Donovan Lussier traveled more than 8 hours to race last Saturday. He made his haul from Quebec worthwhile by winning the Short Track Super Series 602 sportsman feature at Bridgeport Motorsports Park in New Jersey. It’s a fitting win for Lussier who once crewed for a legendary driver from the Garden State, Brett Hearn.
Lussier grew up in racing. His father, Dominic, owned Autodrome Granby for 13 years. He grew up at the track, racing slingshots until 2018. That year Lussier worked on the crew for Brett Hearn for one weekend. In 2019, he spent a summer with Hearn as a 15-year-old.
“I learned everything about setting up a racing program — all the maintenance to do at the shop to be ready 100% for a race,” Lussier, of Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, said. “What I brought to my program is that Brett showed me every small detail on a car is important. It becomes a big detail if not addressed.
“We took every body panel off of Brett’s car after every race and washed the car. He said it was the only way to see and check everything on the car. Other guys would not do this — and they wouldn’t see a crack or a broken part. We didn’t break because Brett checked everything so thoroughly.”
Donovan Lussier made a longer haul than to New Jersey earlier this year to All-Tech Raceway in Florida. There, he took home a third and a fifth. Last week, Lussier finished fifth at Port Royal Speedway in Pennsylvania. He seemed poised to break into Short Track Super Series victory lane any time, and finally made it happen last weekend.
Despite the long haul to the U.S., Lussier enjoys traveling to race there.
“The American people have treated us well,” Lussier said. “The only problem is the exchange rate. The Canadian dollar doesn’t go far in the U.S.”
As of Friday, March 28, 2025, $1 Canadian will get you $0.70 U.S. The $4,444 win at Bridgeport Motorsports Park translates to roughly $6,360 Canadian, which makes the victory even more satisfying.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
