At 12, Corbin Chappell is on the fast track

Aylmer native Corbin Chappell has been micro sprint car racing for two years now at the Little Middleton Speedway outside Courtland. The 12-year-old driver started midway through the 2024 season, racing his first full year in 2025. That year, he...

Aylmer native Corbin Chappell has been micro sprint car racing for two years now at the Little Middleton Speedway outside Courtland. The 12-year-old driver started midway through the 2024 season, racing his first full year in 2025. That year, he won five of the eleven feature races he participated in and won the Paul Masson Memorial race in the Box Stock class.

Now he races in the 230cc class, having three feature wins out of five as of July 13. Corbin’s family always had an interest in vehicles, with his grandfather, Earl Chappell, having a love for classic cars. Corbin and his grandpa are close, going to car shows together and Corbin has been helping wash Earl’s 1970 Dodge Charger R/T for years.

The Chappell family lives on a farm, giving Corbin lots of room to ride his dune buggy and minibike. Corbin’s love for motors and racing, mixed with a competitive spirit make micro sprinting the perfect sport for him. He even practises with simulation racing through video games, a common tool used by professional drivers.

Before he started racing, Corbin and his family would spectate at the speedway. Here Corbin learned the sport and quickly grew a deeper interest. Corbin’s first time driving a micro sprint kart was on the track at Little Middleton Speedway.

The track is an oval, covered in watered down clay, making it nearly impossible to practice properly outside the track. Corbin’s mother, Kerry Lorraine, said she was initially so scared, saying “The first time he raced I almost threw up.” Now she loves seeing her son fly around the track.

The races get competitive, with Corbin’s father Carson saying, “You get along with everyone until you don’t.” He added that between races, people help each other. He sees families giving each other gas or fixing a loose chain for each other, noting that the sport is very family oriented.

The track is run by Chesterman Power Products owners Dave and Lawrence Chesterman, under the name Tillsonburg Outlaws. They work closely with the racers, and the racing families get to know each other quickly. With his many feature and heat wins, Corbin’s favourite part of racing is the adrenaline rush from a win.

When asked his least favourite part he admitted, “Cleaning the kart... it’s worse than school!” Carson said that he does most of the cleaning and maintenance between the weekly races, which takes him about a “full day’s worth of work.”

Chesterman’s Tillsonburg Outlaws go-karting series started with an indoor motorcross track behind the Chesterman Power Products building in 2008. The track sat empty in the summer, so the Chestermans found another use for it. They started kart racing, making it a fun hobby that covers expenses during the summer.

It also provided a service that is scarce in Southern Ontario. They started introducing outdoor races near Tillsonburg in 2014 before fully transitioning to Little Middleton in 2018. The indoor track was converted to warehousing for Chestermans.

Dave Chesterman said many in their family have raced over the years, but more recently they played a support role instead of driving. Little Middleton has four separate classes for the approximately 30 racers that attend the weekly races: Beginner, Box Stock, 230 and Open. Each class has their own point system and leaderboard to determine the winners of the class.

Every sprint kart has a transponder attached that tracks their speed and time, sending it to Lawrence to keep stats. Racers can then access their stats online to make appropriate adjustments to their karts. Each class has three races a night, starting with time trials and moving into the heat race.

After the heat race, each class participates in a feature race. The racer with the most points after the three races wins their class. The last race of the year, happening October 2 this season, is a straight 50 laps for each class, except for the Open class which does 100 laps.

There’s only one race per class on the final night, bringing in the largest crowd of the season. Carson said that the final race of the year is a whole different experience, with bonfires along the yard and fireworks at the end of the night. Anyone is welcome to start racing at Little Middleton, at any point in the season.

Corbin joined in the racing halfway through the 2024 season. On the Chesterman Power Products website, it states you can call them, and they will help you get everything you need to start micro sprint racing. They sell the QRC karts needed, one of the few retailers in Ontario that do.