Shantel Kalika addresses the crowd at the Ches Leach Lounge for the This Girl Can event on February 28. (Submitted Photo/Mark Peterson Media)

By Rob Mahon

Kalika At This Girl Can

Local racer Kalika passes on lessons from the track at This Girl Can night

Mar 2, 2023 | 8:00 AM

Prince Albert’s Shantel Kalika always had a mentor to guide her through her early years of racing in her father, who races as well and has even raced against her. At the This Girl Can event hosted at the Art Hauser Centre on Tuesday, she hoped to pass on some advice and inspiration of her own.

“It’s been awesome to be able to meet all the girls,” Kalika said. “We’ve been walking around, and everyone has been talking to me. We had a signing in the first intermission, so it’s been absolutely fantastic.”

Kalika races in NASCAR’s Pinty’s Series, making two starts in 2021 at the Sunset Speedway in Ontario. According to her official profile on NASCAR’s website, she made her debut in 2018 though she started racing elsewhere before that as far back as 2010.

“My dad has raced my whole, entire life, and now it’s progressed to where he’s stepped back and I’ve stepped into the driving role,” Kalika said. “We’ve raced against each other, we’ve won championships in the same class as each other. At the end of the day, it’s always been in my family.”

According to Kalika, racers are getting younger all the time but she didn’t start her own racing career until she was 20 years old. But she’s put in the time since then and quickly gotten used to the incredibly fast pace of racing.

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“As soon as you strap in, you’ve got all these nerves and you’re going very, very fast but you feel like you’re going very, very slowly,” said Kalika. “It’s actually crazy the mind shift that you have when that happens.”

Before the game began, Kalika had a chance to address a crowd at the Ches Leach Lounge. If there was one lesson she wanted to leave with the attendees, including members of the Prince Albert Northern Bears AAA hockey team, it was that you can get further ahead if you’re willing to listen and learn.

“I had that mentor, but a lot of people don’t have that, so reach out to the circles around you,” Kalika said. “You can connect with so many different people from all walks of the world. Put in the research time.”

Kalika added that she’s felt constantly supported by the community of Prince Albert throughout her racing career and she’s proud to be from the city.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP