The season kicked off in March for the Copart-sponsored O’Dell Racing team and they are already off to a flying start!
Supporting our Copart Cares 💙 commitment to our teammates, partnerships like this help us to show our support for activities and causes that are important to them and strengthen our ‘Copart Family’.
And O’Dell Racing is in fact a family team! Dean O’Dell (SVO Vehicle Technician, Wootton Head Office), his father Steve (SVO Foreman, Wootton Head Office) and Dean’s brother Adam, have competed in various stock car racing championships at World, European, British, and local levels for decades.
The team first received sponsorship from Universal Salvage back in 1985, which Copart continued to support after acquiring the business in 2007 and still do so today.
Dean races in the non-contact Hotrod formula and Adam in the stock car racing where contact is permitted. The guys have provided us with plenty of thrills and spills on the track over the years as well as creating lots of brand awareness for Copart!
2021 was a fantastic year for O’Dell Racing with many highlights and achievements, including second place in in the National Championship in Hednesford and third place in the Stockrod World Championships in Ipswich .
The 2022 season kicked off in March and Adam got off to a great start in his 2lt stock car at the first meeting at Skegness Raceway, winning the two heats and taking second place in the final.
In the following weeks, he enjoyed a further flurry of fantastic achievements, starting off with a win at the Aldershot meeting final.
It was then off to a meeting in Cowdenbeath, Scotland for the British Championship, where after a few hectic laps with cars spinning everywhere Team O’Dell took 5th place in the championship final, which was a great result!
There’s a learning curve ahead for Dean this season, as he continues to come to terms with his new hotrod. The team is taking on the challenge of teaching themselves new and different set ups, with some working and some not. It’s trial and error, but with more and more knowledge being gained all the time.
And that knowledge is certainly coming to the fore for Dean, as having raced 8 times this year at Aldershot, Ipswich, Hendesford, and Buxton, he has scored enough points to qualify for some of the major mid-season events ahead.
Steve O’Dell said:
“We’re looking forward to more exciting races ahead as we continue through this season. The hotrod has thrown some challenges at us but we’re enjoying the test and it will definitely be a character-building exercise for the team. We’re grateful for Copart’s continued support and we hope to share and celebrate more O’Dell Racing achievements soon!”
And despite their busy schedule, Team O’Dell even made the time to bring both cars into our HQ at Wootton for a special ‘Wheels @ Wootton’ Day in June!
This was a great opportunity for many of our teammates to get up close and personal with the Copart-sponsored stock car and Hotrod and enjoy some fantastic photo opportunities!
Remaining fixtures for the O’Dell Racing team are as follows*:
| Hotrod 2022 Fixtures | ||
| British Championship | Saturday 2nd July | Ipswich |
| Spedeweekend | Sunday 3rd July | Ipswich |
| World Championship | Saturday 20th July | Lochgelly |
| Scottish Open Championship | Sunday 21st July | Lochgelly |
| Meeting | Sunday 7th August | Aldershot |
| English Championship | Saturday 20th August | Ipswich |
| Meeting | Sunday 28th August | Hednesford |
| Meeting | Sunday 9th October | Hednesford |
| Meeting | Sunday 30th October | Aldershot |
| Best in Britain | Sunday 4th December | Hednesford |
| Stock Car 2022 Fixtures | ||
| Meeting | Thursday 7th July | Skegness |
| UK Speed Weekend | Saturday/Sunday 9th/10th July | Skegness |
| English Championship | Saturday 23rd July | Taunton |
| Meeting | Saturday 13th August | Skegness |
| ORCI Championship Qualifying | Saturday 3rd September | Kings Lynn |
| ORCI Championship | Sunday 4th September | Kings Lynn |
| Bumper Trophy | Saturday 17th September | Kings Lynn |
| World Championship | Saturday/Sunday 8th/9th October | Skegness |
| UK Superbowl | Saturday 29th October | Cowdenbeath |
| Gordon Barclay Memorial | Sunday 30th October | Cowdenbeath |
| National Shootout Series Round | Saturday 5th November | Ipswich |
| Meeting | Sunday 13th November | Northampton |
*Planning to attend but subject to change