Adrenaline Rush: The Fastest Cars, the Best Drivers in Western Canada

In orderly fashion, ten colourful stock cars flow into the race track's back corner. The fibreglass encased vehicles rocket toward the crowd, side by side in two rows, inches apart and tailgating one another as though tethered together. Their engines howl like mythic dragons. The pack passes by the cheering audience on the front straightaway. Above the track, a man on a tower frantically waves a green flag, releasing the drivers from order to restrained chaos.

Now on the back straightaway: an orange car becomes the leader, grey blue #20 locks in behind him, the rest of the pack jealously roars. One lap later: orange still in first, #20 in second and green black #5 in third. These form a trio, and begin to pull away from the mass.

Something is about to go wrong.

As the trio plunges into the back corner in single file, #5 brakes not enough and bumps #20's backend. At nearly 160 kms per hour, the laws of physics condemn #20 to a 180 degree spin and sudden deceleration. Tires squeal like terrorized pigs. Another car breaks hard, his back end slides out 90 degrees to the track and slams into #20, whose front end now faces back. The rest of the pack whips around the corner unharmed. Grey blue #20 rolls to a halt, perpendicular to the track, front end smashed in, hood jutting up in a folded mess. The vehicle seems odd in its sudden motionlessness.

Six months later the driver of #20 sits in his kitchen, watches the crash on his laptop. The shaky handheld video was captured by someone in the crowd that evening, May 15, 2009. It was the first race of the season at Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in Saskatoon, and a discouraging way to begin a summer of racing.

"Yeah. I'm on YouTube," Ken Campbell says grimly.

The risk of crashing is part of competitive racing, as is the adrenaline fix from extreme speed and the challenge of building a car, tuning its engine, and then beating your opponents on the track. There isn't a driver who hasn't experienced it all, Campbell says.

Since he was a kid, there was racing. Ken Campbell grew up watching his cousin win snowmobile races. He won his first snowmobile race in 1972 in Pense, Saskatchewan. A photo of the event shows a beaming 10-year old Campbell - still in his navy blue snowmobile suit and white helmet - proudly holding up a trophy to the camera.

In the same year as his first win, Campbell's cousin, father and uncle began to race stock cars at Regina's King's Park Speedway. He was too young to help in the pits where the racing teams prepare and tune their cars, so he sold popcorn and drinks in the stands. But his job was also an opportunity to get close to the action.

"Sometimes I used to carry the drinks down to the pits for the pit crews and drivers, carrying 24 paper cups full of coke and pepsi and seven-up," Campbell recalls. It was his chance to be close to the cars and the drivers. "I wanted to be like them," he says.

Campbell began stock car racing in 1980 with a pit crew of friends and a 1964 Dodge Belvedere. In 1985, he moved up to a more competitive racing class, winning the Regina Super Stock Championship in 1992. In 1999, he set a track speed record during a tour of the Western Racing League. Since 2005, Campbell races in the Super Late Model Class.

At this level, there is nothing "stock" left on the car, Campbell explains. The engines are designed for racing, the chassis is built from the ground up, and the safety requirements are stringent, including fire suits and fire extinguishers mounted in the car's cab. He is the only driver in Regina that competes in the Super Late Model Class, which means most of his races take place at the Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in Saskatoon.

It takes passion to compete at Campbell's level, not to mention a fair bit of money. His decent wage as a full time employee of Sysco Food Service strains under the weight of racing expenses. To replace his car would cost $45 thousand to $50 thousand, while yearly maintenance and repair costs run from $10,000 to $20,000. Travel costs are also a factor.

In this regard, Campbell is an underdog compared to other Western Canadian racers in the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) Series. One competitor from Calgary is a corporate lawyer, for whom $20,000 is a "drop in the bucket," Campbell figures. ARCA's 2009 season champion was a team from Edmonton: they have two cars, a $200,000 budget and fly in a professional driver from the U.S..

Aside from the financial challenges, Campbell is also restricted by lack of practice time. The key to racing on an oval is to constantly shave hundredths of seconds off your lap time, and that requires intimate knowledge of the track. So while King's Park Speedway in Regina is close and available, it is of little practice value. Campbell says Regina's track is "more of a horse power track," very different from Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in Saskatoon, the track he races most frequently. Before each competition, Campbell makes due practicing during the "hot lap session" in which a driver can test how his car is running and make suspension and engine adjustments.

Nevertheless, you won't hear Campbell complain: these factors are just part of what it takes to be based in Regina and compete in the Super Late Model Class. Grateful for his sponsors - among them Regina Florists, Fleet Check, Club Towing and others - his team (www.campbellmotorsports.ca) always welcomes new sponsorship opportunities from local businesses.

After a 20 minute tour of his car, Ken Campbell asks: "Have you ever heard the engine of one of these?" He reaches into the cab and fires up the engine. Standing next to the car, I not only hear the engine but feel it, each stroke creating a sound wave that hits me in the chest like a speaker at a rock concert. He reaches under the hood and repeatedly tugs a lever, the engine replies with bursts of wailing energy. He kills the engine, and the garage is silent again.

I ask Campbell what it's like behind the wheel during a race, if in those repetitive orbits around the track, his mind ever wanders off to other places?

Absolutely not, he explains: In every moment, the driver is constantly searching for "a different line." It's a line that allows you to stay on the throttle a little more, to brake a little less. Every 13 second lap, every foot on the track requires complete focus to be as fast as possible.

Campbell seems to be a calm, gentle person. He answers my questions thoughtfully, articulately. He doesn't waste words. Perhaps that's the kind it takes - the "calm under pressure" type - to strap themselves in a couple feet behind a 415 horsepower demon, hitting corners at extreme speed, and always trying to get ahead of the competition. But it takes more than the right personality to pay track fees and maintenance costs, do major and minor repairs, and travel long hours to compete against better financed teams. I ask: what's behind it?

"The drive. The challenge. The adrenaline rush. It's a serious challenge to go out and compete against the best. And these are the best. The fastest cars, the best drivers in Western Canada."