinclair

SEPTEMBER 2015 – Top Content

10 Reasons Why You Should Be at the Irving Blending & Packaging Speedweekend

OCTOBER 2015 – Top Content

Complete Feature Results – 16th Annual Atlantic Championships at the CENTRE For Speed

NOVEMBER 2015 – Top Content

Five Time Pro Stock Tour Champion Flemming Handing Wheel to DJ Casey in 2016

DECEMBER 2015 – Top Content

Tom Nicholls “Powers” To Impressive 2015, Eyes Stock Car Return

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Social Media Sweethearts

In addition to the 12 stories above, these are the posts that gained traction via our Tim’s Corner Motorsports Facebook page throughout the 2015 season. Here are a few selections that you might have seen on your newsfeed or timeline this past year.

“The Fire”

An accident during the opening laps of the NAPA Sportsman Series Highland Home Building Centres 75 at Riverside International Speedway on Saturday, September 12th sparked off one of the biggest reaching Maritime stories of the year, no pun intended.

The incident was a topic of articles on US based Fox Sports and Speed51, among other industry websites, in the week following the crash. In addition to the industry media outlets that traditionally do not cover racing in Atlantic Canada, various local television and print stations also covered the fire.

John Delorey, driver of the #9 car who was filling in for his son Daniel, was hospitalized following the crash but was released later in the week. He made his return to the race track two weeks later to accept Daniel’s Most Popular Driver Award from Cape Breton Miners Memorial Speedway.

New Brunswick Short Track Challenge Announced

Photo by Michelle Roy/Speedway 660

The announcement was made on March 25th that Speedway 660, Petty International Raceway and Speedway Miramichi had come together to put together the inaugural New Brunswick Short Track Challenge for Late Model Sportsman competitors. Much like the former “Maritime Sportsman Challenge” series, the three standalone races would have a separate point fund, with the winner being crowned as a provincial champion for the Sportsman division and would receive $1500.

The members of the racing community in the Maritimes, including the over 32,000 that saw the article via our Facebook page, were excited for the news that the three provincial tracks were working together.

In total, 42 drivers would start at least one of the races, with seven drivers running all three events between the three tracks. Luc Bourgeois came away as the inaugural champion on the strength of his win in the second leg of the series at Petty International Raceway. Matt Rodgers was tied for the championship, but lost in the tiebreaker with Bourgeois holding a victory. Andrew Rodgers, Kenny MacKenzie Jr and Bert Cormier completed the top five in the standings for the series.

Dave O’Blenis took the win in the first round of the series, the Martins Home Heating 100 at Speedway 660 in June, while Devin Snell returned to victory lane in the ‘Chi City Showdown at Speedway Miramichi in September.

Ches Cole Wins Edward Collins Contracting 125 over Shane Coffen and Justin Ryan

For the record, if we’re talking about social media sweethearts, it should be noted that Ches Cole was around on this earth for three decades before Mark Zuckerberg was a glimmer in his parents eyes.

The 61 year old track champion at Eastbound Park won a wild Edward Collins Contracting 125 on August 29th. The race, which was shortened to 68 laps for the Islander RV Sportsman division, saw everything from the early leaders mixing it up leading to both being shown the black flag, to a black out when the lights went out to a last dash that saw a hard charging Shane Coffen having to settle for second behind the #61 car. Young gun Justin Ryan finished a solid third in the race.

The race marked TCM’s first of three end of season trips to the beautiful Eastbound Park facility and the podium picture from the ECC125 was the most viewed of any Newfoundland racing coverage this season from us, pulling in a reach of over 23,000.

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Of nearly 1,200 posts made on the Tim’s Corner Motorsports Facebook page in 2015, 38 of those generated over 100 likes. Drivers who appeared in multiple 100+ posts included Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour drivers Darren MacKinnon, Dylan Gosbee and Dylan Blenkhorn, Newfoundland’s Josh Collins and New Brunswick Bandolero star Ashton Tucker. Call this quintet the “most likeable” in Maritime racing circles for 2015, if you will.

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TCM has been taking a look back at some of the drivers who made their mark on 2015 during our “Year in Review” on our Facebook page. Be sure to go check it out!

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Coming up later in the week is Tim’s final farewell to the 2015 season with his end of season column. We hope you had an awesome holiday season and hope you have a fun and safe weekend celebrating the arrival of 2016!