Cole Quinton Using Racing to Give Back During 2025 Season

Cole Quinton hopes to make a difference in his second season with the APC United Late Model Series, on and off the track.

The Ontario driver is using his racing platform to raise money and awareness for SickKids based in Toronto. Quinton was once a patient at SickKids, and wants to give back to the pediatric hospital to show his gratitude.

“When I was four, I was actually a patient at SickKids Toronto in Canada,” Quinton told Racing America. “It’s always been something that’s been close to home for me. Through the SickKids hospital, I was able to overcome a brain injury when I was younger.”

His time at SickKids and recovery from that brain injury actually guided him on the path towards his current racing career.

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"During the recovery process, racing was actually one of the things that was opened up to me as a potential sport to participate in, just with the safety innovations," Quinton explained. "Unlike sports like football and hockey where I was limited by my injury and my circumstances, the amazing people at SickKids were able to find the path for me to take. As a racing fan when I was younger, that worked out. It started my career in racing.

“One of the severe things to look out for was whiplash or any kind of unnormal head movement, the jolting of the head. That’s common in hockey with body checking and football with any sort of hits.”

With the help of SickKids, as well as the advancements in safety across the motorsports industry over the past 20-plus years, auto racing is now a viable competitive outlet for Quinton.

“When I started go-karting, I wore this device called a 360 Device," said Quinton. "Much like the HANS device which is very common now within racing, it stopped your head from going backwards when you’d get hit. That allowed me to participate in those sports.

“Now, driving a Pro Late Model, full-containment seat, HANS device, it really restricts any head movement. I hear a lot from people that know my injury, even my friends, and people ask, ‘How can you do that and not play hockey or football?’ Racing is actually a lot safer than people think it is. While the wrecks at Talladega and Daytona may be scary, yes, when it comes to my injury, racing is actually pretty safe on the body compared to most sports.

“That’s something that some awareness would be nice towards, because so many companies and people and NASCAR, especially, drive that forward with the safety innovations they’re making. The restraints on the head and the body, the safety that has been developed over the past 20 years has allowed to take that over any other sport.”

Last year, Quinton made the jump to competing full-time on the APC United Late Model Series. The series visits tracks throughout Ontario, drawing incredibly competitive fields for nine races over the course of the season.

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“This season, mainly, we’re going to focus on the APC tour with the United Racing Series," he said. "This is our second year with the series. WE were a rookie team last season. We have a great group of guys around us. We partnered with McColl Racing Enterprises this year as well. We’re really happy. We’re looking forward to seeing how things go and how we can do this season.

“I’m a mechanical engineering student at the University of Waterloo. I’m in school this summer, actually, so it’s a busy schedule, so we’re going to focus on the APC thing and chasing a championship.”

Quinton finished 11th in the APC United Late Model Series standings last year, with three top-10 finishes over the course of the season. He hopes to take the lessons learned last year to compete for a championship in 2025.

“Last year was a huge learning curve," noted Quinton. "I think a lot of the gains we’re going to see this year in on-track performance stem from last year. I have an amazing group of guys. I can’t speak enough about how great the team I have around me is. We really stuck it out last year, an inexperienced group trying to figure out the Pro Late Model scene.

“Everybody that races this series is good. They’re top-notch, they spend the money, they spend the time. We had to adjust to that. We kind of took it on the chin last year and found some life towards the end of the year. We had some mechanical problems and couldn’t put up the results we wanted. Going into this year, we’ve put in the offseason work.

“We’ve made the updates we needed, we’ve gotten the car to the place it needs to be. In preseason testing, I’m very happy about how the car is. Come Sunset Speedway on May 18 for Round 1, I’m really optimistic to see what kind of speed we’ve got. I think, honestly, the sky’s the limit. I’ve got the group of guys around me to do it. I’ve got the support. We’re just going to keep working and trying to be better ourselves and see how the results play out on the racetrack.”

Returning for his sophomore season with the APC United Late Model Series also felt like the perfect time for Quinton to accelerate his plans to help SickKids.

“As I’ve gotten older and started to pursue an engineering career as well, I’ve looked at my career and started to see the years might be coming to an end with my personal driving. I thought, if anything, this would be the year to put together a fundraiser to give back to the SickKids Foundation for everything they’ve done for me, both with my personal journey and my racing journey.

“We started by partnering with SickKids this year. We’re going to have a fundraiser all year long. We have a donation webpage as well. We’re going to be selling t-shirts that 100 percent of the proceeds will be going to SickKids Foundation. We’re going to have a special race day at July 12 at Flamboro Speedway. We’re trying to bring awareness to it and try to give back as much money and recognition as possible throughout the year.”

He hopes that others in the racing industry will join him in the fundraising effort this year.

“It’s not just a Cole Quinton Racing thing we want to do for SickKids," he said. "We just wanted to start the movement and see if other people want to get involved. While we really don’t know what’s going to happen this year, I’m sure as the year goes on, we’ll come up with more ideas and more support, which we’re starting to get through amazing recognition. We’re thankful to have that. We’re going to see what happens. We’re just going to make it our goal to donate 100 percent of the proceeds to SickKids foundation.

“I want to be able to support them as much as possible. If other race teams and other racers are willing to come on board, keep going forward and keep finding a new mountaintop when it comes to this. Other APC Series drivers and teams can get involved, maybe even broader and expand even further. We’d be open to different ideas.”

For more information about Cole’s efforts throughout the season, follow Cole Quinton Racing on Facebook and colequinton_ on Instagram. Click here to visit Cole Quinton Racing’s fundraising page in support of SickKids.

-Photo credit: Koty Geyer