Western Wayne Senior Tyler Peet has always had a love of cars. He has been involved in competition racing since he was seven years old. Members of his family have been involved in racing and this sparked Tyler’s interest in the sport.
This past race season, in October of 2020, Tyler won a race at the Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville and received a $1,500 dollar prize. The Big Diamond Speedway track is one that races weekly once the season starts. To partake in the race, participants arrive, pay a fee to participate, and then race.
“An event like this is very wild, hard, and stressful. The race format would be 7 p.m. warm-up laps for all cars, then there are heat races which is one of your qualifying races. This is a short 8 or 10 lap race with about 10 cars in the field (depending on how many cars come to race). In a heat race, your goal is to finish as close to the front of the field as possible because only a certain amount of cars will make the A-main. The cars that don’t qualify through the heat race will go to a last chance qualifier which could have anywhere from a six car field to a twenty car field. This race will be around fifteen laps long and less cars will advance to the A- main. The people that qualify for the A-main will race with the main goal being to win,” Tyler explained. ““In this race, I started in fifth and I was able to pass the four cars in front of me to take the lead and eventually take the race win.”
Since Tyler has been involved in car racing since he was very young, he has had a lot of training experience by racing as much as he possibly can during each season. He also enjoys his auto shop classes at Western Wayne and considers himself an all-around repair man.
“A big thing in the racing world is not giving up,” Tyler said. “This is a big lesson because in just a second your entire night can change.”
Being a part of the racing scene isn’t something that a lot of high school students commonly do.
“I would say being a high school student and racing is not very common,” Tyler, who also plays baseball for Western Wayne, said. “However, I know a good amount of people that are my age that race.”
There are some challenges that racers must overcome which Tyler discussed.
“I would say the most challenging thing is qualifying for the race just because of how many cars that show up,” he explained. “For example, I was at a race, at the end of the year, where about 90 cars came and only 30 made the main event.”
Tyler greatly enjoys his experiences with racing and hopes to continue racing after high school.
“My favorite part about racing would have to be winning races,” he said. “After high school, I still plan on racing. My goal is to move up the ranks and eventually turn it into my full-time job. Throughout the years, I have met a ton of people. I have not only had the opportunity to be around and talk to some of the biggest names in racing, but I have been able to also become friends and work with some of them.”
