After experiencing the thrill of being the Queenston Chevrolet Buick GMC OSCAAR Modified Champion in 2018, there’s only one thing on Cory Horner’s mind entering this year – to repeat the feat once again.
“Entering 2019, I just want to continue to be consistent and continue to win races,” he said. “We won two features last year, 11 heat wins, but obviously we want to build on that and win as many as we can.”
Well continuing to win events, one of the goals that circulates the Horner Racing camp is being able to win at each track on the schedule. So far, he has won everywhere, except for Delaware Speedway and Jukasa Motor Speedway. Notably, though, Delaware was not on the calendar last year, while Jukasa has only hosted one OSCAAR event to date.
“It’s nice to get back to Delaware actually,” Horner noted. “It’s a track that I don’t have a win yet, and it’s nice that we go back there twice this year so I’d probably say Delaware this year.”
The goal may seem easy, but it’s certainly not going to be easy to accomplish with several drivers returning, combined with the new faces.
“There’s definitely a lot of competition,” Horner commented. “The guys are getting the cars faster every year, and there’s more fast guys coming out and building cars. So definitely keeping us on our toes, and making sure we’re keeping our car fast every weekend.”
Looking at who may be his biggest competition, Horner points to multi-time champion Gary McLean as the driver to watch.
“When he’s at the track, he’s obviously one of those guys that you want to beat,” he said. “I’ve watched him race for a few years now. I love having him at the track as we makes us better, and makes us want to make our cars better. He’s definitely one of the guys.
“Then you look at anyone in the top-10 in points in our series. You’ve got John Harper, A.J. Emms, Luke Gignac – there’s so many competitive guys; any guy can win any week.”
As previously noted, Horner put together one of the most consistent seasons in OSCAAR history in 2018, scoring a top-10 in each of the events en route to being crowned the series championship.
“It was definitely fun,” he said. “At the start of the season, it’s never something that I’m thinking about. It seems about halfway through the year we’re always in the points, and then I realize this year that I might actually do it. Then coming down to the last race with the crazy battle between me and Harper, it was definitely pretty cool. It’s something that I’ve never got to experience so it was a lot of fun.”
Remarkably, it marked the first championship for the Horner family despite several family members having been involved in motorsports through the years.
“For me to be the first one to get one, it definitely feels pretty cool to make the family proud,” he commented.
Horner noted that chasing after a title wasn’t always a thought for the family, but rather various members focused on enjoying traveling around to different series. That was one of the deciding factors for why he chose to go OSCAAR racing initially, and why we have seen him explore racing south of the border on a couple occasions.
“We wanted to go to (New) Jersey again to do some racing,” he commented. “We didn’t end up making it the past year there in November, but definitely a goal of mine to do some racing in the States. Get a bigger motor in the modified and do some of the bigger races; it’s definitely something I want to do before I stop racing, for sure.”
With the success that he has been able to accomplish to date, Horner notes that the key to success is to never settle, and keep working on your car.
“If you got a fifth-place finish, and you want to continue to finish fifth, you can’t just settle,” he said. “You got to be there to win so go make a change and make your car faster. If you want to be at the top, you got to be working on your car all the time and practice as much as you can to keep up with those guys up front.”
By Ashley McCubbin
The post Cory Horner Hoping to Repeat as Queenston OSCAAR Modified Champion appeared first on OSCAAR Racing.