Teen drivers rev up Speedway 95

Stock car racing, like other sports, has been looking to younger drivers to take it to the next level. Last season, it was Brian Vickers in the NASCAR Busch Series. He was barely 20 years old when he claimed the championship.

The youth movement in racing is sweeping the country from track to track. One doesn’t need to look very far around Greater Bangor to see a couple of fresh faces tearing up the pavement.

Two drivers from Brewer High School are already showing winning ways at Speedway 95 in Hermon and are looking for more.

John Kalel II is a 17-year-old junior at Brewer and races in the Four Cylinder Truck division at Speedway 95. Kalel put his No. 18 truck into Victory Lane last Sunday.

He has yet to finish outside of the top four positions. He sits near the top of the point standings and hopes to win top rookie honors this year.

“It felt great to get my first-ever win,” Kalel said. “I’d like to win rookie of the year in trucks and hopefully win the championship.”

This is Kalel’s second year racing at Speedway 95. Last year, he competed in the Little Enduros on Wednesday nights. He still plans on racing on Wacky Wednesdays in the same car he ran last year.

His dad, John Kalel Sr., had been racing for more than 20 years at various tracks across Maine, including Speedway 95, and bought his son a car last year.

Since then, John Kalel II has been hooked.

“I’m going to race as far as it takes me,” he said.

A Brewer High peer who joins Kalel on the track is freshman Jordan Pearson, who enters his first year of racing at Speedway 95, and is enjoying every minute of it.

“I love it,” Pearson said.

The 15-year-old Pearson races in the No. 30 car in the Strictly Street division and won in only his second-ever start. He can’t drive on the streets yet, but he already has been lighting up the racetrack. He also races against his brother Derek, who pilots the No. 29 in the same division.

“I don’t know how [Derek] is going to feel about being beat by his little brother,” Jordan Pearson said jokingly.

Jordan beat Derek in the first two races, but Derek finished second last Sunday with little brother Jordan finishing third.

“Our next goal is to finish one, two in a race,” said Jordan Pearson.

Their father, Scott Pearson, has been racing for many years and Derek decided to start racing as well. After that, it was just a matter of being old enough for Jordan to join in the fun.

Both John and Jordan Pearson are rookies in their respective divisions, but soon hope to become veterans in the sport.