After making waves behind the wheel of a Legend, Matt Haufe is ready for his next opportunity behind the wheel, as he will be racing a modified this season.

Haufe will be driving for car owner Monty Farrell, who just finished his rookie campaign in a modified at Sunset Speedway.

“It’s an incredible opportunity obviously and I am very excited,” Haufe told Short Track Musings. “It’s one of those that I remember around 2009 when I started the legend cars, we went down to Chemong Speedway because we were trying to get our 25 races in for the INEX Championship. I remember seeing some of the Whelen (NASCAR) Modifieds (Series) up close and wanted to try one of them one day. This is kind of like the opportunity. It just kind of happened and it’s an incredible opportunity.

“Hopefully I’m not biting off too much to chew with the big car because it’s going to be a bit of an adjustment to just get to know the size of vehicle and other racers around me and the space around me because the Legends are smaller. Hopefully it translates well because they should have more areo and a lot more tire grip than a Legend car, and then between that with my experience and his experience we can elevate the team a little bit and grow the program.”

The team’s current plan is to run the full Sunset Speedway schedule, while exploring other options across the province.

“That’s an easy one,” Farrell said on the decision to ask Haufe. “His credentials in everything – we were trying to summerize it and it’s just so hard to scale down everything he’s accomplished in the last 10 years or so with regards to his success in both the States and Canada with regards to Legends. I think one of the biggest things is the easy part is he’s been to all the tracks in Ontario before, he’s competed as I’ve watched him plenty of times. I just know how he drives and I know that he makes the right decisions at the right time. It’s really just seat time and that’s how I was last year.

“It was such a new thing and obviously I think I was over cautious last year, but we came home with a clean car and ran all the laps in the races that I ran last year including Autumn Colours Classic. Like I said, it was a real learning experience. I can only hope I can pass some of that along to Matt and hope that he has a lot of fun with it this year and we learn more things and we can build on it in the future.”

For Haufe, he enters the modifieds with over 20 years of experience, beginning with a Senior Light NCKC Championship. The Stittsville, Ontario native was crowned the Asphalt Pro Legends World Champion in 2017, becoming the only Canadian to ever do so. He also has multi-track and series championships with the Legends, with over 60 career feature victories.

Haufe is hoping the car control learned from the Legends translates into his new ride.

“They have real short wheelbases from left to right, back to front, so things happen very quickly,” he explained. “Hopefully the experience in that will translate to the other car and all the track time and time at Sunset Speedway will transition well to the other car. Hopefully the biggest challenge is just knowing where the four corners are and knowing the space to the wall or the car while in the cockpit a little differently with a different atmosphere around you. Hopefully the experience in the Legend car just being challenging to drive will transition well. It’s not just me saying that, but different drivers like NASCAR guys – I think it was Tony Stewart was saying that if we were trying to race racing on difficulty of driving, maybe watch Legend cars.”

Farrell, meanwhile, did go-karting for number of years, followed by winning the 2019 Outlaw Midget Rookie of the Year Award. He then spent the time off during COVID going to the United States to buy a modified, which turned out to be a car previously driven by Matt Hirschman.

“I’m a bit of a tranditionalist when it comes to the modifieds,” Farrell admitted. “I like your A.J. Emms, Dale Reinhart, so if you needed a quote, there ya go. The guys that are running the real old school modifieds – the Troyers, I love those. That’s what I am all about. I’m never going to open up the backend of my modified. I like the back rear end with the awesome sponsorship from Faste Eddie Speedwear on there. I like those guys and Jason Keen, I like those guys. They run what I think is a true modified and if I can continue to help grow that series in Ontario, bring it on. Not to put words in Matt’s mouth but those are the guys that I like.

“Dale has also been a huge help for us in trying to get our car going and I got all the props and credit to a guy like that who opened up his garage two winters ago to help get us on track. That was a big help for that.”

It was then gone over by Farrell with help from Speed 77, before being converted to OSCAAR / Ontario rules with help from Dale Reinhart.

Farrell ran his first season of modified competition last year with a fifth-place finish in points, and says the biggest thing that stood out to him was how much he can still learn about the ground pounders.

“I went from a midget to a modified as that’s a real big jump,” he commented. “So I think with that said, I think it’s going to be a little bit easier for Matt to jump from Legneds to Modifieds as they’re a little quicker than a Midget and the Ground Pounders, they stay down on the ground real well. he’ll learn that well real quick and I think it’ll be a good relationship.”

The No. 16 will feature sponsorship from Harvey’s, Fast Eddie Speedwear, and Aquaman Pool & Spa.