Story By: JIM CLARKE / MERCER MOTORSPORTS – PETERBOROUGH, ONT – Any racer worth their salt will tell you that its impossible to win the race on the first lap. There is just too much that can happen between the green flag and the checkered.
A graduate of the provincial karting ranks, 18-year-old Jacob Mercer is in his 3rd season of competition in Peterborough Speedway’s headline Late Model division. The 3rd generation racer from Port Hope, Ontario has been around the sport of weekly stock car racing from an early age and learned much of what he knows from his father Bryan, a multi-time feature winner at the Central Ontario oval and his grandfather Ron – a veteran of the local dirt track racing scene – who passed away in 2018.
After opening the year with a runner-up effort, the talented youngster and his No. 81 machine returned to action Saturday, June 1st. Taking the track for the night’s first practice session, the car experienced an issue with a miss in the engine and trouble with tire stagger that limited his testing time. The team went to work behind the scenes and solved the concerns, resulting in 3rd place finishes in both his preliminary events.
“I’m very fortunate to have the support of my dad and our crew to help me get the most out of our equipment,” offered Jacob Mercer. “Things didn’t start off exactly the way we’d hoped, but everything was set to roll when we came out for the main event.”
By the luck of the draw, Mercer would line-up on the outside the front row for the 2nd time in as many races when the 25-lap Late Model feature left the staging area. The car was strong throughout the entire race distance but was caught-up in a frontstretch jingle when he couldn’t get checked-up in time to avoid contact with another car and was sent to the back of the pack. Even with the car experiencing some handling issues, he was still able to roll it into the hauler with a 4th place showing.
The 2024 schedule for Jacob Mercer and the No. 81 team is proudly supported by Sine’s Flooring, Durmach Precision Tooling, Facility Services, Courtice Septic, Beyond Signs & Design, Lindsay Dodge Chrysler, CARSTAR Lindsay, Lindsay Buick GMC, Highland Designs by Tracy Pattison, Cressman Tree Maintenance, Richter Law, BJ Tackle, Kawartha Metals, K9INE Protection, YoungCo Septic Design & Install, Cliffshore Excavating, Sarah Turck Sherwood Mortgage Group, Andrea Spohn Desjardins Insurance, Ganaraska Financial, Holdaway Motorsports and Clarke Motorsports Communications.
The team’s next event is the Double Toonie/Fan Appreciation Night – with $ 4.00 spectator grandstand admission and a driver autograph session at intermission – Saturday, June 8th at Peterborough Speedway.