Honda Indy holds promise for 21-year-old Johnston

SCOTT STIFF/Never2Fast Photography

Caitlin Johnston of Orangeville got her first taste of stock car racing at Mosport in June.

Norris McDonald

MOTORSPORT WRITER

Danica Patrick, Simona de Silvestro and Milka Duno won’t be the only women suiting up to race when the Honda Indy Toronto rolls into town.

Caitlin Johnston, a 21-year-old political science graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University who’s a veteran of the Ontario Formula Ford wars, will drive the Pizza Pizza-sponsored No. 01 Dodge in the Canadian Tire Jump Start 100, the feature race on Saturday afternoon, July 17, which is — believe it or not — only two weeks from today.

The headline Honda Indy race, starring defending champion (and Indy 500 winner) Dario Franchitti, IndyCar veterans Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon plus Canadian stars Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani (and the three women) will go to the post the following afternoon.

To say that Johnston’s excited about racing through the streets of Toronto on the eve of the Indy would be an understatement.

“It’s going to be a big weekend for me,” she said. “I’m going to have lots of friends and family there and, although I know it will be a big challenge, I really want to do well.”

The Honda Indy weekend race will be Johnston’s second start in a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event. Her first shot came a few weeks ago when the series visited Mosport International Raceway, where she eventually finished 19th in the 26-car Vortex Brake Pads 200.

Johnston, who’s leading this season’s Ontario Formula Ford (F1600) Championship, had never been in a stock car before Mosport. She started near the tail end of the field and was in and out of the pits all race. But when she was on the track, dicing with the other drivers, she attracted positive attention.

“It was quite a culture change,” she said afterward. “The big difference was the sheer horsepower (of the stock car) as well as the size and weight. I’m used to racing tiny formula cars that weigh 1,100 pounds with an engine that puts out 110 horsepower. The stock car weighs 3,000 pounds and puts out 550 horsepower — a huge difference.”

But the experience left her wanting more and explains her sense of anticipation as the Toronto race draws near.

“I’ve never raced on a street circuit before so I’m really excited about that,” she said during a phone interview this week. “And the Canadian Tire Series has a lot of fans who will turn out for that race and it will be really cool to race in front of a big crowd.”

Johnston got into racing quite by accident.

“We’d done some snowmobiling — my dad owns an ATV store — and some friends invited us to try out the kart track in Innisfil. By the time we finished that afternoon, I told my dad that he had to buy me a go-kart. I was 12 at the time and a year later I started racing.”

After a few years in karting, she moved into Formula Fords and hasn’t looked back. She’s progressed steadily, finishing 10th in the standings in 2007, her rookie year. Since then, she was sixth in 2008, fourth in 2009 and, as mentioned, is currently leading the 2010 points race.

What’s the attraction of racing?

According to Johnston’s website, it’s the “challenge that it brings. The best feeling is when you are racing at the absolute limit, knowing that the car is perfect and you are going all-out.”

In conversation, she added that she likes the challenge “of doing something different, something that you can’t do that you have to conquer. Also, going 160 miles an hour is so much fun!”

As well as the Ontario Formula Ford series, Johnston raced a season last year in the U.S. Formula 2000 championship (she met Patrick at Watkins Glen, “which was cool”) and finished 13th out of 38 drivers. But she was looking for a fresh challenge heading into 2010.

“We were looking at a few different options for this year but the Canadian Tire stock car series seemed like the best fit for me and Pizza Pizza,” she said. “We talked to D.K. Kennington about preparing a car and then Derek Lynch came aboard as crew chief (both men are veteran Canadian Tire Series competitors) and it all came together.

“We did the race at Mosport and I’m locked into Toronto but I’m really hoping to do the last three road course races at Edmonton, Trois-Rivières and Montreal. We still have to see about that, but I’m working feverishly to make it happen.”

Johnston, who lives in Orangeville and has her mother and father with her at all her races, has been supported by Pizza Pizza for the past six years.

“It’s a corporate sponsorship,” she said. “I’m very proud to have been able to represent them. I do some charity work with the company and I make 12 to 15 appearances at stores where I meet lots of great kids. I pose for pictures and sign autographs. It’s been a lot of fun and very rewarding.”

Johnston said she has hopes for a future in racing.

“Right now, we’re taking it race-to-race,” she said. “But the ultimate goal is to do a full Canadian Tire Series season next year. And after that, it’s an open book. I would love to go on to be a professional racer, to run NASCAR in the U.S. and make a career out of it.”

Four-time Ontario Formula Ford champion Shane Jantzi of Ayr — who’s running second to Johnston in this year’s standings — thinks she has a good chance.

“She’s a very determined racer,” he said. “I was always impressed at how well she listened to advice and then applied it to her racing. She responds very well to coaching and she’s eager to learn.

“I was particularly proud of her at Mosport and was very impressed with how she handled all the pressure. It was a new car and a new series and there was a lot of attention on her. She drove in the stock car race and people might have forgotten but she drove in two Formula Ford races that weekend, too. She showed how versatile she can be.”

Johnston isn’t leaving anything to chance, however. She’ll be entering Durham College in the fall to take a one-year course in sports business marketing — just in case.

“If I can’t make it as a driver, I’d still like to be involved in racing in some capacity,” she said. “I could work for a series, or a team. By going to university and following that up with the marketing program, I’m laying the groundwork.”

Norris McDonald writes an auto racing blog at Wheels.ca.

nmcdonald@thestar.ca

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