When opportunity came knocking for Kenai’s Cameron McGahan, 21, it came knocking with both fists.
A few months ago, McGahan landed a job at Tesoro’s Nikiski refinery. He had been working at the plant for a little over three years as a contractor with the hope of getting hired by Tesoro.
Then came a trip to California in late March, when McGahan’s dream of making a living driving a race car took a step forward.
McGahan, who has been winning Sprint car races at Twin Cities Raceway since the age of 16, got to drive a Midget car put together by DMS Race Products, one of the most respected Midget teams on the West Coast. Sprint cars and Midget cars are similar, except that Sprint cars run on eight cylinders while Midget cars run on four.
At the Bay Cities Racing Association Midget opener, held at the three-eighths of a mile track at Shasta Raceway Park in Anderson, Calif., McGahan qualified third out of 18 cars. He then finished third in the Trophy Dash and fourth in Heat 3.
McGahan’s talent was still enough to catch the eye of Marc DeBeaumont, the owner of DMS Race Products. DeBeaumont, 35, has told McGahan he is welcome to drive with DMS Race Products again.
“It seems like everything is coming together,” McGahan said. “I’ll have every other week off so I’ll have a lot more of an opportunity to get down there and try a lot of stuff out.
“Hopefully, I’ll get a few more shots down there and race a few more times this year.”
“He has some of the best cars on the West Coast,” Cameron said of DeBeaumont. “I got a look at the work they put in, and the team they have working on it. They have high-class people.
“When you have the best stuff, it’s easier to race.”
“Ultimately, this sport takes money to race,” DeBeaumont said. “He seems like he’s got some talent, and he deserves a shot at running some more races.
“I would love to have him race again, but it takes sponsorship to be able to do that.”
“I’m not on a shift yet. I’m still in the training portion of my job,” Cameron said. “Because I don’t know what shift I’m on right now, it’s hard to choose a weekend to go down and race.
“I’ll actually have a shift figured out in the next couple weeks.”
“It’s great for a kid from Alaska to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” McGahan said. “Finally, one of the Alaska racers has an opportunity to make it big.”
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