The last time Darin Guillet hot-lapped the track at PGARA Speedway, 12 years ago, he was behind the wheel of a CASCAR entry and his day ended in disappointment.
Guillet made the trip from Calgary that May weekend and his homecoming was spoiled when mechanical issues kept his car parked in the pits for 19 laps of a 150-lap race.
Guillet has traded that stock car for a ride in a racing truck and today, one day before he turns 46, he'll try to take the checkered flag home as a birthday souvenir at the White Spruce Enterprises Big Bore Super Truck Racing Series 100.
"Prince George is in for a treat," said Guillet. "These trucks look like the NASCAR Camping World trucks you see on TV. It's something different on the track. They'll be running on big tires with big motors and good race chassis, going around at the speeds of super stocks. They're super fast. I think lap times at PGARA will be in the 16s (seconds)."
The Super Trucks have 108-inch wheelbases and run on identical GM 604 crate small-block engines which put out 425 horsepower and 400 foot-pounds of torque. The motors, with carburetor and distributor included, cost about $8,000. Guillet promises the new paint jobs everybody's starting the season with won't be looking so pretty after the race, especially if there's plenty of traffic on the PGARA track.
"People are going to see some real aggressive driving," said Guillet. "We're all buddies off the track but on the track with these guys, these guys really go for it. Lap after lap, you won't see one guy holding back. It's pretty nuts.
"I always look at the truck series as the last touring series in Western Canada. It kind of replaced CASCAR West. This kind of replaces the normal season-opening race we had in Vernon, where we had 18 to 22 trucks, so I really hope we're going to have the same truck count in Prince George."
Now in his 25th year of racing, Guillet earned his stripes on the three-eighths mile oval at PGARA Speedway as a pro stock driver. He was a PGARA driver until 1999 and the following year gave up his seat to form the Western Canadian Speed Association, a lower-budget version of CASCAR. In 2001 the name was changed to WESCAR and the late-model stock car series continued until 2009, when it merged with the Auto Racing Club of America and became known as ARCA West. Last year it began a new affiliation with the American Speed Association (ASA). The series returns to Prince George for the ASA OK Tire Challenge 100 on June 14.
Guillet quit CASCAR in 2006 and in 2007 started racing the truck series. He was the 2007 rookie of the year but as a restaurant owner in Calgary was forced to step away from the track. He returned to the series last year and finished third in the points standings.
Guillet plans to race only part-time this year and this weekend will be driving the No. 33 truck Jamie 'Booger' McLennon of Wainwright, Alta., drove to the 2013 points title. Wade Lee, a five-time CASCAR West champion from Calgary, has replaced Guillet in the No. 74 Castrol truck. Seventeen of the 19 drivers in the series last year were from Alberta.
Guillet, a PGSS graduate, moved to Calgary in 2000, where he now works as territory sales manager for Wakefield Canada, which distributes Castrol Motor Oil. He and his wife Nancy have two kids, 20-year-old Colin and 17-year-old Danielle.
Today's race opens the 2014 Full Bore Super Truck Series schedule. The series is based in Saskatoon, where it has four race dates - June 7, July 21, Aug. 16, and Sept. 13. It also comes to Hythe, Alta, on June 21. The series, which began in 1997, used to regularly visit Calgary and Vernon but both tracks have been purchased by private developers and are now closed.
The three Prince George Auto Racing Association series -- Inland Kenworth hornets, Chieftain Auto Parts mini stocks and Richmond Steel street stocks, will also be featured today, with drivers racing for double points. This is PGARA's 62nd season of racing.
Tonight's qualifying rounds begin at 6, with racing at 7.
