www.bakersfieldvoice.com

Racing fever

larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view

Clay Wattenbarger, 19, fights fires, and not only as a member of the Kern County Fire Department’s Hotshot Crew.

He also races stock cars and found himself in the middle of an inferno on the racetrack in July 2007 when the stock car he was driving hit the wall at Irwindale Speedway and burst into a ball of flames in front of friends and family.

He was able to escape uninjured, and the accident apparently did nothing to impede his love for a sport in which he has been competing for three years.

Wattenbarger, a 2007 Centennial High School graduate, had been racing go-karts since he was 12 and first became interested in stock cars after attending a race at the former Mesa Marin Raceway to watch his friend, Kevin Callahan.

“I just fell in love with it,” said Wattenbarger, whose family soon purchased his first stock car.

Wattenbarger, who races the late model stock cars for Collins Motorsports, claims that he nearly gave up driving, though, when he realized how challenging (and costly) it was. In his first race, he finished in the middle of a 40-car field, but after that, things seemed to go downhill.

“I wrecked in every other race,” said Wattenbarger, who thought, “This may not be the sport for us.”

Patience reigned, though, after a pep talk from team owner Gary Collins, who told the young driver that he wasn’t going to learn everything about racing in half of a season.

Those words proved prophetic. Wattenbarger finished in the middle of the points standings in his second season of racing, and by his third season, he finished in the top five overall.

But he didn’t do it alone. For Wattenbarger, the sport is definitely a family affair.

“My dad and my grandpa are my main sponsors, and without them, I wouldn’t be racing,” he said of Wattenbarger Construction, and added that his sister, Romi, is his biggest fan, often painting her brother’s number 29 on her face. Mom, April, does the accounting, orders the merchandise … and worries.

“I don’t even watch the race,” she said, laughing. “I’m at the track. I’ll glance at the leader board and call Lori (Callahan) to ask what’s going on if there’s a caution.” Otherwise, April said, she watches only a fraction of the race as she sits with Romi.

The Wattenbarger and Callahan families have gotten close over the years and not only because Clay and Kevin race for the same team.

“Clay and I met when we were in diapers,” said Callahan, 20, who graduated from Centennial High School in 2006. “We lived right down the street from each other. I can’t even call him a friend ... he’s my brother.”

It was the Callahan brother who caught the racing bug first.

At 9, he started racing go-karts and eventually graduated to a Mazda RX-7, where he raced on road courses. The stock cars were next, even though he’d always dreamt of racing the Formula One series.

“As I got older, I just wanted to race stock cars,” said Callahan. “They are less expensive and more well known in the States.”

Less expensive than Formula One cars, maybe, but stock car racing isn’t lawn bowling, either.

Far from it.

“Once you buy the car, it’s anywhere from $70,000 to $100,000 a year to run the car,” said Scott Wattenbarger, Clay’s father.

Unlike many other professional sports, NASCAR series racing relies heavily on sponsorship money to put cars on the track. In order for a driver to get noticed, he has to run in the races; to run in the races, one needs to have — well, roughly $100,000 a year, plus a car.

“If you want to make it, getting noticed is in the sponsorship,” said Scott. “If you’re good, you’re hoping someone is going to notice you and take you under their wing.”

Sponsorship dollars seem to be the one aspect of racing that teams don’t want to think about — but must.

“For us, it’s a struggle, but we have a lot of good sponsors and a lot of loyal people,” said Callahan, whose main sponsors are Bedrosians Marble and Tile and Delfino Homes.

Wattenbarger and Callahan aren’t the only late model stock car racers in the Northwest. Their former roller hockey teammate, 2008 North High graduate Michael Varela also races in the Auto Club Late Model Series.

“We raced go-karts with Michael for five or six years,” said Callahan. “Then (after roller hockey) we went our separate ways for three years and now race together again.”

If Callahan has his way, they will be racing together a long time.

“I’ve got plans for the future,” he said, “and I’m going to keep going until I get too old or until it isn’t financially possible (to race) anymore.”