By ohnson 
In St. Catherines, Ont., driver Mike Bowman is all set to make his inaugural start at the renowned Volusia Speedway Park. This Merrittville Speedway regular has never before ventured to the Sunshine State until this year. It was something he had long yearned to do.
“For me, it’s a kind of bucket list thing,” remarked Bowman. “Currently, I’m not married, I don’t have kids, and the financial means were there, so I figured I better tick it off the list.”
Bowman kept on improving with each lap he took on the track during the Tuesday night practice sessions. The team worked tirelessly to make enhancements to his No. 71 as he continued to familiarize himself with the race track. The track presents a slightly different racing experience compared to the tracks back at home.
“The hardest part is building trust in the car because the entry speed is incredibly fast,” said Bowman. “The corners, I swear, they account for a significant portion of the speedway. It’s just like any place you’ve never set eyes on before. It’s tough to build up speed, and this is a tough crowd to do it in.”
With his very first trip to Volusia, Bowman has realistic goals for each night. He hopes to make it into the show and end up somewhere in the top ten in points by the time everything concludes on Saturday night.
“If we can manage to finish in the top ten in points for the week, that’s a goal for me,” stated Bowman. “I want to make it into the feature race every night so that I can be featured on DirtVision and everyone back at home can watch.”
Looking ahead to the season, fans can expect to see Bowman at his regular stomping grounds. He’ll be competing week in and week out at Merrittville Speedway while also hitting the road for various other events such as the DIRTcar Nationals.
“We are going to go for the elusive Modified championship at Merrittville,” mentioned Bowman. “We’ll have our hit-and-miss shows with this (Big-Block) and other Small-block events. We’ll race in the Ohsweken big-block race, every heads-up show at Ransomville, and we’ll probably make our way to Freedom as well. Maybe we’ll even return to defend our Steel City Stampede win at Lernerville (Speedway).”