By: Ashley McCubbin

Following a trio of top-10 finishes, J.P. Bergeron heads into the Tiffany’s Grand Prix on the streets of Exhibition Place as part of Honda Indy Toronto weekend ranked 10th in the series standings, 28 markers outside of the top-five. He recently caught up with NEWS FROM THE PITS to share his thoughts.

What are your thoughts going into Toronto?

Well, Toronto is a really tough road course. It is really, really technical. Last year I was really impressed by the speed we had there and how you have to be on you’re a-game. So coming there for a second time now is going to be a great evaluation to see how I’ve improved on the road courses. I feel I was decent at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) at the beginning of the year, so Toronto should be good as well. Just hoping to go there and get a good points day to recover from the two bad races that we had. I was involved in two separate incidents in the past two races so we’re trying to move on from that and have a good result there.

When it comes to Toronto, what’s the toughest challenge?

I would say vision and consistency. We don’t see that great there with the walls and everything. It’s really hard to do a clean lap there every lap with the cracks and bumps there. It’s hard to get a reference point so to just be consistent, and follow what you need to do each lap.

What are your thoughts looking back on the weekend that was in Newfoundland?

Well, of course my thoughts are just it was another bad timing, bad decision, and bad moment as I had another guy come down on me. I tried to leave him room as it was early in the race, and shouldn’t just not lifted. It may have been a door bang instead of a spectacular one. I feel bad for the guys that they have to go through repairing the car again. I know it’s not our fault on this one but it still does not repair the car. It’s just a bummer for everyone. At least we were able to salvage a top-10 there.

As a whole, what would you grade your season to this point?

I mean, I would say it was decent for the first few races. I was happy with the start we had, but now we’re disappointed from the two bad races so it’s hard to rate the season per say as we’re half-half now. Still, a lot of improvement from last year on speed with the team so I would say it’s still a good season to start with.

We have a lot of unique tracks coming up in the second half. Which of those are you most excited to get to?

The track I am looking most is ICAR. That’s my home track in Quebec – actually, where I work is five minutes from this track. Last year, we were really disappointed. We had a few issues – the car wouldn’t even start and couldn’t do more than five laps without having to come back to pit to change a battery. So that was a bummer last year because we were really looking forward to this track. I feel this year will be redemption. This track, and Ohsweken (Speedway). The dirt race was really fun. We showed speed, just had bad luck there so those are the tracks I’m looking forward to the most this season.

Obviously, there’s a unique twist with Ohsweken being a double header with a race on Monday, and a race on Tuesday. Does that change your strategy at all going into that event?

Of course, it’s a bit like the western swing that you try and make sure you come out of the first race with a car to make the second one. So especially on the dirt where every mistake is amplified there – it should be a slick race track once again. So we’ll have to be really cautious in the first one. I feel like everyone will probably be cautious, but we’ll have to play it smart there and try to stay in the points game to be able to run the Tuesday as well.

How did you get started in racing originally?

From a friend of a friend. I had a friend in elementary school to where her dad was involved in go-karting. He ended up meeting my dad, they became friends, and then we started running some Cup Lites at ICAR – which these are like small scale stockcars. We started running these – I think my third or fourth race was my first win. Then we ended up looking at going higher. We went and ran late models – that was 2018 when I first started racing late models in Quebec.

I ran there for two years and got my first win in 2020 and then went down to Speedweeks at New Smyrna (Speedway) and did some Pro Lates and stuff like that. Then went and ran the ARCA Menards Series for a few races, and now here we are in Pintys. It was really quick moving up the ladder, but here we are now.

And what’s been your most memorable racing moment to date?

I would say probably my Phoenix (Raceway) start in ARCA. I didn’t have the finish I wanted – finished fifth, was decent, but I was hoping for a win there. Just the fact of running as part of NASCAR’s biggest race weekends is a highlight for now.

Is there something that you want to do in motorsports that you haven’t done yet?

I would say do a bit more endurance racing – road course stuff is really expensive. I am not a big road course driver myself, but I’ve began to like it myself during the Pinty’s so I would love to try endurance racing, like the 24 Hours or six hours of Sebring, some race like that. That’d be something on my bucket list for sure.

What is a piece of advice that you’d offer to someone getting started in racing?

First, never give up. It’s a really hard sport to get in. A lot of talented people, but yes you have to work on your talent, but always make sure you get around good people to have a solid relationship with the sponsors – that’s number one advice I can give in racing. Make sure you build your relationships with your sponsors and not just someone who puts stickers on your car but as partners, because they will help you move forward. You can be as talented as you want but if you don’t have any sponsors, you won’t go anywhere. So make sure you build those relationships and keep them as you move up.