For most people, owning five cars of any variety would probably be considered overkill.
For the father, son racing tandem of Trevor Seibert and Ryley Seibert, 21 — who are both racing in the nationwide NASCAR Canadian Tire Series — that’s just another day in paradise.
“In our garage right now we’ve got my dad’s oval car and his road course car, then we have my oval car and my road course car, then I have my ASA OK Tire Sportsman Series car,” Ryley said. “It [NASCAR Canadian Tire Series] takes a lot of attention, so it gets attention. We have five cars in our stable right now.”
Trevor and Ryley are coming off the first event of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the Vortex Brake Pads 200, at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Bowmanville, Ont., May 19.
There, Trevor cracked the top 10 in ninth, while Ryley finished 11th out of 28 cars.
“It was awesome,” Ryley said. “It’s probably the fastest track in Canada and probably one of the most legendary, scary tracks. It’s got big elevation changes, it’s scary. Turn two is one of the most famous turns in all of motor sports because it’s blind, it’s downhill, it’s off camber and it’s really fast so it was a cool experience.”
Ryley raced one event in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in 2011 and four more the following year. This year he plans to race seven — his busiest season yet.
“You have to run more than four races in a year to no longer be a rookie,” Ryley said. “So this is my rookie contention year, and I want to win rookie of the year.”
“I’ve got a good lead on the other rookie after the first race, so I’m in pretty good shape so far.”
He said both his cars and his dad’s cars are better suited for making a run at the podium this year.
“I’m definitely more confident,” Ryley said. “A couple years ago we knew my equipment I was in was lacking so I just went out and got used to running with those kinds of cars and those guys but as far as this year goes I’m fairly confident in my skills and my abilities and we’ve stepped up our program with our equipment and I think I’m in line to podium or even win a race this year so hopefully we get that done.”
Having his dad around for all those years to teach him the ins and outs of the mechanical side of the sport has also paid dividends, he said.
“We’re teammates so it’s nice to have somebody with that much experience ready to talk about driving and stuff like that,” Ryley said. “We kind of started at the same time. He’d retired for a while then bought his own team and that same year we bought my street stock and I started racing in Williams Lake.”
Ryley joined as a member of his dad’s pit crew that year just as he was building his own street stock car.
“Over the years I’ve gone through the levels and caught up to him here where we’re at now,” Ryley said. “The bonus I have is I’ve been working on these cars since 2007 now so I know them in and out and I know the setup and I’m fluent in all of that.
“The information I like to get from him is driving techniques, driving lines, driving information and things like that. I’ve even been known to help him out a time or two with his stuff in his car giving him advice so, I think, maybe he’s as little surprised by that. He always had the mentality that I wasn’t going to be one of those spoiled kids that just got to get in a car and go. I needed to learn the mechanics, I needed to work on it.
“It turned out it’s been a huge benefit to know how to build your own car.”
Aside from attempting to win rookie of the year Ryley has also set his sights on picking up a podium finish and garnering the checkered flag in each race he competes at. He’s also racing in a few select events of the ASA OK Tire Sportsman Series. His last event in Williams Lake May 25 saw Ryley finish seventh; however, a timing error lowered his result.
“It’s my busiest season so far,” he said. “I’ll be travelling all over Canada and B.C. with this year’s racing program.”
Coming up next for the father, son duo is the EMCO 200 at the Delaware Speedway in Delaware, Ont. June 15.
