Sean Whitley admits he’s not much of a social butterfly these days, and the 45-year-old is more than good with that.
“I don’t drink. I don’t drug. I actually don’t have much of a social life. It’s just work, go home and be with family and this is my release,” he says, with more than a hint of pride in his voice.
The “this,” he refers to is his 1971 Firebird, which fans see circling the track at Western Speedway oval in Langford. Having finished fourth overall in the Bomber class in 2015, Whitley was ready to get back behind the driver’s seat for the 2016 season, which began Saturday night.
Thanks to his passion for the sport, and the love of his family — partner Amber Brown, 12-year-old son Rylan and 19-year-old stepdaughter Autumn — the auto mechanic is back to winning in the more important game of life.
“I’ve been wrenching since I graduated. I used to come here all the time in my high school days and I would say ‘One day, I’m going to race. One day, I’m going to race,’ ” says Whitley, flashing back to his years at the old Belmont Secondary School, which was torn down this past year.
“I made some fairly poor decisions in my life with drug addiction. That took me away from life, pretty much, for 13 years, but August of this year will be nine years, clean and sober. One of the promises I made to myself, to give me motivation, was to hit this track hard and give it everything I had.
“That’s where I’m at now,” he says.
This will be his fourth season of racing, having finished sixth in the class two years ago, then fourth last year.
“The car was a lot of work. It took me about seven-eighths of last season to get it where I wanted it to be, but Championship night of last season I won pretty much every race I went into, except for the heat race,” he says. “I didn’t get a chance to do anything to it in the off-season. She is where she was last season and I hope – with everything crossed -- that she stays together.”
The modified 1971 Firebird with a 355-small block Chevy engine ran well in practice last week.
“I’m one of the only ones out here who runs a four-speed standard. I find you can control the car better with a standard in it,” offers Whitley, who by day works as a mechanic at Vic West Automotive in Esquimalt.
His career was overcome by his addiction, but he’s back and in a very good place.
“What took me out at the knees was cocaine. I had no idea I was an addict. I tried it for the first time and I lost everything. The second I attempted it, it was over,” says Whitley, who moved on to the more hard-core drug after mostly drinking and smoking the odd joint. “It didn’t help that I had just lost my mom to leukemia. It was a brutal thing, watching her deteriorate.”
That was some 20 years ago.
“Poor choices came into play, but now I’m back,” he insists, joyfully looking ahead to another race season.
“She was on jackstands,” he says of his Firebird, which remained virtually untouched — besides a little paint — since his strong finish last season. “I figured I’d make it a little brighter because there are new drivers coming into the class and, from experience, it can get real ugly, real fast and if they can’t see your car, there’s a good chance you’re going to get hit.”
Racing isn’t for the timid, he says.
“What the spectators see in the stands doesn’t do it any justice. This is car No. 4 for me and the first three didn’t live,” says Whitley, who has suffered fractured ribs and plenty of bumps and bruises along the way. “It’s a lot worse in the car than watching in the stands.
“Now it’s about coming out and turning laps and relieving stress. It was something I needed to do for myself and it’s been extremely enjoyable.”
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