VICTORIA, BC  – The last competitive, on-track race event for Team NPP was back on March 14th.  Darrell Midgley drove the Northern Provincial Pipelines Ltd. #81 Super Late Model to a 4th place finish at Tucson Speedway.  Thanks to Coronavirus, non-essential travel between Canada and the United States was imposed on March 21st.  Racetracks were temporarily closed.  Currently the border between Canada and the USA remains closed to non-essential travel until at least August 21st.  Gathering restrictions in both countries have been eased somewhat but the racing scene is still far from normal.  The Team NPP #81 Super Late Model (Midgley) and the #81 Modified driven by Lane Zerbin remain parked.  Jason Frost however ended a 4-month/ 4-day drought for Team NPP with an on-track appearance at his home track.

On a sunny Saturday, July 18th, Frost was practicing in his NPP #81 Late Model at Western Speedway. “Admittedly, I was a bit rusty,” says the Victoria, BC driver, “but the car was very good.”  More than a dozen Victoria area drivers took advantage of the four-hour test session.  Teams shared crew members because there was a cap of the number of people allowed on Western Speedway property.  It did not take long for Frost to shake the rust off.  “We ended up with the fastest lap of the day.”  Frost topped the charts with a 16.941 second lap time in his Late Model.  Part-time Team NPP driver Brandon Carlson posted the second fastest lap of the day (17.010) in his own car.  Brandon’s brother Spencer was third fastest running 17.069.  Although this was just a practice session, all drivers were talking about the big race of the year at Western Speedway.  “Looking forward to the Canada 200 (in September).”  Right now this is the only scheduled 2020 race at Western Speedway where fans will be allowed.   Track promoter Darrell Midgley says he hopes to schedule a race in August leading up to the Canada 200.  “No fans will be allowed in the stands for this event.”