Racing with the Ontario Pro Challenge Series, Tim Norris put another solid season together with six victories and 16 top-five finishes, boasting an average finish of 1.75 over the year. The 2023 Champion recently shared his thoughts about the success with SHORT TRACK MUSINGS.

What are your thoughts as we look ahead to the upcoming race season?

Pretty excited about it to be honest with you. We’re really looking forward to it for next year. There’s a couple more drivers coming so it should be a little more fun.

What are your thoughts as you look back on last season?

It was a lot of work this year. There were a lot of damaged car parts and pieces; it seemed to be a little extra work this season, but we managed to pull through at the end anyway.

What would be the most memorable moment from the season for you?

That’s a good question. Probably winning Memorial Night for my dad – winning Jim Norris Memorial Night and winning Memorial Night for Flamboro Speedway, as well. Also, the Norris family podium sweep on May 27 at Flamboro with Emma winning, followed by me and Mike.

So as you look towards 2024, what do you feel that you can work on to make the program stronger – if even possible?

I have to get my car to work better later in the races. That will help me out for next year.

You’ve been doing this for quite awhile now. What is it about racing and motorsports that you enjoy?

It’s exciting, and it’s a challenge and different every week. There’s always something new – something new to try and make the car better, and make me a better driver.

Obviously, one of the more unique things I see with you is the chance to race alongside both of your kids, Emma and Mike, with both of them having success a lot this season.

Yeah, Emma was the biggest surprise of the year. She’s finally getting more comfortable in the car, and listening to her brother a bit. She doesn’t listen to her dad very much.

We’ve seen you run late models, and now Pro Challenge. Is there anything else that you would like to try?

Some dirt stuff would be fun, but I would like to get back in the late model again. It was a lot of work, but it was a big challenge for sure. It was enjoyable, though.

Who would you consider your racing hero?

I never really had one, to be honest for you. I was always a motorcycle and snowmobile guy, and racing in cars just kind of happened. I never really had a hero or anything like that, but I do have a ton of respect for guys that work hard on their equipment – guys like Jr Hanley, Don Thomson Jr., and Dennis Thomson as well. Those are the guys that I was involved with a little bit and they work super hard on their stuff and they are good guys to look up to for their experience for sure.

I know we’ve talked about you getting your start in motocross a long time ago before. What’s kind of your most memorable moment from those beginning years?

Probably the coolest thing for me was sitting on the starting line at the Toronto Supercross, and watching the Canadian national anthem on the jumbletron. That was pretty cool for me. I did that with one of my good buddies Bill, my mechanic, and got to share the same moment with my brother Tom at the Montreal Supercross doing the same thing.

With having worked a couple years now behind the scenes at Flamboro Speedway, how much more respect does that give you in knowing what a track goes through on any given night that others maybe don’t see?

There’s a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that goes into putting on a race season, a schedule, or a single night, from the staffing side of things, safety side of things, and just moving people in and out. The points collection, the line-ups – there’s a ton of work that goes into it that a lot of racers just show up on race day and expect to drive in the gate at four o’ clock and leave at 10:30. They focus on their own program, and they don’t really take a peek at what the whole situation is.

As a race director, I’ve been thrown into a million different situations that I didn’t think I’d get involved in too much with the track, but it’s been a big eye opener for sure on the amount of work and background noise that happens.

What would be a piece of advice you’d offer someone getting started, as a driver?

Go to the race track, talk to some drivers in the pits, talk to some crew people. Start out there. It doesn’t cost you a whole lot of money to get in to see what’s going on. Offer advice, and offer help where you can, and that’s the best place to learn. Racing can be very, very expensive and you can make a lot of mistakes along the way. So if you get involved first, talk to some knowledgeable guys, and go see the fast guys at the race track – see whose doing  what and having good finishes, and get some advice from them so you don’t spend money in the wrong direction. Get yourself set-up properly and then you’ll have a whole lot more enjoyment out of racing if you follow that.