With an eighth-place finish in the Just Foam It OSCAAR Modified standings last season, it’s safe to say David Mathers had a solid rookie campaign. He will return to the tour for 2024, and shared his thoughts with SHORT TRACK MUSINGS.

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

We’re excited, very excited. Like I said, this is a brand new car. We’ve put a lot of man hours in – a lot of money into it, to make it the way we want it, and we are really looking forward to making some more progression this coming season and hoping to get up towards mid-pack and feel out the car and gain some more consistency. For my grandfather and I, this is our dream as much as it can be and every meant at the track we just love. We’re extremely excited – extremely.

What moment stood out to you last year from your rookie season?

I would have to say – it kind of surprised me, to be honest. It was more the people, the individuals, like Bryan Batty, T.J Edwards, Tyler Liscum, Ryan Dick, Jason Keen. It doesn’t even matter – I could name every driver in that club, even the tech guys. It’s the people. I couldn’t believe the amount of support and help and guys coming to our shop, guys checking on us at the track, and guys texting me and making sure things are going right and giving me help at every corner. That, to me, is what stood out.

That was unbelievable. It’s a competition sport, and I know how much time and money everyone puts into their cars, right? It’s not easy. So to go get out there and help competitors – we may not be running top of the pack, but to help a competitor nonetheless, it’s kind of baffling to me. It’s like the Buffalo Sabers going over to the (Toronto) Maple Leafs and Buffalo is giving them their guy, or what our defense is doing so they can be as good as us. It doesn’t make any sense but it’s just what the racing community is.

So what do you feel that you need to work on this off-season to be even more successful this year?

The biggest thing is consistency in the car and finding a set-up that the car mediocre-likes at every track so we can start fine-tuning things. Last year, it was kind of a guess and whim and then fixing things on the car that weren’t right or we didn’t understand. So definitely consistency has the biggest thing this off-season in getting to know every nook and cranny on the car and getting something on the car that’s stable and set so that when we tackle this coming year, we know exactly what we’re doing where we’re doing it. It’s not no more guessing, but more practical.

What track are you most excited to get back to?

Oh, Delaware (Speedway) for sure. Delaware is our home track. It has a soft spot in our hearts and I’ve always been a bigger track boy. Absolutely Delaware. Flamboro is a very close second. We enjoy Flamboro. It’s where we have enjoyed our most success last season, so we’re hoping to continue that again there this year.

For you right now in where you are with your racing career, why did you feel that the OSCAAR modifieds were right for you?

In all honesty, it was kind of the luck – or I don’t know what you want to call it. We made trades and one thing led to another, and we ended up with a modified. There was no distinction to go out and grab one. The modified is something that I’ve always loved, my grandpa and I. Our first short track racecar in anything we’ve dabbled in was the super modifieds, right? They are very similar to the modifieds now with maybe a little more horsepower and maybe the motor is outside the chassis with a big wing.

But we ended up with a modified, and it sat around for a year. We tried to sell it and we couldn’t, and we were just like, “Well, do you want to do take it to the track?” We ended up taking to the track, and liked it and said, “Well, we’re not doing anything else.” It’s spiraled from there and probably one of the best decisions that we’ve made together, race-wise.

I was going to say – not a lot of people can say they have driven a super modified though. What is one of those like?

They are pretty intense. Fortunately, I have never been in the seat myself, but I pitted in and built the motors with my grandpa there. They are absolutely breathtaking. Those cars sit there and idle and you can’t hear the person next to you speak. Every aspect of that car – when you sit down and look at a super modified compared to any other open-wheel car, there is nothing to compare. The tire sizing, the massive wings, the home-made DRS system, you got close to a 1000 horsepower hanging off the side of the car and your life as you’re making lap speeds that make every other car that touches the track look silly.

They’re unbelievable, and is a goal of ours. We still do have a super modified here in Canada sitting in our trailer. It’s a complete car – all it needs is a motor. I bought a big block bare-block for it and I think we have some other knick nacks for it – pistons, camshaft, lifters. That’s something in our future that we dabble with once funds permit there. Unfortunately , they are very expensive cars.

They always say that the faster you go, the more expensive it gets.

They don’t lie.

Who would you consider your racing hero?

My grandpa, I think, and it goes beyond just racing hero. Ever since I was young, I’ve been by his side. I didn’t go to after-prom and I don’t go to a lot of events with my friends or family. I never did. Everything was sitting in that garage with him since I could walk building racecars – whatever it was – the hot rods. That was just my passion, and he was always a big racer and I always looked up to him and wanted to be like my grandpa. He’s taught me everything I know, and he’s made me work for it, too.

That’s something I’m really grateful for is that it’s not just me show up and drive the car experience with him. He’s made it very clear that if you want to race, you have to play, and you have to pay to play. So I spend a lot, a lot of my own money on that car and I get my hands dirty. He sits in that garage every single day and shows me how to do it all. If I could be half the man he is, I’d live a pretty happy life.

Those are also family memories that you will carry with you beyond your racing career….

Absolutely. Family is second to nothing. We’re family, we bicker and get at each other’s throats here and there as I’m sure most racing families can attest to. But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t pick another individual in this entire world to do this with and I wouldn’t pick another individual to teach me how to do it.

What would be a piece of advice for someone getting started in racing?

My biggest thing is not be intimidated. I feel the biggest thing holding a lot of people back is intimidation – showing up at the track, not really understanding what you’re doing or really getting the car home in the garage and not understanding how to fix it or get it set up correctly. Don’t be afraid of any of that. The biggest step I think in anything in life is taking that big jump beyond intimation and fear and just getting your feet wet there and then because no one starts off anything good. Like, you’re going to start off crappy – that’s the way life works with anything. So don’t be intimidated and have fun, and get going with it.