Shae Gemmell Wins Wild Castrol Great Canadian 300, Stade Crowned as APC Champion

On an eventful night in one of Canada's marquee short track events, Shae Gemmell persevered to win the Castrol Great Canadian 300 at Delaware Speedway.

Gemmell became a multi-time winner of the event, backing up his victory in 2022. He passed Jake Sheridan in the closing laps of the marathon event to score the marquee victory to conclude the APC United Late Model Series season.

"McCall Enterprises gives you the best stuff when you're supporting him," said Gemmell in victory lane. "He gave me one hell of a car today. I didn't want to let him down. He came up to me and said, Shae, three 100-lap races. We played it out like that."

Despite a setback on lap 208 when Gemmell was sent to the rear of the field following contact with Jesse Kennedy while battling for second, he rallied to take the lead with six laps to go for the win.

'We had to come from the back there, and I just kind of took my time. I knew I had the car. We've worked really hard on this thing the last two weeks, getting this thing dialed in. Every little turn, every little nick, every little, 'Ooh, that didn't feel like it was right,' we made that change. We knew what to do because the guys behind me do such a hell of a job."

Gemmell joins an exclusive list of multi-time winners in the fall classic. One member of that club, three-time race winner Steve Robblee, encouraged him on Saturday morning before the race.

"I woke up to a text this morning from one of the local boys from Dorchester, Steve Robblee," said Gemmell. "I grew up watching him, I grew up working on his car. I grew up following him for years and years and years.

"Now, to have my name, to be in the same picture with him, the same category, it's just amazing to me. I'm just so thankful for all the supporters that I have, for everyone that's been backing me up."

With a fourth-place finish, Josh Stade secured the APC United Late Model Series championship for the 2025 season. While the night was an eventful one for his closest title competitors, Kyle Steckly and Jake Sheridan, Stade stayed in the top five most of the night and paced himself for the title.

"This is huge," said Stade. "It's been a great year. To cap it off on a high is absolutely amazing. Look at all the Stade shirts. I got countless sponsors here. We brought 14 camp trailers, and that doesn't count the people that came to support us. Just unbelievable, I can't thank everyone around the car enough. Small town paving boys that do this as a hobby, and we got it done.

"I didn't have the greatest car. I was good when I needed to be. These extended long races seem to work in my favor. I like to think I'm pretty good at saving tire. I ran it when I needed to."

While a runner-up finish was enough to secure the NTN Triple Crown championship, Sheridan was frustrated with a runner-up finish with his sights set on a win in the Great Canadian 300.

"I'm just mad," said Sheridan. "I'm mad we didn't win the race. I'm really thankful for a great season. I can't really look at that right now. I'm a racer, I love to win races. The championship stuff is cool, but the reality is, what a great deal for this organization. Marie put on a great program. Josh wins the championship and we win NTN, that's awesome.

"The NTN Championship is something I've never done before, so I guess that's good. You don't get a lot of 300s at the end with a really good race car. We put the right tire on that just went hard and took us out of contention at the end. I'm upset about that, but I love this race. I just want to run this race every year. I really want to get it done, I feel like I owe it to my last name."

Despite the disappointment, Sheridan's drive was an incredible recovery from being collected in an incident on lap 52 while leading the race. Carson Nagy spun exiting turn four, stacking up the field in front of the leaders.

Sheridan, along with second-place D.J. Kennington and third-place Kyle Steckly, all incurred damage in the ensuing melee. Steckly's title hopes effectively ended at that point, as he finished 23 laps down in 18th.

"We had a really good car," said Sheridan. "If we didn't get torn up in the ARCA, I mean, the lapped cars looking like ARCA at the start of the race, maybe we would have had a better chance."

J.R. Fitzpatrick rounded out the podium, finishing third in the Castrol Great Canadian 300.

"The tire deal really played in our favor," said Fitzpatrick. "Jake and Shae are just so good here, I needed tires. Our setup was just off a little bit because the boys worked really hard on this thing through the practice, trying to get the gas pedal to work."

Dale Shaw finished fifth. Shawn Chenoweth, 2024 race winner Connor Pritiko, Taylor Holdaway, Rick Spencer Walt and Junior Farrelly rounded out the top 10.

-Photo credit: United Racing Series

Great Canadian 300 Unofficial Results