Montpelier Speedway
Young Indiana racer continues to make gains
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
Tristan Chamberlain and his father Duane. (joshjamesartwork.com)
MONTPELIER, Ind. (Oct. 25) — Duane Chamberlain has watched his 18-year-old son Tristan take a few lumps while racing on the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Tour the last two seasons, but he’s confident his national touring experience will only make the Richmond, Ind., youngster better.
“He's always been talented, but I’ve noticed really this season, I've watched him where he's changed his lanes, he's doing things that more experienced drivers do, you know, instead of just running the same line for 50 laps,” Duane said before Montpelier Motor Speedway’s Monster Mash finale. “He's moving around, changing things up. I'm getting better feedback when he gets out of the car. And he's still learning, you know, as far as when he gets out of the car, he's learning to tell me, ‘Hey, we want to make these changes,’ instead of me trying to make all the changes myself. So it's still a learning a process, but we're getting there.”
In many ways, Chamberlain's up-and-down outing at Montpelier — a 40-lap Ultimate Heart of America Series event won by 19-year-old Caden McWhorter of Fairbury, Ill. — mirrors his 2025 season. Chamberlain secured the second starting spot after a strong qualifying effort, but couldn’t find a way past McWhorter. Tangling with lapped traffic caused the teenager to spin off turn four on lap 14, but he surged from the back of the field to finish fifth.
“It has definitely been up and down,” Duane said. “Definitely not where we want to be. But we just keep on plugging away. And we feel like we're getting better and better every week. I feel like we're better than the results show. We got to get better qualified. If you look back, we end up starting the 18th, 20s every night, we drive up the 10th or 12th, or something like that. I really feel like if we can start closer up front, we're gonna finish up there.”
Chamberlain, who pilots a Wayne and Holly Gibson-owned Infinity Race Car, has struggled in his second World of Outlaws stint, a national tour with some of the sport's best drivers. He's 13th in WoO heading into the season-ending World Finals at The Dirt Track in Charlotte, N.C. For Chamberlain, his lowest point of the year occurred at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway in March after flipping and posting 18th- and 24th-place finishes for that weekend.
“I got on my lid again,” Tristan said. “So that's never good. That definitely set me behind in points.”
“It's really just not making mistakes,” Chamberlain said of how to improve his standing in 2026. “I mean, of course, you're going to have stuff that doesn't go your way, blowing a tire, maybe a motor let's go or something, that’s always going to set you back. But as a driver, being consistent is the main thing when you're running this series. You know, sometimes you won't have the car to win every night, but if you can manage a top-five run, top-10 run, it all adds up as the year goes along.”
Chamberlain learned coming out of Speedweeks in decent points shape is the key to moving up in the standings, and he’s prepared to do better in the early months of 2026. His best finish at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla. was a 16th-place run on Feb. 13. He plans to take his modified down to the Sunshine State in advance of the WoO season to be more prepared.
“The biggest thing I've learned is how important Speedweeks is,” Chamberlain said. “If you don't get through there with good finishes and you're behind all year, it's really hard to catch back up unless you're top three every night. So that's one of the biggest things I've took away these first two years is that you got to finish races and you’ve got to at least get top-10 runs.”
“Florida, Volusia especially, it's different than anywhere else,” he added. “It's really sandy, and the aero there is real similar to Eldora. It's like someone slides across you and it's like a wall hits you and you get super tight. It was definitely a learning experience going there the first two years. I think I kind of got a gist of what I need to do going into next year and be more comfortable and get experience.”
Things took a brighter turn for the youngster in August: Chamberlain posted fifth and seventh-place finishes at Arrowhead Speedway in Concord, Okla., and recorded a 12th-place finish at Humboldt (Kans.) Speedway.
“I go to Arrowhead and I don't know what it is about Arrowhead,” Chamberlain said. “I'm always comfortable there. I ran third for most of the race. That was definitely a high point, definitely a confidence booster, to go racing our cars and everything. I'm getting more comfortable. I'm starting to understand everything more, and that's definitely helping us, too.”
Away from the WoO tour, Chamberlain logged five Super Late Model victories, two at Montpelier including Friday’s weekend tuneup. He also won twice at Moler Raceway Park in Williamsburg, Ohio, and scored his career-richest $5,000 payday on Memorial Day weekend at Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Ky., on the Ultimate Heart of America circuit.
Juggling his obligations behind the wheel and in the classroom as an online high school student has been challenging, but the good news is that Chamberlain will graduate in December, which will give him more time to devote to racing. His schooling, however, is far from over. He’s already earned college credits and plans to enroll in some form of college to pursue his goal of owning a business.
“I have so many credits built up that it'd be dumb for me not to go and get some kind of degree,” Chamberlain said. “So it'll definitely be online, so I can still do this. I'm into math and stuff, but I really want to own my own business someday.
“I don't really know if it would be related to racing or not. I definitely want to have something to fall back on because, you know, this racing might not last forever. You got to have a backup plan. I’m really enjoying what I'm doing and I'm glad I get the opportunity to actually do this. Not many people get the race for a living, so Gibson Racing, they gave me an awesome opportunity and I can't thank them enough, and I think our relationship's going to last for many years to come.”
