THUNDER BAY — Going into the 2024 racing season, David Simpson and his race team had a clear goal in mind: winning.
After finishing second in the WISSOTA Midwest Modified national points chase two years earlier, the 28-year-old was looking to bring home the title.
“We went into the year with that mindset, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Simpson said.
“When we got second in 2022, that kind of sucked and we all thought ‘It’d be really cool if we could ever win this deal,’ and everything kind of fell into place for this year.”
Simpson accomplished that goal with an impressive 2024 campaign.
He ran 79 features in 2024 in his #70 machine and won 26 of them.
He finished in the top five on 51 occasions and recorded 62 top 10’s.
That gave him a 61-point edge over runner-up Joey Jensen of Forest Lake, Minn. and a 78-point advantage over Brandon Rehill of St. Andrews, Man. to become the first Canadian to win a WISSOTA Midwest Modified national title.
The points are determined by the driver’s best 30 results over the course of the season.
“We haven’t really even got to celebrate this yet,” Simpson said. “The WISSOTA banquet is this weekend (in St. Cloud, Minn.) so we’ve been getting the car ready to take down there with us and put it on display, which is really cool.
“I’m sure we’ll hang out with our friends and family this weekend and have a bit of a celebration for sure.”
Simpson said that he and his team took some of the lessons that they learned from their 2022 runner-up result – where they ended up losing out to Jake Smith of St. Joseph, Minn. by 75 points – towards this year’s schedule.
“During that season, we didn’t even look at the points until August and it was only then that we realized that we had a shot to do it,” Simpson added. “We just never got the wins that we needed.
“We realized that if we ever wanted to make another run at the national title, we’d have to start a little earlier in the year. We did that and it worked out for us.”
In addition to capturing the Midwest Modified championship at Thunder City Raceway – which is his home track – Simpson also won feature races at the Fiesta City Speedway in Montevideo, Minn., Red Cedar Speedway in Menomonie, Wisc., Grand Rapids (Minn.) Speedway, Proctor (Minn.) Speedway, ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisc., Miller Central (S.D.) Speedway, Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D., Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wisc., Emo Speedway and Mosquito Speedway.
Simpson said that his most memorable win of the year was at the Northern Nationals at Gondik Law in September, as he came from 11th place to win the B-main and won the feature after starting in 18th position.
However, he said that the thing that stands out the most from this year was travelling throughout the United States with his family.
“My dad Scott (who is also Simpson’s crew chief) drove the hauler about 99 per cent of the time and I was able to spend a lot of time with my wife (Justine),” Simpson said.
“She came to most of the races and my little girl (Ainsley) was right there with us. It’s just awesome to do this with your family right there with you.”
Simpson will have a familiar face joining him at the WISSOTA banquet this weekend. His long-time friend and fellow Thunder Bay racer Cole Chernosky captured the Modified title in his first year in the class.
“We grew up together and since we were three or four years old we were racing little quads in my dad’s front yard,” Simpson said.
“To accomplish what is the biggest thing that you can do at this level together is pretty special.”
Simpson and Chernosky join a select group of Canadian drivers that have won WISSOTA national titles.
That list includes Thunder Bay’s Tom Nesbitt, Lou Kennedy Jr., Ward Imrie and Ricky Weiss.
When it comes to his plans for next season, Simpson hasn’t thought that far ahead yet as he and his wife are currently preparing for the arrival of their second child in December.
“Once Christmas finishes up, that’s when we’ll probably start getting ready as a team for 2025,” Simpson said.
“The new season always starts a little quicker than you might think.”
An interview with Cole Chernosky will appear on TBnewswatch this weekend.