NASCAR Winner
Balcaen Still
Just a Kid From
the Prairies
By Scott Taylor, Photos courtesy NASCAR
24 / sportslife
Virginia. “Thank you
to everyone for the
support.”
Balcaen, who grew
up in a racing family
in Charleswood, has
been racing for most
of her life. Her father and grandfather
were both dirt track racers and she
grew up at Red River Co-Op Speedway,
just south of Winnipeg.
“Racing is all I know,” she said “I
mean I’ve grown up at the race track
and I wanted to race ever since I knew
what a race car was. I wanted it so bad
and the feeling you get in a race car is
like no other feeling in the world.”
“
Racing is all I know, I mean
I’ve grown up at the race
track and I wanted to race
ever since I knew what a
race car was. I wanted it
so bad and the feeling you
get in a race car is like no
other feeling in the world.
“
This summer, Amber Balcaen was the
guest of honor at a Winnipeg Goldeyes
baseball game. She threw out the first
pitch, signed autographs and inspired
some kids who were at the game.
She was also overwhelmed by all the
attention.
“I was really kind of nervous
throwing out that first pitch,” she
said, during an interview on the
Shaw TV broadcast of the game.
“Almost as nervous as I was in my first
NASCAR sanctioned race. This place
is awesome. The Goldeyes treated me
awesome. It’s just been an awesome
night.”
The multiple use of the word
awesome gave Balcaen away. She’s
a star. Her picture is all over racing
magazines and websites. She’s
been called “The sexiest woman in
NASCAR,” and her legend as a driver is
growing every day.
In fact, earlier this summer, she
made herstory when she became the
first Canadian female automobile racer
to win a NASCAR-sanctioned event in
the United States. On Aug. 27, at the
Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va.
Now living in North Carolina, she’s
closer than ever to racing in a real
NASCAR Sprint Cup event. And yet, as
we saw at the ballpark this summer,
she’s still just a kid from the prairies
with big dreams, courage and limitless
talent.
“My hands are still shaking from
the excitement,” the modest 24-yearold Balcaen said after winning in
Her father, Mike Balcaen, is still one
of the greatest racers ever to get behind
the wheel at RRCS. With more than 30
years of racing experience, Mike has
won 45 championships, four NLRA
series titles and has more than 210
feature wins. His father was a racer and
Balcaen after winning
in Virginia
now his daughter is on the verge of
becoming a star in the United States.
But she didn’t just jump into a
450-horsepower monster and start
winning. Amber Balcaen worked her
way up from the bottom – the absolute
bottom – of the race car.
As a child, Amber scraped the mud
from her dad’s race cars. By the time
she was a teen, she was changing tires
and learning, every day, about the
adjustments she needed to make on
a racing machine. Mike made sure his
little girl could handle a wrench just
like everyone else in the pits.
For fibe years, Amber raced a Kart
and was a regular visitor to the oval dirt
tracks in North Dakota, Minnesota,
South Dakota and as far south as
Arizona.
Even with limited time behind the
wheel, she managed a few early wins
and some Top 3 finishes. With that,
her dad let her graduate to a full-sized
race car. In 2009, Amber joined the
Northern Lightning Sprint Association