With six heat victories, three feature wins, nine feature top-five’s and an average finish of 2.7, there is no denying the great season put together by Sean Kennedy at Peterborough Speedway in 2023. He prepares to chase a championship this year, he shared his thoughts with SHORT TRACK MUSINGS.

What are your thoughts as we look ahead to the 2024 season?

Well, hopefully we can capture the championship. We’ve been so close so many times. We finished second like four or five times, so it’d be finally nice to get it this year. We’ll have to do a few things to the car to match the Peterborough rules, but other than that, it should be good after that. Last year we started off really good, but then it was a really close points battle all season so we ended up coming away a little short. But overall, it’ll be good to get back to the track to see if we have the same speed.

I was going to say that last year seemed overall successful with multiple feature wins. What are your thoughts as you look back to the 2023 season?

Honestly, I think it was one of our best years. Each year, we expect to not have as much luck as we’ve have been. It went pretty well again. Jake Kelly was pretty fast, but we kept up to him really well actually. We were really happy with it. We ended up getting three feature wins there, a bunch of heat wins. That matches our best total amount of features a year so we were happy.

What was your most memorable moment?

I think really just all the day results we seemed to get that we didn’t think we’d get. We knew the bone stocks are very competitive, especially at Peterborough. So ending up getting each of the three feature wins last year was a nice surprise to get those. I think each individual win is nice to look back on.

What do you feel that you need to work on so that way you’re able to be stronger? Because like you’re saying, the competition is just building each year at Peterborough.

Honestly, not only Peterborough, but every track – Sunset, Flamboro – all of the tracks in Ontario are really close. I think we just need to find the little things in the car to keep within the rules, but also try to have the car as fast as it can get to keep up there and hopefully have some luck. So I think with the improving the car, and a little bit of luck, I think we can have just as good of a year – if not better, honestly.

How did you get started in racing originally?

So when I was around 12 or 13, I started racing go-karts at Mosport. We ended up just going to the Arrive and Drive events at Mosport when we first started. Each year, I progressed each level. I started to travel around the area – Goodwood, Montreal, Shannonville. It was a great way of learning how to drive. It teaches you how to be really smooth. I look back on my time in go-karts as being a major key to the success that I’ve had.

I was going to say that a lot of people have talked about the Arrive and Drive program being successful.

I think honestly it’s the best way to start racing, just because Arrive and Drive is kind of a trial and error if you want to get your own cart just depending on how you do. Then there’s also more than just a couple events a year so you kind of improve your driving skill when you’re that new as you progress each level.

You’ve had lots of success in bone stocks. Is there another division down the road that you want to try?

Well, I think now-a-days, it’s pretty tough to progress into the higher classes just on budget wise and how much time you have to put into it. But if the time comes, I’d love to try anything with a V8 obviously. Bone Stocks are super fun and competitive and I love it, but it’d be nice to get into something – like the modifieds, super stocks, or late models down the road. It’d be fun to see what I can do there. I’ve done a lot of test sessions in those cars, but never got the chance to race them. All the test sessions have gone really well so it’d be nice to actually race them.

So what test session of those has been the most fun?

They’ve been all different, to be honest. When I was trying out the modifieds, it’s almost like a big go-kart because they handle very well with the good suspension. That brought me back to the go-karting feeling, but just having more power. That was really fun. Hopping into the super stock was kind of the same feel, just a bit heavier. So it was kind of nice to get that weight transition to feel that out and see what you have to do through the corners, roll your throttle, and how deep you want to go. It was a real neat experience to feel both out.

Then when you have the bone stock, it’s front wheel drive so you have to almost get the car rolled through the corner too well that you’re not going to hit your gas and drift up in a way. But getting the experience in all of them has been really good so far. Hopefully I can test it out later in life.

Who do you consider your racing hero?

I mean, I’m a big Chase Elliott fan. I kind of have followed him through all the ranks – when he was in late models, and then when he was going through all the series of NASCAR. That’s who I based off my number off. I remember when we were at Mosport, the first year the truck series was there. He ended up winning, and then did a big burnout right in front of so that was a big memorable moment. Ever since then, I’ve been a big fan of Chase. It’s good to follow him through NASCAR.

I think the added bonus at Mosport was just how dramatic that finish was with how close it was with Ty Dillon.

Honestly, I think that set a good tone for the truck series at Mosport. Those two or three years that we all looked forward to all the time. I think ever since then, that finish, there hasn’t been a bad finish there. It was fun, for sure.

What would be a piece of advice that you’d give to someone getting started?

Honestly, something that I’m even bad with, is you want to over exceed a little too much and not keep it fun and be so competitive. Like you want to win stuff, but at the end, you have to focus on yourself and your finishes and not put too much pressure on yourself and get too frustrated when you don’t have a good race. It’s good to keep positive. So when people want to start racing, focus on your progression on yourself and keep it fun – or it will ruin it for you.