Torkk’d Up Racing

🌧️🏁 Just some completely innocent track maintenance… 😂

Not saying I had anything to do with it… BUT if Corner 3 developed a suspicious little bump during Sunday’s races at the Emo Fall Fair, I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. 👀😂

The kids spent the rain delay soaked, muddy, and treating the track like their own personal water park.

By late Saturday evening, Corner 3 had become a fully operational mud slide — designed, tested, and aggressively improved by a crew of tiny, giggling engineers with absolutely no permits. 😂

Future racers? Track prep crew? Unsupervised civil engineers?

Hard to say.

What I can say is this: the slide was fast, the mud was everywhere, and the adults probably should have intervened sooner.

We did not. 😂

And judging by the amount of mud, screaming and laughter involved… I’d say some pretty solid core memories were made. ❤️🏁

🏁 RACE REPORT — August 19, 2026 | Thunder City Speedway 🏁

🎱 Pill: 94
🔥 Heat: 9th ➡️ 9th
🏁 Feature: 23rd ➡️ 20th

Exceeded expectations considering the T53 was quite literally thrown together at the track. 😂

After the collection agency took its payment from me in Emo on Sunday, the car went straight into the trailer… where it remained until race night because apparently responsible adulting does not respect the racing schedule. 🙄

So we rolled into Thunder City with some last-minute repairs to make and expectations appropriately low.

The heat went exactly nowhere.
Started 9th. Finished 9th.

Can’t lose positions if you don’t gain any. Consistency. 😂

Then came the Feature.

I noticed some guys up front were struggling to get the job done, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and threw a caution to help them squeeze out a podium finish.

You’re welcome, gentlemen. 🫡

100% joking. I over-drove the car. 😂

But we recovered, kept going—embarrassment and all—and somehow brought it home 20th from 23rd, which, considering how this operation started the evening, I’m absolutely calling a successful event.

I actually wasn’t planning on heading to the track at all yesterday. The sad, sensible plan was to take it easy and just hit a few weekend races for the remainder of the season.

Apparently I’m terrible at sticking to sensible plans.

And I’m glad I went. ❤️🏁

A special shoutout to the best pit neighbours who immediately threw down and helped with the last-minute repairs. The Oleksuk family has been an integral part of this team since its inception, and I’m incredibly grateful for everything they do.

It was hot enough out there and they were working so hard that for a minute I was genuinely concerned CPR might be the required form of payment. 😂

Another race completed.
Car loaded.
Driver humbled.
We’ll take it. 🏁

❤️ THANK YOU TO THE 2026 TORKK’D UP RACING SPONSORS: ❤️

💰 Payroll Xpress
🔧 R&R Engine Rebuilding — Gus
🚧 Torkcon Contracting
🧹 ServiceMaster
📡 Boyce Telecom
🏁 Ladies of the Oval
🏗️ Lotas Cranes
🔨 MMaclean Contracting
🌲 S.G. McKinnon Logging / McKinnon Bros Trucking
🏎️ Ron Moretto
🩺 Total Care Nursing
🛠️ Snap-On Joe — Joe Gilbertson
🛞 OK Tire Thunder Bay
🦌 Crafty Elk Hard Juice
🍔 Tastebuds Pit Stop
🚜 W. Tabell Contracting

And a huge thank you to every single person who supports this team—sponsors, crew, family, friends, fans, pit neighbours, and all the people who lend a hand when this operation inevitably requires more hands than I have. 😂

It truly takes a village to get the T53 to the track, around the track, and back into the trailer.

Thank you for continuing to support this questionable but highly entertaining operation. 😂❤️🏁

Follow us for more car washing strategies 😁 and no, I do not have rights to this music.

🏁 Sunday at the Emo Fall Fair — August 16, 2026 🏁

🎱 Pill: 31
🔥 Heat: 2nd ➡️ 4th
🏁 Feature: 12th ➡️ DNF

The heat started off with one of my signature moves, need I say more.

Managed to keep it going, gather myself back up, and somehow still bring home a 4th-place finish.

Then came the Feature… and let me tell you, the T53 was a HOT ROD. 🔥

Got a couple of good laps in and the car felt AWESOME. For a brief moment, I thought, Ohhhh… is THIS what it feels like when you actually have your s**t together? 😂

Unfortunately, the racing gods felt that was enough personal growth for one weekend.

A couple cautions unfolded in front of me, and while trying to avoid the chaos, I ended up tangled in it anyway.

Final result: on the hook with the front end crumpled. 🪝🤦‍♀️

Not how anyone wants to finish a weekend, but those few laps gave me a little glimpse of what this thing might be capable of if I can just keep gaining seat time.

Apparently the next step in my racing education is learning how to avoid other people’s problems without turning them into my own. 😂

Which also gives me a whole new appreciation for every driver who has successfully avoided MY problems on the track. 😂😂

Turns out that’s a skill too. 🏁

special thank you to Mike Maclean for being the stellar pit crew this weekend. He put in a ton of hours helping work through some of the T53’s bugs. Having someone willing to put that much time and effort into this car is very much appreciated. 🏁

And as always, a HUGE thank you to the people and businesses who continue to support this adventure, through the good laps, bad laps, spins, DNFs, rebuilds and everything in between. I truly couldn’t keep doing this without you. ❤️🏁

💰 Payroll Xpress
🔧 R&R Engine Rebuilding
🍔 Tastebuds Pit Stop
🧹 ServiceMaster
📡 Boyce Telecom
🏁 Ladies of the Oval
🔨 Torkcon Contracting
🚧 MMaclean Contracting
🌲 S.G. McKinnon Logging / McKinnon Bros Trucking
🏎️ Ron Moretto
🩺 Total Care Nursing
🏗️ Lotas Cranes
🛠️ Snap-On Joe — Joe Gilbertson
🛞 OK Tire Thunder Bay
🥤 Crafty Elk Hard Juice
🚜 W. Tabell Contracting

Can’t spin out behind everyone forever… eventually you gotta take this show to the front. 🤣

🏁 DAY 2 — EMO FALL FAIR! 🏁

Back at Emo Speedway for Day 2 of the Fall Fair and we’ve already got something to celebrate…

🎉 TORKK’D UP RACING HIT 1,000 FOLLOWERS!! 🎉

Apparently 1,000 of you have decided this racing adventure is worth following. 😂❤️

A HUGE thank you to everyone who follows, likes, shares, comments, cheers us on, and continues to watch the T53 adventure unfold. The support has been absolutely incredible!

And now for the important part…

🏆 KIM OINONEN — YOU’RE OUR PIT PASS WINNER! 🏆

Kim, please inbox the page so we can get your two Thunder City Speedway pit passes to you! 🎟️🎟️

Now… back to business. Stay tuned for the full weekend report!

🏁 Made it to Emo… accidentally made the Feature… and didn’t even know it. 😂

Came in HOT for Heat 4. 🔥
Spun a few times just to make sure everyone was paying attention, and they were kind enough to let me finish 4th.

Also last.

BUT two other cars DNF’d, so I’m choosing to focus exclusively on the 4th-place finish. 😂🏆

Back in the pits, discovered the oil pan was rubbing—which had some serious potential to turn tonight into another episode of How Much Is This Going to Cost Me?

So naturally, the T53 was torn RIGHT apart.

Cue the B-Main: my comfort zone. 😂

I’m rolling onto the track, still putting my gloves on, trying to jam my ear protection in, mentally preparing for battle, when over the Raceceiver I hear:

“T53… you are NOT in the B-Main. You made the Feature.”

I nearly died laughing. 😂😂
Along with probably every single other person who heard it.

Apparently I’ve reached a new level of racing where I don’t even know what race I’m in.

On the bright side, my completely unnecessary B-Main appearance became a very convenient little hot lap to test an adjustment I’d just made.

So really… data collection. Very professional. 😂

Then came the mad scramble to put the car back together for the Feature after having it REALLY apart.

Made one more adjustment based on the wheels available to me, ended up making her just a hair too tight, and I still had a bit of a vibration.

Pushed hard going into Turn 4 and took a brief agricultural excursion off the track. 🌾😂 and just decided it was time to call it a night instead of destroying the car for last place… such a responsible choice that I am very proud of.

From there, I drove backwards through staging, waving like the Queen of England to the B-Mods patiently waiting for me to finish whatever the hell it was I was doing. 👑😂

Accidentally qualifying for Features feels suspiciously like progress… even if I spent most of the evening confused about where I was supposed to be. 😂🏁

T53 continues to keep expectations low and entertainment value high.

🏁 Maybe it was the tire. Maybe it was the traction. Maybe it was… Maybelline? 💄

📍 August 13, 2026 | Thunder City Speedway

The T53 spent a luxurious day with an actual professional who stepped in to do some welding, fix the brakes, diagnose the mystery clunks, AND discover I was down a cylinder… and somehow she was deemed race-car-ish enough to return to competition.

Thank goodness for people who actually know what they’re doing—and, more importantly, are still willing to help me. 😂👍

Apparently when you redesign the frame via the wall, there are a few bugs to work out.

The heat race quickly confirmed that some of my “adjustments” needed… bigger adjustments. 🔨😂

By the B-Main, we’d gotten the car pretty close to where it needed to be, and I was finally starting to feel like we were getting somewhere.

Enter: the RR beadlock.

Quietly. Slowly. Betraying me.

It had lost enough air that the tire rolled over, dug in, and my brain immediately selected:

🚨 PANIC MODE — LIFT IMMEDIATELY 🚨

Unfortunately, was also trying to occupy that particular piece of racetrack. 😬 Sorry, .

And just like that, I can add another notch to the increasingly impressive DNF collection, This one courtesy of a flat tire.

But the T53 made it back into the trailer under its own power, we learned a bunch, and for a car that was recently shaped more like a banana than a race car… I’ll take it. 🏁

As always, a huge thank you to the people and businesses who continue to support this adventure. 🏁

👍 Payroll Xpress
🏁 R&R Engine Rebuilding
👍 Torkcon Contracting
🏁 ServiceMaster
👍 Boyce Telecom
🏁 Ladies of the Oval
👍 Tastebuds Pit Stop
🏁 MMaclean Contracting
👍 S.G. McKinnon Logging / McKinnon Bros Trucking
🏁 Ron Moretto
👍 Total Care Nursing
🏁 Lotas Cranes
👍 Snap-On Joe — Joe Gilbertson
🏁 OK Tire Thunder Bay
👍 Crafty Elk Hard Juice
🏁 W. Tabell Contracting