Sullivan Groff is two years away from getting a driver’s licence, but is old enough to drive a 1983 Chevy Stepside 66 miles per hour — 106 kilometres per hour — on a drag racing strip. Groff is a member of a heavily regulated junior street program. The 14-year-old from the RM of Dundurn will be competing in a five-race tour, starting on July 21 at Saskatchewan International Raceway (SIR), just south of Saskatoon. Groff said two reasons come to mind when asked about his passion for driving his family’s suped up truck. He said his father, Shane, has been a huge influence. They have a shared love for making vehicles go fast in a short distance. And, living approximately one kilometre from SIR has been inspiring too. From his home, Sullivan could hear the cars racing on the quartermile strip. It was a sweet sound.

Sullivan said when he heard about the junior street program, he knew he wanted to race. He didn’t have to twist his father’s arm. Sullivan took his first runs down the strip at SIR at age 13. In the junior program, Shane Groff rides shotgun during the races, and takes the truck from the pit to the staging area, and back again. “It has been a fantastic experience. It is a great father/son project,” Shane said. “I am impressed and very proud of my son.” Shane said he raced years ago and “then fell away from it while I was starting a family. This is my step back into it. I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.” He said Sullivan is as comfortable working on the truck as he is driving it. “He has been involved the whole way; things like building an engine.” “I did all the wiring on it and helped rebuild the engine. I did a lot of everything,” added Sullivan, who never quit smiling during a 10-minute chat.

A trip down the track is the reward for the hours and hours of work behind the scenes. The biggest event on the racing calendar is a tour called Miles and Mayhem. After registering and testing on July 21, the racing begins on July 22 at SIR, then heads to Alberta for dates in Edmonton, Lacombe and Medicine Hat. The tour winds up back at SIR on July 26. “That will be a first for me and my dad. We are here (on a recent Saturday) testing the truck and getting it ready.” He said his hope for the tour is to not have the truck break down and to have a good time. The good time is guaranteed. “Last year, a couple guys had to change engines right in the spot where we are standing (in the pit area at SIR).” Sullivan’s grandfather, Colin Rodin, said the tour is “a test of the vehicle itself and endurance. You have a highly-tuned machine at the track, taking it to the limit and it still has to be dependable to go from one race track to the next race track.”

In other words, there is no hauling these vehicles from site to site. Participants race and then drive or are driven to the next location. About 1,500 kilometres will have been put on the truck when it arrives back at SIR. In the junior program, drivers run one-eighth of a mile, unlike the quarter-mile runs of the older fellows. Sullivan said the truck is running in the 10s — the number of seconds it takes to complete the distance. In the quarter, with Shane behind the wheel, the vehicle runs a tad over 16 seconds. That translates to approximately 84 mph in the quarter and 66 mph when Sullivan is driving in the eighth. In kilometres per hour that is approximately 135 in the quarter and, as mentioned, 106 in the eighth of a mile. “I love driving the trucks, especially square-body trucks,” Sullivan said. “They are super fun; you get to have a blast in them. I drive anything that runs, from my mom’s Volvo station wagon to Dad’s 2010 Silverado.” The Chevy Stepside passed its tests at SIR a couple of weeks ago, and is ready for its run on the gruelling tour. “We have rebuilt a 350 (engine) head to take it to the machine shop to bore it out to 355. It’s a nice 350, paired up with a turbo 400 transmission with a shift kit, and it runs pretty good.” (In layman’s terms, that means it has a powerful engine, a good transmission and it goes fast.)

 Sullivan is grateful that Shane got him into racing. “I wouldn’t be out here without him,” Sullivan said. “He has made it fun.”

– Cam Hutchinson