Some men take up golf as their middle-aged hobby. Some build model railways. James Nadolny races cars.
At 56 years-old, Nadolny is way beyond harbouring any aspirations to ascend motorsports’ competitive ladder to Formula 1 or IndyCar. Instead, the Port Coquitlam businessman who owns Mainland Chrome on Broadway Street, packs up his little Formula Continental racer into its trailer six times a year for a weekend of competition and camaraderie at Mission Raceway Park where he grids up as part of the Sports Car Club of BC’s (SCCBC) open wheel series.
It sure beats trying to put a little while ball into a hole hundreds of metres away.
“It’s very addictive,” Nadolny said.
It can also be expensive.
Nadonly said his car was “pretty beat up” when he acquired it from another racer in Alberta for $11,000, so he put in that much again to get it into a safe, competitive state. After that, the sky’s the limit.
“You can make it as expensive as you want,” Nadolny said, adding some racers can spend upwards of $60,000 a season.
Much of Nadolny’s annual race budget of $7 to 8,000 goes to tires that might last only a few laps or can be babied to endure an entire season, depending on the size of a racer’s bank account and their desire to go fast.
“Tires are the easiest way to make your car go quicker,” said Nadolny, who doesn’t have a crew and does all the tinkering and set up of his car himself.
That can get a bit obsessive, Nadolny said, as every little turn of a screw in the car’s two-litre Ford Pinto engine, or every tightening of a bolt in the suspension attached to its welded tube chassis can have implications on its speed and handling.
But that’s part of the fun.
“For every hour on the track, there’s 10 in the garage,” Nadolny said.
As the driver and engineer, Nadolny is in tune with every vibration, every twist of the steering wheel in his hands. If the car’s not set up right, he’ll have to wrestle it through Mission Raceway’s tight turns and never get it up to the 125 mph he can do on the track’s short straightaway. Get it dialled in and going fast takes no effort at all.
“When you get it right, it’s very cool,” said Nadolny, who raced high-performance motorcycles for 12 years but migrated to a car four years ago because the physical exertion of two-wheel racing was getting too hard on his aging body.
Nadolny said his wife doesn’t come to the track as much as she used to. Instead it’s mostly the racers working on their cars, exchanging quips and sometimes equipment, from Friday afternoon’s pit setup through practice on Saturday morning followed by qualifying sessions and races Saturday and Sunday.
“We help each other out,” Nadolny said. “It’s good camaraderie, a good family atmosphere.”
• The SCCBC racing series continues this weekend at MIssion Raceway Park with practice, qualifying and races for three classes of closed wheel racers, including novice, as well as open wheel and vintage cars on the track from 9 a.m. Saturday to Sunday afternoon. For more information go to http://www.sccbc.net
