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Cayden Lapcevich looks to Canadian Short Track Nationals to reignite career

Toronto Star

This weekend could be remembered as a turning point for the remarkable career of Cayden Lapcevich.

At first glance, that sounds silly, because the Grimsby, Ontario native is just 18-years-old and not even close to reaching his professional peak. At the same time, Lapcevich has stalled out in his development and the Canadian Short Track Nationals at Jukasa Motor Speedway on Sunday has presented a once in a lifetime opportunity for the former NASCAR Pinty’s Series champion to make a statement on the international stage.

Lapcevich first arrived as a top prospect during the 2016 season when he won three times and outdueled the likes of Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani, Kevin Lacroix and the Dumoulin brothers to capture the championship as a rookie.

To those unfamiliar with the talent level and track diversity in the former CASCAR Super Series, that’s no easy task. His worst finish that season was eighth and he finished the season with a 3.4 average finish – on short tracks, road courses and street courses.

And yet, after a similar season in 2017, his family-owned Fastline Motorsports was forced into closure due to a lack of funding.

He’s only raced three times since then, spending most of his time as a college student at the University of Northern Ohio.

“What it came down to, we couldn’t find a marketing partner,” Lapcevich told Short Track Scene on Thursday. “It didn’t bother me at the time. I’ve been in school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a living. I’ve been at the race track every weekend that my little brother (Treyten) races.

“I definitely downsized.”

READ MORE: 50k-to-win Canadian Short Track Nationals features ELITE entry list

So obviously, even running up front in the $50,000-to-win Short Track Nationals would be a career-changer. That’s especially true when considering the event has attracted the likes of Bubba Pollard, Johnny VanDoorn and Brian Campbell — three of the best straight-rail Late Model races from the United States.

To do so, Lapcevich has teamed up with Race101 and Tony Blanchard with support from The Basement Store, Construct Homes and Ace Services.

“If we can just run up front, it should attract some attention,” Lapcevich said. “People will look at my background and see what I’ve been able to do. Just running with Bubba, Johnny and Brian is a tall task. I mean, Bubba is the best in the nation. He just won the Oxford 250. So just to be in the mix would be a good thing.”

To his advantage is track time at Jukasa, the .625-mile, recently repaved track in Hagersville, Ontario. So even if the heavy hitters unload faster, he believes he can make up for some of it on experience alone.

“We shook our car down last Saturday and were pretty good,” Lapcevich said. “Now I’m looking at VanDoorn, (Carson) Hocevar and (Raphael) Lessard test and I’m thinking we’ve got some work to do. But I’m a big believer in track temperature.

“I think the track has some more speed in it today than last weekend with these temperatures, especially here because it’s so big and new.”

Lapcevich is still one of the more promising young prospects in stock car racing today and this weekend is the perfect chance to remind the entirety of North America of that fact.

Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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