“It’s been a few weeks since we’ve started it,” Daryl McFadyen said as he attempted to start his daughter’s Go Kart engine on a hot Saturday morning in Mooresville, North Carolina.
“Just getting myself situated in the seat,” Salina McFadyen said from the drivers seat. The 14 year old is ready to hit the Trackhouse Motorplex course for some practice.
“Be safe, have fun,” Daryl said as his daughter drove off. Who knew a family trip to a NASCAR race would result in all this.
“I just fell in love with it,” Salina said. “And kind of studied how the drivers started, and then I found karting.”
The need for speed runs in the family. Daryl McFadyen raced from the age of 11 to 17.
“My dad, he owned a business, and one of his customers couldn’t afford to pay him, so he actually traded a go kart for the services my dad’s company rendered,” Daryl explained. “And that’s how I ended up in it. There was a go kart one day in our backyard.”
Daryl won a couple of regional titles, he finished second at Grand Nationals in Canada. He wanted to race cars, but the finances got in the way. It’s been three years since Salina said she wanted to race, and she’s currently in the middle of her first full season in the Trackhouse Motorplex Karting Challenge which competes on tracks in North and South Carolina.
“One day, she wrote us a note, and it’s actually still sitting on our fridge at home as to why she should race,” Daryl said, who admitted he and his wife had some reservations. “At that point in time, my wife and I, we were like, we’ve got to give her a shot.”
The McFadyen’s started with a trailer and now rent a garage at the Trackhouse Motorplex in Mooresville. It’s a long commute from their home in Clayton. They’ll typically practice a couple times a week and race about once a month.
“There’s weekends when everything goes right and there’s weekends when everything goes wrong,” Daryl said. “For the most part Salina has been really steady and we’ve had good luck.”
Only ten races into her young career, Salina picked up her first sponsorship from Scooter’s Coffee in Clayton and earned her first podium finish in South Carolina.
“To have my medal, it felt really nice,” Salina said with a smile.
Climbing up the racing ranks won’t be easy, but Salina’s in the heart of NASCAR country and has the ambition to make her own break.
“I just enjoy watching NASCAR a lot and I think if I’m able to work hard enough and move up through the leagues, go to Legends, then actual cars, Xfinity, trucks,” Salina said. “I think I might be able to make it.”