John Riegling had no previous racing experience before joining the series halfway through the 1996 season. Riegling sure did learn quickly though as the Chatam, ON resident became the 1997 series champion, like Banas he did not capture a single feature victory and rode a wave of consistency to victory. Riegling's sprinter was numbered 1A because the first chassis he owned was a Bobby "Scruffy" Allen chassis, to this day Riegling's 1A is still in the same style as Allen's familiar 1A.

     The title fight was very close with 6 different drivers having a shot to win the title. Whitney once again proved to be one of the dominant forces as "The Professor" captured his 2nd straight season opener at South Buxton. Larry Atkinson took round 2 ahead of Ed Bellaire and Dave MacLeod. John Brutcher took the first ever feature held at Brighton Speedway ahead of Mark Bellamy. The following race saw Komoka, ON racer Mike Ling take his first career S.O.S. feature in only his 2nd race with the club. Bill Henderson captured the following race before Ling took the season finale.

     Guelph, ON native Joel Lehman established himself as a contender in the series. "The Guelph Storm" had a top finish of 3rd place and had a shot at the title heading into the final race of the season. Lehman seemed to excel on the bullring tracks the series had to offer at Brighton Speedway and South Buxton, he would become very successful at each facility.

     The club had an interesting rookie that season in Matt Fortner, he was a teenager who was also the second youngest sprint car driver in Canada at the time. Fortner became a crowd favorite and was always exciting behind the wheel of his familiar yellow #18M. Fortner had a shot at the title heading into the final race on the strength of four 6th place finishes in 5 races but came up short.

     Supermodified veteran Garry Evans made his first start on dirt after a back breaking crash in a super in Berlin, MI and looked great taking a strong 2nd place finish in the season opener. Evans only ran one race that season but would later become a force to be reckoned with.