PHOTO COURTESY BRIAN STATHAM
Eight-year-old Rylan Statham will join his dad Brian and grandfather Ross on the race track at the Medicine Hat Speedway this weekend for the first race all three generations have participated in.
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Saturday night will be even more of a family affair at the Medicine Hat Speedway.
Three generations of Statham racers will hit the track at the Speedway’s Sun City Ford Super Trucks races, marking the first time all three have raced at the same event.
The oldest of the three Statham’s, Ross has been racing for more than 30 years, his son Brian started this year and his son, eight-year-old Rylan, started behind the wheel last year and hasn’t looked back.
“It’s really exciting, it doesn’t happen that often,” Brian said. “Three generations on a racetrack at one time, it’s definitely pretty cool.”
Ross and Brian are competing in the baby grands class with Rylan burning rubber in the mini cups races, which features racers aged 8-15. Brian started racing this season because he wanted to share the track with his dad as the 66-year-old Ross is going season-by-season deciding when he’ll hang up his racing gloves. Brian says it was just perfect timing that brought them all together racing this year.
“I thought what better opportunity than to get on the track and have the three generations out there for maybe his final season,” Brian said. “My dad bought him that car two winters ago and Rylan has racing in his blood with my dad racing as long as he has. It’s really interesting to see a kid that small go that fast on race track.”
When Ross started racing three decades ago he never pictured sharing the track with his kids, or their kids, but is looking forward to what Saturday will mean to their family. He joked he won’t be out to get Bran in their race but wants him to earn the checkered flag.
“I have to cut him some slack but it still is a competition,” Ross said. “So I don’t want to take him out or anything but it’s all in a day’s fun.”
The Statham trio hitting the racetrack together Saturday marks the second year in a row the Speedway has featured three generations from one family. Last year it was Alf, Kevin and Marcus Hieb who all shared a special race day.
While Saturday will mean a lot to the Statham family, Brian says racing this season has already brought them all closer.
“To have this experience this young, it means a lot to Rylan, he’s pretty excited about it and so is my dad, I know it means a lot to him,” Brian said. “He’s definitely not an emotional kind of guy, he doesn’t say too much but you can tell he’s proud. He showed me the ropes there last week and I took the car for practice, we walked the track and I could tell it meant a lot to him.”
Brian’s first race was on May 24, he was five laps into the race before he was involved in a crash with another car and rammed into the wall. He says the crash was due to old tires that have since been replaced and he’s been able to set the car up for his specifications after having bought it and raced it for the first time that day. That crash, while scary and costly, gave Brian more time with Ross as they got the car back into action.
“If I didn’t have the race car, I wouldn’t be spending that amount of time with my dad, other than seeing him here and there,” Brian said. “With the race car now we have a chance to spend a lot more time together. In the last two months since I’ve had the car, there are definitely conversations that have been a lot more in depth and it’s geared towards the race car. But in the end, it’s more time I get to spend with my dad.”
He’s hoping to see a lot of families in attendance for Saturday’s race to share the moment and enjoy an evening of local, racing talent.
