Stouffville, Ontario. September 19, 2016 – Jason Hathaway and his #3 Raybestos/Thornbury Clear Choice Pools/HGC Chevrolet dominated the field on Sunday afternoon for the Kawartha 250 with a 5-second margin of victory, bringing home his 3rd win at Kawartha Speedway. After the announcement of Hathaway’s retirement from full time competition on Thursday afternoon, the team had one intention on race day and that was to back up their 2015 win with another Kawartha 250 win. With rain looming all day, the team made quick work of their practice session and fine-tuned their car. Hathaway was 7th on the speed charts, but content with his race machine for the 250 lap event. The skies did open up in the early afternoon and washed out the remainder of the day.
The team regrouped Sunday morning for qualifying and Hathaway put his #3 Chevrolet 7th on the grid. The race finally got underway at 1pm with perfect racing weather, sunny skies and warm temperatures. In the true style that has made him an awesome short track winner, Hathaway got to work at the drop of the green flag and by lap 59 was running 2nd. The field rotated through their first round of pit stops under caution and Hathaway and his team elected to stay out, assuming the lead on lap 65. Hathaway stayed on point until lap 148, when he came down pit road for tires and fuel under caution and went out 5th in the running order. Hathaway’s car was again on rails and he regained the lead on lap 175, never looking back. In dominating style Hathaway lapped the field up to 7th place, fought off numerous restarts and held the lead until the checkered flag flew.
An emotional Jason Hathaway climbed from his car on Sunday afternoon, after an impressive burnout, to the cheers of the crowd at Kawartha Speedway with his family around him. “I couldn’t have scripted this win today any better. We had a strong car, great work in the pits by my crew and great strategy. We stuck to our plan and it worked so well for us here today. This is a great way to end my NPS full time career. Thanks to Ed and Heidi Hakonson for all of their support, my guys and their families and all of our sponsors that have been with us through thick and thin. We appreciate all of the kind messages that our family and team have received over the past few days and are thankful for our racing family that we are a proud part of in this country.”
