With just under a week until the NASCAR Pinty’s Series is back racing, thoughts may wander back to the final race of the 2019 season. An intense battle with his teammate would give Calgary native, Brett Taylor his first series win. And now an opportunity to repeat presents itself but after a prolonged offseason, how has the 36-year-old kept the fire to win alive?
Brett Taylor’s 2019 Race Results
I know it feels like it’s been forever but you are our most recent winner in the series, claiming your first win at Jukasa Motor Speedway last September. What was quarantine like for you living in Alberta compared to Ontario?
Well, luckily I’m fortunate enough that my full-time job is in construction so we were able to keep going throughout this whole process. While COVID did present some interesting extra measures we had to introduce but me and the guys were still lucky enough to be able to work constantly through it. A lot of our projects were at the stage where we were on outdoor construction phases so it worked out nice for us.
Earlier I told the guys to stop jackhammering in my basement because my wife has put me to work doing a bunch of extra stuff around the house. So we’ve got a new backyard and a new basement development. With all this time off racing I’ve been able to tackle these jobs that I’ve been wanting to do for four years.
You also got to race in the RS1 Series at Area 27 in B.C. earlier this summer. What was that like and how did it differ from Pinty’s?
All the people there, are top-notch people. They’re so welcoming, they treat us like we’re F1 drivers. You walk into the clubhouse like ‘This is the nicest changeroom I’ve ever been in.’ The lunches are amazing. The facilities, the track is amazing. Al Lebert, all those guys were just wicked to be around.
The cars are really cool, they’re similar to ours but they’re not. They have way more breaks, they have downforce. They’re a lot of fun to drive. It’s a good series and I posted it on Instagram and Facebook; anyone looking to get their feet wet, it’s a great intro into the stock car racing world. And it’s only a seven-hour drive for me, so it’s a lot closer than most of my races have been.
The track is just north of Kelowna right?
Ya! It was hot there, but it’s beautiful. The setting’s amazing. It was good conditioning for me too and that was a lot of the reason that I did it. I wanna stay behind the wheel, I wanna stay in shape and racing in those temperatures before we get going there in Toronto and Ontario area, I think it will pay off for me.
Oh, it’s been so hot here in Ontario, especially in Toronto. Tons of thunderstorms and a crazy amount of tornado warnings.
Oh, I know! Last time I came down, we were testing at Flamboro and I was flying in from Calgary and we were the last plane to land that afternoon because they shut down the airport because there was a tornado warning. So we were sitting on the runway for 45 minutes just getting pelted with rain. You guys have had some interesting weather out there, just like us.
Well, let’s hope that the weather for next weekend is good because last year we had way too much.
Oh, you’re telling me!
So 2020! You have a new car number, a new sponsor and a new paint scheme, which looks so sick by the way. Tell us a little bit more about it?
Well as you guys know we joined forces with EHR middle of the way through last season and it was a perfect fit. I feel like I’m apart of the family over there, we get along great. It’s super amazing to have a guy like Jason Hathaway to lean on and learn from and Ed Hakonson. Everybody there just brings a different element to that team. We chatted a lot in the off-season, and you know it was a big off-season, but we wanted to be more integrated with EHR and we discussed running the 33 number and converting over the Camero bodies and I was 100 percent game for it. It was an honour to be asked to fly that number for them.
So here we are, we have TCB Trailers as our title sponsor for this season. It’s a great family run business, they service tractor-trailers and trucks all over western Canada. They were able to keep open during COVID as well and played a pretty crucial part in keeping a lot of truckers going and making sure everybody had the food they needed and grocery stores. They’re a really great business and I’m really proud to have their colours on our car and I hope to bring them to Victory Lane once or twice this season.
Well, you do have proven success at Jukasa as we saw last September, but Sunset and Flamboro are two tracks that you have yet to race at. Both tracks are 1/3 mile ovals just like Saskatoon where you got your first podium last season. Which tracks do you think you’ll have the most success at? Have you done any testing at the tracks?
We actually tested at four tracks this year. I’m a really strong believer in practice; with the team, practice with the car, practice myself, anyway I can to stay in shape. I want to constantly try and be better. I started way later in my life and my career than a lot of these guys so I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve only been racing for five years and I’m 36. So I’m constantly playing catch-up or at least I feel like I am.
So we tested at CTMP at the beginning of the year. We have tested at Flamboro, Sunset and we tested Jukasa again. First of all, it’s pretty easy to show up in an EHR car and run top-five lap times. But we did show up at each one of those tracks and tested there and we feel really confident, we’re really excited.
If I had to pick one other track besides Jukasa that I think we have a good chance for victory at, I’d say Sunset. I tested there and I just connected with that track right away. It felt a lot like Saskatoon, and the car worked really well there for us. It’s our first race in a week and a half so I can’t wait to show y’all what I’ve got there.