TORONTO, Ontario —- While a lot of Canadians spent the month of February watching the racing at New Smyrna Speedway on their television screens, Josh Stade took a different approach as he took his Pro Late Model down to Florida to partake in Florida Speedweeks.

“The experience was amazing, honestly,” Stade told Short Track Musings at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Expo. “We unloaded fast. We were quickest out of 36 cars on opening day and right out of the box, we had speed so was really excited to get on the track and try that as a new experience. I definitely can tell you after that week it was phenomenal and I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Stade was able to run up front inside the top-10 throughout the week, though found himself caught up in a couple wrecks. He was able to rebound in style late in the week with a third-place finish.

“It was incredible,” he commented. “If you would have told me that I was gonna go to New Smyrna and even run in the top five, I would have said you’re crazy. I feel like my team and I can do it, but I had very little expectation going. I just thought if I could run in the top 10, maybe get a top-five, I’d be happy. Then opening night out of the 36 cars, we got our first top-five the first night. We actually qualified second – missed the pole by just a little bit, so that was pretty exciting too. Then to get a podium finish with a broken transmission and terrible restarts that night, it was awesome.” 

Comparing New Smyrna to tracks in Ontario, Stade admits is tough to do due to the amount of speed that you carry.

“I honestly would compare it more to a Nashville than anything around here,” he added. “I’s kind of its own thing. It kind of maybe runs a little bit like Riverside Speedway, but it’s very different from what we have here. We’re just not as high-banked around here. It’s really short track or quarter mile, third mile stuff here right? So it’s hard to say what it would compare to. 

Reflecting back on the experience, Stade feels there were things they could have improved upon based on what they learned.

“It was a massive learning curve,” he admits. “Those guys are so talented and have so many resources and a lot of money down there so it was tough because I felt like the respect down there, the racing was a little harder because the guys have so many cars. They’re just like, ‘Oh if we wreck the first one, we pulled the second out’ while we went down with one car and one car only. That’s probably the way I would do it again anyways, but it is a grind but it was a blast. 

“I gotta do a better job online of maybe showing that kind of week to week stuff cause I feel like there is fans that want to see that but it took us a month and a half to prepare that car for that week. Then we get there, the pits open at seven, practice would start at noon, and then in most cases we are leaving the track at 11:30, 12 o’clock at night. Then you’re back up in the morning as soon as the pits open to get at it again, so it’s go grab a coffee, get back to work. You gotta do the maintenance providing you didn’t wreck anything the night before – which in our case, we seem to be wrapped up in a few situations that were out of our control but yeah, it is a grind and a lot of preparation.” 

New Smyrna was not the first non-Ontario event that Stade has embarked on, with having made trips out to Nova Scotia for Riverside Speedway, as well as making the trek down to Nashville. He admits he would like to get back to Nashville having enjoyed the experience, but feels Oswgo Speedway in New York is the next track to mark off.

“I’d love to do that but it’s tough because they run that Master of the Pros race in the middle of the week in July and that’s our paving season,” he commented. “So if I can free up time and do that, I’d like to do that. That’s probably my next one this summer if we can make it happen.

“I don’t have a bucket list. I just love doing this and to get my family and friends involved. Then when I start talking about New Smyrna, I had 14 people come down with me and give me the support, so obviously couldn’t do it without anyone committing. Like it’s a full-time job committing to the racing now so to have seven or eight people drive down with us and then seven or eight people fly in to help us, it was incredible.”

Stay tuned for part two of the interview, where Josh Stade will share his thoughts going into the 2026 APC Series season.