The Southern Ontario Modified Association is preparing for a big season of racing that will see them travel outside of Flamboro Speedway for the first time in a couple years. Ken Mercer is the man spearheading the effort, and spoke with Short Track Musings at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show.

Obviously you have a big season ahead with the Pro 4 Modifieds. What are you looking forward to about the season?

We have a lot of races this year. Normally we run eight races, but this year, we put a couple extras in as tracks asked us to come out. We’re at Flamboro (Speedway) for eight races, Sauble Beach for one race, and we’re at Sunset (Speedway) for one race as well. Our guys are really looking forward to doing a little bit of traveling around and getting on some of the bigger tracks and having some fun. We have good numbers as far as cars this year with a few cars that have come up from the Southern states to join our club – really nice equipment and cars – and we’re looking forward to getting them on the track and having some fun with them.

It’s got to feel good to have things going in a position direction with numbers and going back on the road again, if you will.

It’s nice to see. Like I said, we have a nice group of guys and a lady that races with us as well. It’s really nice. We’ve got a good group and our average age is 55-years-old. We call our club sort of a Stepping Up Group or Stepping Down Group. We have young guys in our group that are coming out of go-karting that want to do a step before they do the big V8 stuff, so it’s a step up for those guys. Then there’s guys that want to have raced over the years and want to step down from the higher class or profile and go out to have some fun.

That’s our goal – to put together racing for people that want to have fun. It’s really interesting that if even though we have the age group out there, nobody gives an inch on the track. They’re still out there to win, play hard, work hard, but very respectatable drivers young and old, which is nice to see.

You’ve called Flamboro Speedway your home for quite a few years. What does it mean to have the support from Frank and John (Casale) those years?

Kudos to John and Frank, because a few years ago, they really struggled with Pro 4 Modifieds not having enough cars. John and Frank stood behind us, and we stood behind them, and they made commitments to us and we made commitments to them and I feel we’re trying really hard to honor those commitments to those gentleman.

They’re true gentlemen in every way and my hat goes out to them for being inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame. What makes people like that is they help out the racers and one of the organizations they’ve stepped up to and we’ve done the same with them.

What are your goals for this year?

Goals for 2025 is to put probably 22 cars on the track. That’s my magic number. We almost have 30 cars in existance, although all of them aren’t race ready. We probably have 17 that are race ready so my goal is to see a track that we can put 22 cars on and put on a good show for people. That’s something that I have been working hard to make happen, and our group of drivers have stepped up to that and make it happen as well. That’s our goal – to make sure representatives from BCW, that’s our key series sponsor, that we’re trying to promote that company and give them good value for their dollar and advertising.

If someone wanted to run the Pro 4 Modifieds, what’s the sales pitch you’d give them?

That’s easy – if you want to have fun, and go racing, and not have to dig deep into your pockets but have great racing and a great atmosphere. Every night that we race, we donate two bicycles, and $50 to someone in the grandstands just for coming out with her husband to a race. We have a BBQ every night at the track with our drivers.

We try to promote family. The reason we run a small amount of races each year, if people have cottages or trailers, or family gatherings, they’re not committed every week to the track. It’s a great group of men and woman that love competitive racing and love family. That’s our biggest goal – to support that in all directions.