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Conn rips to rookie award

A points championship was within reach, but Jason Conn is more than happy with his third-place finish on the King of the Wing National Sprintcar Series. When a Canadian boy drives to a rookie-of-the-year trophy on a big-money U.S.
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Jason Conn poses with some of the hardware he won on the King of the Wing National Sprintcar Series this season. Conn, 31, is holding the rookie-of-the-year trophy.

A points championship was within reach, but Jason Conn is more than happy with his third-place finish on the King of the Wing National Sprintcar Series.

When a Canadian boy drives to a rookie-of-the-year trophy on a big-money U.S. loop, he has every reason to smile.

Conn, a 31-year-old local driver who owns a Prince George-based towing company, completed his freshman King of the Wing season two weekends ago in California. When the final numbers were crunched, he had 674 points, just four behind second-place driver Ron Larson of Quesnel. Davey Hamilton Jr., whose father founded the King of the Wing series, won the points title with 709.

Conn, who had no major sponsorship dollars in his pocket, was an obvious choice for top rookie. He was among 76 drivers in this year's points chase.

"The rookie of the year is big for us," said Conn, whose racing team includes brother Aaron, girlfriend Ginny Grimshaw, Richie Larson and Robin Case. "We had never set foot on a single track."

Typically, Conn would get a couple of eight-lap practice sessions under his belt before the green flag would drop for racing. In his last two races - as was the case for much of the season - he finished near the front of the pack. Conn ended up second in Stockton, Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 8 and third in Bakersfield the next day.

Conn's podium placings came after an ominous start to the weekend - a blown engine on the Friday night. Fortunately, Conn and company had picked up a new engine upon their arrival in California and were able to drop that one into the car in time for the start of the Stockton show.

Conn credited a long background in kart racing for his instant success on the King of the Wing series, in which open-wheel cars - topped with large wings to create downforce - hit speeds of 160 miles per hour. His best result came on June 25 when he drove to a checkered flag in Winchester, Va. For that victory, he was presented with a US$3,000 cheque. For the season, he earned US$12,750, which helped offset a minor portion of the cost he incurred to race on King of the Wing.

Aaron, the elder of the Conn siblings, sees the team's King of the Wing season as "pretty cool" and gives most of the praise to the man who sits in the cockpit on race days.

"Here's a guy coming from Canada, that nobody has a clue about, going down there and beating all these guys with money and teams," Aaron said. "Half the guys - like Hamilton and quite a few of the others - their crew guys are paid and the drivers just show up and drive. Jason does it all - he drives the truck (to races), pays all the bills and does all that stuff.

"You don't see this too much anymore, unless you have tons of money."