Kyle Steckly isn’t a full-time driver in the NASCAR Canada Series, spending most of his time racing on the Late Model scene in the United States, but when he does make a sporadic appearance in the Canadian division, he always brings a great deal of speed.
The 21-year-old son of four-time NASCAR Canada Series champion Scott Steckly made the trip to Clarington, Ontario, this weekend for Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s Labor Day Weekend festivities and has put his No. 22 Sierra Excavating / APC / Murphy Motorsports / MBS Chevrolet Camaro on the pole.
Laying down a blazing lap of 1:22.996, Steckley managed to put himself on the pole for just the second time in his NASCAR Canada Series career, and the first time on a road course, besting Tyler Gonzalez by more than a tenth of a second.
Both Steckly and Gonzalez have spent adequate time competing in the United States in recent years and managed to pull a significant gap over third-place qualifier, Alex Tagliani, who is a veteran road racer in the NASCAR Canada Series, and has even made starts in NASCAR’s National Series.
“We were struggling a little bit in practice, but we made some really good adjustments between practice and qualifying and got the No. 22 Sierra / APC / Murphy / MBS Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro where it needed to be for qualifying,” Steckly said. “We always have a lot of speed in this car and hopefully we can put 52 laps together with this car and be there at the end of tomorrow.”
Sunday’s WeatherTech 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park will mark the sixth start for Steckly at the 2.439-mile racetrack in Ontario, in which time he’s recorded a pair of third-place finishes, one earlier in the Spring and one on Labor Day Weekend in 2024.
“It takes a little bit getting in the right mindset before you go out there and making that first lap, shifting your focus and what you’re really doing,” Steckly added. “I’ve definitely come from an oval background ever since I started running these NASCAR Canada Series events on the road course with MBS Motorsports, I’ve just had a blast so super happy to get out here every race for the NASCAR Canada Series at CTMP each year and have fun with a great group of guys and hopefully get these guys a race win.
Tagliani will start from third place, with Gary Klutt fourth and Connor Bell rounding out the top-five. Andrew Ranger qualified in sixth, with Marc-Antoine Camirand seventh, ICAR winner Alex Guenette in eighth, with LP Dumoulin and DJ Kennington in ninth and tenth.
Matthew Scannell, driving the No. 99 Chevrolet that was quickest in practice with Alex Labbe behind the wheel, qualified 20th.
The WeatherTech 200 will take place Sunday, September 6 at 2:00PM on REVTV.
PHOTO: Damin Sawyer, JosephSrigley.com
