Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – WILSON, NY – The 2021 racing season was an incredible one for Cameron Tuttle.
Tuttle finished his year in Sportsman with 31 weekly starts, 28 top 10s, 19 top 5s, and eight wins, in addition to finishing 2nd in Hoosier weekly points, back-to-back track championships at Genesee, and a DIRTcar West Regional championship.
“We were always a threat to win, and I think that’s the biggest thing to look at,” Tuttle said in an exclusive interview with Race Pro Weekly on Saturday. “It really shows how far our team has come and how hard we work for it.”
Notable wins for Tuttle came before some of the biggest crowds at the track and on DIRTVision. On July 30th, Tuttle won a show-up points event at Ransomville Speedway, a part of the undercard to the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars. October 7th, during his first-ever Super DIRT Week in a satellite race, Tuttle raced in his maiden voyage at Brewerton and had a perfect night, winning the feature.
Tuttle called Brewerton “the best one” of the season over Ransomville in front of the Outlaws.
“We never really had time to travel to the Central region tracks while racing two nights weekly. So we never really knew how our team stood against all the guys down that way. But to go to Brewerton and set quick time, win the heat, and win the feature, all while it being our first time there, was incredible. Not to mention over 60 cars attempted to qualify for that race also,” Tuttle explained.
Tuttle’s first SDW in the cockpit was a very eventful one. Time trialing 41st out of around 110 cars put him into a 9th place starting position for his Friday night heat. Tuttle got involved in a big wreck on the first lap, ending his night. The impact was so bad it had the possibility of ending his entire weekend. His team spent the entirety of Saturday repairing the whole car and took a provisional to start 34th in the Chevy Performance 75 at Oswego. In the end, he took the hard charger award to finish 13th after keeping his nose clean and avoiding the big ruts.
“It shows the team has no quit in us,” Tuttle commented. “Getting [the] hard charger was awesome.”
Tuttle’s offseason is going well so far. Currently, he is working on the chassis to get it ready for next season.
“We just brought the chassis to Bicknell to get some repairs made from our Super DIRT Week wreck. Now we’re just cleaning and seeing what we need for next year,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle is set for his fourth season in the Sportsman competition, entering ’22.
“The plans for 2022 are not quite set. We’re not sure of what track we’re going to run weekly. We’re only running one track weekly so we can be able to travel more to other tracks, but we’re hoping to have even more success than last year!” Tuttle said.
He raced at Ransomville on Friday nights and Genesee on Saturday nights last season.
In terms of sponsorship, Tuttle is currently looking.
“We will have a sponsorship proposal made up in the next few weeks, but we definitely need help next year. It cost us a lot last year with all the racing we did. The main spot (side) is open this year, and we’re hoping to fill that spot soon,” Tuttle noted.
With Cameron’s success in Sportsman, could there be a possibility of moving up to Big Block or 358 Modified competition? He’s not sure until he can afford it.
“We’ve thought of moving up to Modified, but we won’t be doing that until we know that we can afford to spend the money necessary to be up front every week. That’s a big jump in the money scenario, and we don’t want to have to do that and be squeezed on funds.”