Gerrit Tiemersma knows what it’s like to be at the top of the racing ladder, having picked up a championship in the Super Stock division at Sunset Speedway. 

After taking a year off from the sport, he will return this season – but with a new challenge, as he purchased a Pro Late Model during the off-season from Jeff Hanley. The multi-generation driver spoke of his goals and more recently.

What are your thoughts entering the season?

It has been pretty much approaching it as a learning curve type of year. It’s about getting our feet wet, building a notebook, getting back to having fun racing, and about gaining a bit of experience with some success. I truly hope to win a race before the end of the years, that’s my goal this year. I understand I won’t be a championship contender off the bat but I believe we can win a race before the end of the year as I believe we’re talented enough.

I just bought a house actually in the last month and a half too, so that’s put a wrench into my time plans. So basically my thought is to go race when I can, have fun when I can, build a notebook, and my goal is to hit all the races I can at Sunset and have fun doing it.

Obviously, you’re stepping into the deep end of the pool with electing to run at Sunset. The list of drivers that can win weekly is lengthy. What are your thoughts on the competition?

Part of the reason I returned to Sunset is after racing in the oval racing scene for 10 years, Sunset in my opinion produces the best drivers in Ontario. Even still, the best competition may be at Delaware Speedway or in the APC Series, but Sunset Speedway produces the most skilled drivers because that speedway is built incredibly difficult to get quick at. It’s a racing track. You have to learn to drive side-by-side, and I returned to Sunset because I believed it’s the best possible chance for me to put myself alongside good competition and make myself a Pro Late Model stud and get myself a good foundation towards becoming a champion one day.

What do you feel this is the right time for you to step into the late model division?

For the last few years, it’s been my goal. I’m at an age where I’m shooting for onwards and upwards still and after my championship year in Super Stock and finishing second in the Qwick Wick (Super Stock) Series, missing out by one or two points, right from that year on, I was looking to get into Pro Late Model. I had trouble with reliability with my super stock for a year and the car wasn’t selling and I was kind of ready to move on from super stock a couple years ago. It was more about having the means to the ends, and my thing for year two was I can’t have two racecars and zero houses so I needed to sell my super stock before I could move on.

When I sold my super stock, we weren’t in the right place mentally to jump into Pro Late Model so taking that year off in 2024 allowed me to work on my physical health and say yes to the things that we never get to say yes to, like those weekends with friends. I took a trip out to Calgary, Alberta; I took a vacation for the first time since I was seven or eight years old from racing. It helped put me back in a better mental state and that way I could come back better than ever in this Pro Late Model division. I think I timed my move perfectly.

Obviously it’s been tough economically for the whole country, for racers, we all feel that now with the political situation. But because I was patient and saved my pennies and was ready to jump on the right opportunity – when I got word of Jeff Hanley’s car becoming available, I was ready to buy it right away. I got a call that the car was available and the next day, I went and looked at it, and I bought it.

A big thing for us was to be mentally ready and in order to be mentally ready, we had to take a year off. It just all had to come together for timing and now the way we set ourselves up here, we’ll be ready for success in the long term. I think we’ll be in the late model division for years to come.

Last time we saw you was with the super stock division and you mentioned it – the championship you were able to pick up. What are your thoughts as you look back on that success?

That couple of years of my championship in super stock and peak performance that we were having with the involvement of my YouTube blog and the promotion with my sponsors with the races through GforceTV and APC, I look back on it fondly, and realistically, those two – three years gave us the confidence to say that we can do this. For a long time, we looked at the Pro Late Model division as being something out of reach and very scary or intimidating, but winning the championship in Super Stocks when at the time was one of the most competitive divisions in the province right up there with APC, it gave me the confidence that if I was able to get myself in a Pro Late Model, I would be able to have success as well. The biggest thing I got out of that was great marketing partnerships, but the confidence to chase bigger goals.

We’ve seen your family involved in motorsports for a number of years, even just at Sunset alone. What does it mean to follow along in those lines of the success?

It was huge. In my family, there’s a lot to live up to in terms of success. My family doesn’t do things half-ass. When they go to the race track, there’s the goal to perform, do our best, and the goal to win. To add my name to the Sunset champions was a nice calling card, nice kick on my resume. It’s funny, because Sunset Speedway is my worse track – by far.

When I go to Flamboro Speedway, I think I have four or five wins there in the 15 races I’ve raced. I won in my third race ever at Sauble Speedway where nobody in the Tiemersma family had won at Sauble until I went there. I must’ve raced a 150 races at Sunset Speedway – so that championship year was a big breakthrough for us for the amount of confidence that it gave us. I kind of got over the hurdle and gave us the confidence to say we can do this anywhere. The track has beat me up years and years – now I can go anywhere.

Who would you consider your racing hero?

That’s tough. I’m not going to lie, I don’t really have a racing hero. I definitely look up to Matt Kenseth as a young child and teenager. He’s the reason I picked up the No. 17. I’ve worn that number ever since I was six years old. I was very much just a fan of Matt Kenseth and his yellow and black Dewalt car in the NASCAR Cup Series, but I never really used him as an idol. It was more favourite / passionate driver, because the competitor in me likes to view all other drivers just as competitors and people. It was kind of driven into me that I can do it as good as them and be as successful as them, but I definitely looked up to Matt Kenseth many years.

What would be a piece of advice to someone getting started?

The biggest piece of advice, especially to a rookie whether it’s Bone Stock, Mini Stock, Super Stock, go-karts, Jr Lates, it doesn’t matter, is it’s important to soak in information and it’s important to race with respect. I am going to say a lot of things that a lot of other racers say but it’s about your work ethic. It took me a few years to understand how important work ethic was when chasing our championship. The year we chased our championship, between my day job, sponsorships, videos, etc, I think I was working 65 to 70 hour weeks between all of it. All that hard work paid off in the long run, but it’s really just about the work ethic and absorbing the information from people around.

It’s important to listen to people who are in places that you want to be. That’s something that I’ve tried to embrace in my career and something I’ve tried to embrace at the race track, is if you want to be at a certain place, you should listen to people who have been there and take their advice. It’s super important in any part of your life, but espically racing to listen to people and educate yourself.