Twelve-year-old Grace Duerksen is still three-and-a-half years away from being old enough to drive a car on city streets.
Until that time, she'll have to be content with racing 120 kilometres per hour driving a junior dragster on an eighth-mile long drag strip. Not a bad speed for a kid who had never raced anything with an engine until this past weekend
"It's really fun, and fast," said Grace. "It's not really nerve-wracking at all."
Grace's father Rod used to race his car at the Prince George drag strip and he can't believe how fast his eldest daughter can travel.
"I used to race a five-litre Mustang and on Friday she ran this (junior dragster) down the full quarter-mile and it went faster than the Mustang," said Rod Duerksen. "I was just watching her, wondering why she wasn't shutting it off."
Junior dragster drivers are supposed to lay off the throttle an eighth of a mile down the track but Grace was having too much fun during her test-and-tune session Friday night and kept the pedal matted. She ended up covering the full quarter-mile in 13 seconds flat with a top speed of 95 miles per hour.
Grace's dad bought the junior dragster used for about $8,000 and she had her first races Friday at the All-Out racing weekend meet at Rolling Mix Concrete Raceway. Her dragster was the only one in the junior class with a parachute. The rules don't require it and it's not functional, but her dad stuck it on the back end, just for show.
Rod says he wished he'd had the chance to learn how to race a fast vehicle when he was a kid and he likes what the sport is teaching his daughter. Not only is she learning how to race while gathering mechanical knowledge about how to maintain her vehicle but she's also picking up social skills being around the other racers.
"It's absolutely building her confidence and getting her excited and giving her the drive for something, and it's going to give her experience for driving later on in life," said Rod. "She's got so much safety gear here, even if something went horribly wrong she's safe."
The minimum age for junior dragsters is seven and Grace's 10-year-old sister Mary has also shown an interest in racing, having taken the car out for a few practice passes.
"I guess I'd like to race her, as long as she doesn't beat me," said Grace.
Three other junior dragsters made it to the weekend meet, all from Fort St. John, including sisters Kaelie, 13, and Madison Morton, 15; and Noah MacDonald, 11. Kaelie began racing in the class at age eight, same as Madison, and this is her fifth season.
"It's so much fun, I love it," said Kaelie. "The start is really exciting, you have to be really focused and make sure you get a good light. I did get a perfect light in Edmonton, where I normally run."
Madison has driven her dragster enough times she doesn't get scared when she guns her engine, but the thrill is certainly not gone.
"You go fast and it's fun - it's easy to handle," said Madison.
Teen time at the track
This year marks the debut of the teen challenge street legal class, open to drivers aged 13-17, and two girls from Quesnel made the trip to Prince George to race alongside their racing fathers. Shelby Dawson, 13, already had a few race meets under her belt but the All-Out weekend marked the debut of 15-year-old racer Kelsey Lefebvre.
"My friends are a little bit jealous, they didn't believe me at first so I needed to take a friend (to the drag strip in Ashcroft) to actually get pictures of me racing so they would believe me," said Dawson, whose father Greg races a motorcycle.
"It's fun to just to be out here just driving and getting extra experience," said Dawson.
Lefebvre got into stock car racing two years ago in Quesnel, having grown up watching her dad Jeff race on the oval track.
"This is faster than oval track racing and more thrilling," said Lefebvre. "It's real exciting when you're in the staging lane. I've driven some trucks on dirt roads but I'm not very good at driving on the street still. I like to go fast and the speed limits are too slow."
Lefebvre races a 1998 Camaro with her uncle Mike Lefebvre sitting in the passenger seat. Rules require teen drivers to have a parent of guardian sitting next to them in the car and the young drivers are not allowed to drive in the pit areas.
"She's excited about it, she likes it," said Mike. "We've been working on cars for a few years with her and he did circle track and now she and her dad wanted to try this.
"Her dad Jeff races a Camaro exactly like hers and hopefully they'll go head-to-head."
Both NHRA and IHRA now offer the teen challenge series and Greg Dawson sees with every pass how his daughter reacts to the racing environment. He figures it's a great way to promote families getting involved in the sport.
"I think it's fantastic, it's getting kids out to drag race and it's not just an adult sport," he said. "Being a co-pilot in a teen car like that is just as exciting as when I'm racing myself. The car's not super-fast, it's a V-6 Mustang 3.8 (litre) automatic and it's easy to drive. And it's just getting the feel of it. They have a bit of manoeuvring to get from the staging lanes to the start line and little bit getting off the track. They learn it all."
Lefebvre and Dawson were the only drivers entered in the teen challenge class.
"We're hoping the class is going to get bigger but not many people know about it yet, Greg Dawson said. "You can race any street car, it just has to be licenced and insured and everybody's got one. You just need a helmet and a clean car."
