Fans at Wyant Group Raceway have a good view of the race unfolding from start to finish in the stands, but that isn’t the case for a driver who is strapped into their car.
“You can’t shoulder check, you can’t do anything,” explained Shantel Kalika, who races in the Pro-Truck Division.
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That’s why some divisions have spotters.
Shantel Kalika and Ben Busch are two of them. They race in different divisions, but also spot for each other, which is unique in it’s own right.
But add in the fact that Busch is Kalika’s father, and they’ve shifted into a whole new gear.
“We’ve had our fair share of arguments. Whatever you had going on outside, as soon as you’re in the race car, you have a job to do and you’re focused on what that is and nothing else matters at the time,” Kalika added.
Busch has 27 years of racing experience, but even as a veteran, he relies on Kalika to spot him more than his own vision.
“I don’t even use the mirror at all to be honest, it’s more just trusting Shantel,” Busch said.
“It’s not just the spotters job to tell you if you’re clear or what it is, it’s to relay information as well. And if you’re in an accident, it’s nice to have somebody and be able to bounce, ‘how bad is it, do we have to come in, do we not have to come in,’, that kind of thing,” Kalika noted.
Besides providing visual information, spotters need to rev up the drivers’ ego.
“When you see that last guy that you have to pass near the end, coming to the end of the race, that’s when you really gotta pump that person up,” said Busch, who won the Sportsman Division in 2011.
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Kalika also knows when it’s time to push Busch a little harder.
“I showed him a little bit of the aggressive side the last race day. I said, ‘when I tell you it’s clear, It’s CLEAR. I want you to get down!'”
Kalika and Busch have won their respective divisions in the past.
Kalika is the defending Pro-Truck Champion, becoming the first female to ever win the division. She’s currently in second place, one point out of first.
Busch is in third place in the Sportsman Division, 10 points out of first.
“I would say last year when I won the championship, it was exciting for me, and obviously with all the hard work that I’ve put into it, but it also meant a lot to me winning it because of the hard work and determination that (Busch) put into it too.”
If all goes right over the final two weekends, Kalika and Busch could put their stamp on history as the first father/daughter duo to win their divisions at Wyant Group Raceway.