O’Connor off to the races with new car partway through season

By Tyler Waugh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Racer Cullen O’Connor made an appearance at the Sam’s Jam ball hockey fundraiser in Kelligrews
during a break in his schedule in July. Craig Westcott Photo

Cullen O’Connor is hooked on racing and has been since sliding behind the wheel for his first race at the age of 13.
The 18-year-old competitor has been fascinated with all things mechanical since the age of three and in 2021 he found out there was a racetrack in Newfoundland. He begged his mom to take him up to Avondale for a day.
“So we end up going and I saw these little cars going around. I went home and did some research, and I found out I was old enough to race these cars,” Cullen said.

He had asked for a dirt bike growing up, request denied. He had asked for a quad growing up, request denied. Now he wanted to get into racing.
His mom made him a deal – if they could get enough sponsorship to cover the car for the first season they would do it and see how it goes from there.
His mom hit the phones to make sponsorship calls, while young Cullen’s job was to find a car to buy.
“So there I was, a 13 year old, reaching out to grown men and asking, ‘Hey, do you have any race cars for sale?’”
He ended up finding one and not long after his mom gave him the good news that she found enough sponsorship for the first season.
“Really, the last thing was finding someone to help us out, because we had no garage, no tools, no experience or nothing … we needed help,” Cullen said.
O’Connor had gone down to chat with the racer he had watched win during his first visit to the track, and the Healey family had been supportive, suggesting he reach out if we wanted to try out the car.
“That kid who was racing that car was Noah Healey, he’s now my best friend, and his father, Brian, is my crew chief. They’ve been my team ever since, and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Cullen started in a rookie division. He still remembers feeling sick before getting behind the wheel for his first race.
“It was the most nerve-wracking moment of my life up to that point,” O’Connor said. “I remember when the race was over. I got out and I felt, even though I was nervous when I first got in, I need to do this again. I felt like I found what I was supposed to do instead of, you know, anything I was good at.
He placed first or second in all his races that first year.
“Some of the people that had been around for a while, including the people I bought the car from, looked at my mom and said, ‘That kid can drive’” Cullen said. “So, it was a nice confidence boost to hear that, especially in my rookie season.”
O’Connor had a solid year last year in the Legends Car division, finishing top three in overall points and enjoyed some success at races down in the United States.
“It was it was a pretty solid year and it kind of cemented how I felt about where we were as a team. I was really happy with that year,” Cullen said.
This season has started with more adversity, including mechanical issues in the first two races, resulting in a lot of time invested in troubleshooting and tweaking the car.
“That was some of the longest nights and probably the most amount of time I’ve ever put into this car. It’s work, and it was just mechanical failure after mechanical failure, and it really sucked. Then that third race we had kind of got it figured out,” Cullen said, adding that an on-track incident shortly afterward left all that work for naught.
“The car had a pretty bad wreck, to where I had a minor concussion out of it, so I had to take a week and some time off.”
Even though he wasn’t racing at that time, it didn’t mean there was nothing to do… after all, he needed a new ride. As luck would have it, there was a car in Nova Scotia available that had won the Maritime League of Legends Championship in 2025.
“That was one of the quickest Marketplace sales you’ve ever seen,” Cullen said, adding the car arrived on a Monday afternoon and, thanks to his team and some service providers, it was ready to roll on Saturday in Avondale.
The crew frantically worked on the vehicle, including installation of Cullen’s old driver seat, made adjustments to make weight requirements and completely redid the setup of the car for it to work. The old wrap also had to be removed and then rewrapped before the race.
“We got it out in time, and I went out in practice and qualified the car. I was able to stay in third place position fighting with two of the quicker cars on track. It finished out pretty well, so I’m pretty happy with how it turned out,” O’Connor said. “It hasn’t been the start to a season we hoped for, but it’s in the past and it’s behind us. We are looking ahead… looking forward to turning it around and having a strong second half.”
During a break in the schedule Cullen made an appearance at the Sam’s Jam ball hockey fundraiser in Kelligrews to support his sponsors and get other youths excited about racing the way he was at age 13.
“It was fun, getting kids in the car to check it out and taking some photos to promote racing. It was a good time… good cause,” O’Connor said.