Ottawa racecar driver getting set for another NASCAR season

Connor Bell with his racecar. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

Start your engines, as Ottawa’s very own NASCAR Canada race driver gets ready for another season of racing.

Connor Bell is a 20-year-old driver who, in 2025, made his first NASCAR Canada start and won on debut at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

“It made us only the second person in NASCAR Canada Series history to win on debut. So, it was a pretty special event,” Bell told CTV News Ottawa. “I was not expecting to come home with the win and our first try, but we battled adversity all throughout the race and it was quite the show for our sponsors and really broke some records.”

Bell says that while most people in the NASCAR Canada series are within 30 to 40 years old, he is the youngest driver on the grid right now.

Why does he race?

“Well, I do it for the adrenaline, honestly. It’s the speed. It always provides that adrenaline rush and it never gets old,” he said. “We sling it (the racecar) around the track at 260 kilometres an hour. We’ve got 32 cars racing us at a time, and we try and battle it out for the win.”

He says he grew up around racing and got into it through his father.

“He’s been racing most of his life, and naturally, when I was young, I was at the track from I think two years old onwards.”

His path to racing is “a little bit different,” he said, as most start with karting, but he “did most of my development on racing simulators, so that’s kind of where I learned all the basics.”

Bell said that while many go-karting tracks were closed during COVID-19 pandemic, he spent time honing skills on a simulator, “and then I was able to transfer that over to real life.”

To get behind the wheel of a racecar, he says there’s an entire process to getting a license.

“You got to show that you’re capable of keeping it on track and being safe,” he said.

Behind the driver is an entire team, including his title sponsor, Dymon Storage, representing the Dymon Foundation. He says a full-fledged NASCAR Canada Series car costs close to $200,000 to race.

Bell said he’s looking forward to racing this season and plans to take part in six of 14 races.

“Really looking forward to putting on a show.”

This weekend he will be racing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont.

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