ECI Pro Stock Tour History - Visualized
Veteran #99 Craig Slaunwhite following the final race of the 2023 season, where he won his 3rd straight Pro Stock Tour championship title. Photo Courtesy of: JT Racing Pix
February 13th, 2024
Introduction
Over the past 22 racing seasons, the Pro Stock Tour has cemented it's status as the premiere Late Model racing touring series in Maritime Canada, only last year facing a challenger to that title, in the Super Late Model Series. In this article, we'll dive into the statistics of many the tour's drivers, and more. Let’s start this off with a visualization of every driver to start at least 20 races, in order of races run:
The Veterans
At the heart of the tour's history are drivers like Kent Vincent and Wayne Smith, seasoned veterans who've carved their names into the Pro Stock Tour history books by virtue of the most starts and top-10 finishes: Vincent, with 228 races and 136 top-10 finishes, epitomizing endurance and consistency. Wayne Smith, a legend in his own right, boasts 133 races with 25 wins, showcasing his ability to not just compete but dominate, having more wins than any other driver. Interestingly, Vincent's 136 top-10s are more than, or equal to, races driven for all but 10 drivers in tour history. Perhaps most impressive about Vincent, is that he ran the first 220 straight races of the Pro Stock Tour, an iron man streak that accounts for 86.9% of all Pro Stock Tour races run to date. In total, his 228 starts account for 90.1% of all races.
The Duel of Titans: Cole Butcher and Dylan Blenkhorn
Amid the seasoned racers, two names stand out for their meteoric rise and parallel careers – Cole Butcher and Dylan Blenkhorn. Both starting their careers at the same time, they have shown remarkable similarities in their racing stats. Equally eye-catching, is the fact that although they have not quite broken the 100 race mark, they are both in the top-5 for most wins by a driver list.
Cole & Dylan’s Win %, and Top-5 % is a mere fraction of a percent different, across a very similar amount of races, during a very similar/overlapping time span.
The Winners
The Superstars
The more you look at that Winners graph, the more you realize how top-heavy it is. With 253 races to date in tour history (and thus 253 different total race wins), let’s look at just how dominant the top-5 in race wins from the above graph really are:
Wayne Smith, John Flemming, Shawn Tucker, Cole Butcher, and Dylan Blenkhorn combine for 44.27% of the 253 Pro Stock Tour race wins.
The Champions
Craig Slaunwhite is the only Champion to win 3 in a row.
Top-10 Finishes
Win % versus Races Ran
Note that the left-right direction on this scatter plot is number of races run, and the bottom-up direction is % of races that resulted in a win. As you can see, guys like Kenny Wallace are way ahead of everyone else, with Cassius Clark being the only one even kind of close. But Wallace/Fitzpatrick/Smith are all at the very left, meaning while their win % is very impressive, their sample size is very small. Cassius on the other hand, has had a lot more starts, and maintained an impressive %. The furthest right, and the highest up, represents the most impressive consistency in winning over more races. Interestingly, you can almost draw a diagonal straight line from Kenny Wallace down to Kent Vincent, and have it align with Butcher, Wayne Smith, and John Flemming on the way down.
Driver Dashboard
Our detailed driver dashboard reveals a look at some key performance metrics for a selection of 25 of the most prominent/successful drivers from the tour.
Most Wins by Season
Wins in Few Races Run
Not to be overlooked are drivers like Kenny Wallace and Johnny Clark, who have wins in their very limited starts. It is hard to compare a driver with so few starts to those with much more, as a more impressive win %, top-5%, etc. can be harder to assess, being that the sample size/consistency required is lower, however, they are still deserving of note. What Cassius Clark has done, however, especially when you factor in how 10, almost half of his 24 starts, took place in the marquee 250 lap races where the most competitive fields show up, is amazing.
The Tracks
Active Full-Time Racers
Upon looking at all of this history, I turn towards the future. As far as going down the list of drivers with the most races, from the highest number down, it takes until Jarrett Butcher before reaching a driver who raced full-time last year, and has publicly expressed intent to race full-time again in 2024. Craig Slaunwhite was also full-time last year, but he expressed he does not intend to be, in 2025. I do not know how things will go, who may or may not return, who will be full-time, etc. But my expectation for at least the next few years, is that Jarrett Butcher (73 starts), and Nicholas Naugle (70 starts) will be the two drivers with the most Pro Stock Tour experience, who are running on a regular basis.
