Shantel Kalika is entering her second season on the NASCAR Pinty's Series (Submitted Photograph/Shantel Kalika)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Motorsports

Second season underway for local racer

Jul 9, 2019 | 3:32 PM

Prince Albert’s Shantel Kalika’s second season competing on the NASCAR Pinty’s Series is underway.

So far this year the local driver has a 12th place finish at the APC 200 at Jukasa Motor Speedway in Hamilton Ont. under her belt. This is the best finish she has had on the series so far.

Kalika, who is driving for Busch Racing in the AGI Dodge Challenger, has plans of competing in four more races this season. She said this season her and her team have specific goals for the year.

“I’d like to look at finishing in that you know 10 to 15 place and if I can do that, then that’s a definite feather in our cap,” she said.

The NASCAR Pinty’s Series, which is a feeder series for major NASCAR circuits consists of 13 races in total. The season runs from May into late September. Kalika said her team is not able to race in the series full time, but they are competing more than they did last year, where they made three events.

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The next race for Kalika and her team is July 24 in Saskatoon at Wyant Group Raceway Twin 125s. After Saskatoon, Kalika will head to Edmonton International Raceway in Wetaskiwin Alta. to compete on July 27. She will be capping off her season Sept. 28 at the Pinty’s Fall Brawl at Jukasa.

Heading into this season, Kalika said they were able to do some work on the car to help its overall performance.

“We’ve now had the off season to kind of focus on the car and focus on comfort and focusing on making the car better, so set up wise making it better,” she said.

Besides improvements to the car, Kalika said she has grown as a driver going up against the best drivers in the country. Along with performing on the track, Kalika said she has learned about how to better market herself and her sponsors.

Kalika was not the only person who had to make an adjustment, as her crew, which is her family, had to learn about what was expected on their end. This included making meetings among other things. Kalika said this past experience has them in a better position going forward.

“Now it’s going to be more of set up situation and leave it up to the driver at that point,” she said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn