When the FEL Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin (SCCC) visits Calabogie Motorsports Park this weekend, it will provide another opportunity for Khloe Drummond to gain valuable experience, as she moves from karts to cars.
Drummond’s road to sports cars began 14 years ago, when she got bored while watching her younger brother race karts and decided to get behind-the-wheel herself. She’s spent the last decade racing at Mosport Karting Centre and won both the MIKA Briggs Senior and MIKA ROK Senior championships last season. Despite years of competing on the CTMP property, she hadn’t raced on the big track until shortly before the Victoria Day opener.
“I basically live at the track; I work at the kart track, so I’m here every single day,” said Drummond. “But I’d actually never driven on (the grand prix circuit) until three weeks ago. I love it, it’s so much fun. I think the elevation changes make such a huge difference in a track and it’s so high speed, such technical corners, it’s a lot of fun.”
The track isn’t the only adjustment, as Drummond gets used to piloting a Hyundai Veloster N Turbo TCA car.
“The only thing I’ve ever run front-wheel drive in is ice racing, so it’s completely different,” said Drummond. “It’s been a lot different figuring out the front-wheel drive, figuring out the suspension, and just the size of the car; especially with the multi-class racing, it’s something that’s a little bit new too. It’s definitely been a big adjustment but now we’re starting to figure it out.”
Drummond’s karting championships came with a scholarship to try and move up to cars. With the support of Mosport Karting Centre, Michelin Motorsport, Hyundai Canada, and Pfaff Motorsports, FEL Motorsports launched its ‘Accelerating Inclusion’ program and selected Drummond to be the program’s first driver.
The Hyundai TCA is owned by FEL Motorsports and is being serviced out of Pfaff Motorsports, in Concord, ON. The opportunity to be a part of this program and make the move to cars was something that Drummond never expected.
“I’m unbelievably grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to get my start moving up in cars,” said Drummond. “I’ve grown up in karting. I have two younger brothers, we do everything together. Just the amount of money that it costs to even think about getting to that point, I never thought it was going to be an opportunity.”
Drummond says that she’d love to make a long-term racing career out of this but is trying to take things one step at a time and get up to speed as quickly as she can during her rookie TCA campaign.
The driver, who lives a short distance from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, opened the season with a pair of fourth-place class finishes at her home track. She’ll get another chance at the podium this weekend at Calabogie, where the SCCC will hold two races between Saturday and Sunday.
