Craig Slaunwhite won his first Maritime Pro Stock Tour championship in 2021; his road to get there was a long one – as he recalls in this interview with Ken followed by a collection of photos paying homage to Slaunwhite’s racing career. KM – Before we talk about your championship season, I want to go way back and hear how you got interested in stock car racing. CS – That would be through helping my cousin Troy Slaunwhite. I used to work on his cars when I was a kid. I’d work on it all week long, then on the weekend, I’d go to Scotia Speedworldand sit in the grandstands and watch. I wasn’t allowed in the pits back then because I was too young. But he’s the one who got me hooked. I grew up right across the street from him and I spent a lot of my childhood there. He was certainly my inspiration in my younger years. KM – So once you got old enough, you decided to get a car of your own? CS – I bought a Hobby stock from Danny Harvey in 2000. He used to run a junkyard out in Timberlea. He owned it, but I don’t know who ran it before he had it. Anyway, I ended up buying it from him. I ended up crashing that car bad one night at Scotia. It was late in the season and I hit the wall so hard it pulled the frame away from the body. The windshield even came out and hit the fence. I sold the car at the track that night. I forget their names. The boys from out behind the airport bought it right then. I delivered it to them that night too. KM – So the next year you decided to move up a class to Street Stock? CS – I did. I ended up buying a car from Matt and Roy Scott. The motor was gone in it, and my old man built a motor for it. We raced that car 6 or 7 times in 2001 between Moosehead and Scotia. I won 3 features out of 7 races with it. Then we ended up blowing a few motors later in the year so I just sat out the next season. KM – So you didn’t race at all in 2002? CS – I went motocross racing actually. I grew up with dirt bikes and decided to get back on one and race it. Had a ball. But halfway through that summer, a buddy of mine crashed in front of me and I broke my ankle trying to avoid him. That’s when I decided to get back in a roll cage. KM –So in 2003, you moved up to Sportsman. That had to be a big transition? CS – Yeah from street stock to sportsman was a decent amount. Different tires, handling, fiberglass full body versus steel, standard versus automatic. It was altogether different really. I bought Phil Barkhouse’sSportsman that year. That car won some races around the Maritimes. I can’t remember if I won in my rookie season or not. I think I did. But in 2004 I got a few wins, and in 2005 I got some more. Then in 2006 and 07, I couldn’t do any wrong. Won the Championship at Scotia both years. I think in 2007, I won 12 of 14 races. At the end of ’07, I got the opportunity to run Pro Stock, so I ended up selling my Sportsman to Ashley McHattie down in Riverside. KM – You also ran a neon orange Sportsman at Riverside in ’07? CS – I think it was for just one race. Eric Thibault’s car. He’s a lobster guy from Digby. KM – 2008 was a big year for you. You drove the Scott Fraser Racing pro stock for Frank Fraser. How did that come about? CS – I was affiliated with them through Phil (Barkhouse) when we were building his pro stock car. I remember being in Frank’s shop with Scott, Phil, Frank, Curtis, and Frankie Jr. That’s when I got my feet wet at Fraser’s. And that got me in the door as far as knowing them. I kept friends with them over the years and crewed for Phil on his pro stock car. Shawn Turple and I were friends and then he got the SFR ride after Scott passed away. Shawn ran for Frank for a few years, then Frank raced the car himself in 2007. KM – Didn’t you race the pro stock in ’07 a bit? CS – I did. Frank couldn’t make a doubleheader weekend. There was a postponed race at Riverside, but he was signed up to do the International at Riverglade. Curtis called me the day before and said “what do you think about running the pro stock tomorrow?” We scaled the car up that Saturday and went to Riverside. The rest is history. So that race was to get my feet wet in a pro stock for the following year. I ran the 200 at Scotia at the end of 07 as well. We were getting along well and then we went to Shediac after that and won the Pepsi 250. Frank was supposed to drive, and I was there crewing. But he got sick before the heat race. So I got in and ended up winning the feature that night. KM – What a great way to end ’07, and launch you into your rookie season on the tour? CS – It really was. Frank decided that he was done running full-time. Dan MacLeod was still at Atlantic Cat and he was a longtime friend and supporter of Scott’s and the Fraser family. So we still had Atlantic Cat’s support. Mountain Wild Blueberries stayed on and Halifax Glass came aboard too. That was my first association with Matt, Dougie, and Mary Lynn. So we were in good shape sponsor-wise for the ’08 season. KM – So you win your first tour race in ’08 at Riverside. You had a great battle with Lonnie Sommerville in the Scott Kelly Memorial 100. CS – That was my first win on the tour. Then later in the season, we went to Speedway 660 and I won the Peterbilt 250. Then we finished off the year by winning the Parts For Trucks 200 at Scotia. Just a great rookie season for me. KM – You managed to get back in a Sportsman in ’08 at Riverside? CS – Billy Beaton’s car. He’s a former racer and runs Boston Pizza in Antigonish. That was a fast car. Billy wanted me to run it for him but I got caught up in a wreck that night. I don’t really remember exactly what happened there but I do remember the #58 upside down. KM – Sportsman and Pro Stock cars look so similar nowadays. But there are a lot of differences? CS – Yeah it’s significant. More power, better brakes. Things happen faster so your reaction time has to be faster. The only thing that’s the same from a sportsman to a pro is basically the size. KM – In 2009 you started your own Pro Stock team. Why didn’t you continue driving for Frank in ’09? CS – It was a 1-year deal basically. Frank was getting to the point where he was getting out of the whole pro stock thing. Sponsors started petering off and it was just hard for him to run the team himself. Halfway through that ‘08 season, we switched to a chassis built by Geg McCulloch. But Greg still owned the car, and Frank owned all the drivetrain. It was a shared deal back then. So when I went on my own in 2009, Frank gave me the opportunity to pay him out for the drivetrain and Greg gave me the opportunity to pay him out for the car. Frank allowed me to use his shop, tools, trailer, and basically his crew But it was kind of a wake-up call when you’re trying to run a team on your own. We were a second-year pro stock team and I was just lucky I had good guys around me. So a couple of sponsors stuck around like Doug Hines at Halifax Glass and a couple of smaller ones. Without the guys, I would never be able to do it on my own. But 2009 wasn’t a good year for me. I think I might’ve gotten a trophy or two. It was weird because you’re coming off that rookie season where we did so well, and we did nothing in 09 or 2010. KM – But in 2011 things started to look up? CS – It did. We won the Dartmouth Dodge 200 at Scotia that year. It was our first win since our rookie year. I bought a car from Stevie Henderson that year, and we were switching back and forth between chassis’ all season. I had the old car sitting in the shop, and I just said ‘let’s throw it together and run the last race with it’. I don’t know how we fluked out on the setup, but we ended up dominating that day. We went home and put the car and jack stands. Didn’t touch it all winter. I brought it to the first race at Scotia in 2012, the Carquest 100, and won that. KM – Jumping to 2013 and such a memorable win, the Cat 250. CS – That was 1 week after Mike Stevens died. I had Mike’s steering wheel in the car. The stars all lined up for me that night. KM – You and Mike were close? CS – We partied a lot for a few years. Between his family and crew and my family and crew, and Jonathan and Turple, we all partied together a lot back then. It was just a terrible night in PEI when we lost him. It was a terrible night for everybody and a terrible night for racing in the Maritimes. It was a terrible night for a lot of things. I still remember packing up his trailer that night. It was a pretty crazy night. KM – Travis Benjamin raced your car at Petty that year. How did that come about? CS – My brother was getting married that day. That was the week after I won the Cat 250. Travis and I were friends and we always talked. I’d go down to Maine and visit him and stayed at his place a few times. I knew he wanted to come back up here and race, so I said “if you can bring a few guys up, you can take my car for the weekend”. He was all over it. KM – At the end of 2013, you went to Oxford for a PASS race. You drove the King Racing #13? CS – I was good friends with Andrew and he knew I really wanted to try Oxford. We went down with their Hamke car and we were quick. Top 4 or 5 in practice. We qualified decent and I was working my way up through traffic with Cassius Clark. He was driving the 77 car then. I remember a caution came out, and my stagger went to hell. I ended up going backward. Don’t even know where I finished. But it was shaping up to be a good run. I liked how the car ran, so in 2014, I went to Pennsylvania and bought a Hamke car. It was the first ‘builder’ chassis I owned. We did well in that car but never got a win. KM – In 2015 you dominated the International at Petty. You did the same in 2016? CS – Could do no wrong at that race. Everything worked out for us those 2 years there. KM – In 2017 you finished 5th in points with no wins. But you also went to the Oxford 250, your first and only attempt. CS – Oh my god it was a terrible weekend. We went with Gary Crook’s Port City house car. I drove down the week before and we practiced. Thought we were good. You’re not really comparing much, but the car seemed good. We put Travis Stearns (an Oxford regular) in the car to see how he reacted. Travis thought the same thing, it was decent. We went back the next week for the 250 and it just stayed the same every lap time, no matter what we threw at it. Changed tires and was on the scales more times than you can imagine. It just stayed that exact same time for every lap. We were 1/2 a second off everybody. It was bad. It was so disappointing. The only thing good about the weekend was the party after the race. KM – In 2018 you had a much better year finishing 3rd in points. CS – The old Hamke car was dialed in that year. We ended up finishing 3rd 7 or 8 times that year. Never got a win, but finished upfront a lot. It was the year of Cole & Dylan. They swapped wins all year. They couldn’t do anything wrong, and I just happened to be there near the front. That was my highest finishing points year too. KM – In 2019 you finished 5th in points CS – That was the year we put a deal together with Gary (Crooks). He had just bought Port City and he wanted to get the name up here a little bit. We ended up working a deal that he was going to supply the chassis and I was supplying the motor and tranny and things. We kind of expected to set the world on fire really. We had done so well in ’18 with the old car, and Gary had some good things going on, but nothing worked. Think the highlight was a third at the IWK 250 that year. We just struggled all year. Gary was up 4 or 5 times and we tested a lot. Seemed like we could get good speed out of it for 10 laps, and then just backward. Near the end of the year, Greg Proude and I tangled on the backstretch at Riverside and I ended up in the wall. It got torn up pretty bad. It went back to Gary’s needing a frame horn, a hoop, and a body. KM – That takes us to 2020 and the pandemic year. CS – Gary’s deal was a 1-year thing and I had the option of buying it at the end of the year. After it got torn up and sent back to him, I was pretty much done at the end of 2019. Then Covid happened. The world was in lockdown but racing was starting to open up a little bit. My old car was just sitting there in the garage. All it needed was the motor and tranny to be put back in. We decided to do it. So we ran 6 or 7 races in 2020. Never really done much. Finished 3rd a couple of times, but never got that win. KM – What happened in the off-season which lead to your 2021 championship season? CS – Well, Andrew Hicken and I were talking the year before. I told him that I wanted to make a couple of laps in a Fury car because Jonathan tore the world up in 2019 with a bunch of wins, and then did the same thing in 2020. So Andrew was in the same mindset and he wanted me to make a few laps as well. So it was a practice night at Petty. It was either before the International or before the Mike Stevens race, something like that. I was there testing my car for 3 or 4 hours slugging at it. Thought we got pretty decent. Andrew showed up with Jonathan’s car, but Johnathan couldn’t make test night. So at the very end of practice, Andrew said ‘do you wanna hop in this thing and go make some laps?’ I got in the car and I just wasn’t comfortable. I couldn’t get it all the way to the floor, wasn’t comfortable with the brake, wasn’t comfortable with the steering wheel, couldn’t see that well. I made 5 or 6 laps and ended up being 3/10ths faster than my own car. So I came in and Andrew said ‘how did that feel?’ Even though I was uncomfortable, it had so much side bite and turned so well. It drove off the corner like nothing I’d ever felt. I got out of the car and grabbed my helmet and did the walk of shame down to my own pit. My guys said ‘how was that?” I said ‘I think we should just go home cause I think we’re here to chase Jonathan’. So the next day I was talking with Jonathan. I said ‘look, if anything happens with you, cause I know that Ethan is getting of age to get a car of his own and you may be backing off a bit, so if the opportunity does come up and you may be getting rid of the car, I wouldn’t mind knowing’. So at the end of the 2020 season, Andrew called me and said ‘listen, we are going to get rid of it. Jonathan is going to step back for a while and concentrate on Ethan’s racing’. I ended up putting a fire sale on for my car. My sponsors Archibald Drilling and Blasting and Presidential Ventilation came together and said if that’s what we need to do if you think that’s the right choice to make to get us to where we need to be, then we’ll do it. So those guys stepped up big time at the end of 2020. So we bought that car and it was just unreal what happened in 2021. KM – Is King Racing maintaining it? CS – I basically kept it down there all year. I was in a situation where I was selling my house and a couple of life-changing events happening, so I felt it was the right thing to do. I drop it off on Sunday and pick it up on Thursday or Friday and go to the racetrack. I mean it paid off so much that I can’t wait to do the same thing this year. Three tour wins plus the Mike Stevens Memorial win at Petty. Just an awesome year. KM – You always seemed to have great supporters. Who are some of your sponsors? CS – I really have. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to compete. Archibald Drilling & Blasting, Presidential Ventilation, Stones RV, Atlantic Explosives, Clutch.ca, Sylrick Enterprises, B&L Fulmore, Daikin, Xander Sign Group. I have to mention Halifax Glass. Doug and Mary Lynn Hines and their son Matt became awesome sponsors and friends. Matt had worked with the Fraser’s and Turple, and Doug started backing us when we ran for Frank. Doug supported me right up until he passed. Then Mary Lynn hung on for another year. Just great people. KM – Let’s mention your crew. CS – Matt Hines, Shane Lively, Roderick Dean, Stephen Nicks, Curtis Lindsay, Mike Fulmore, Jeff Fulmore, Andrew Hicken. I really want to thank my family and friends for all their support over the years. Also, all my former crew members and sponsors over the years, thank you. KM – We’re about 2 months away from the start of the season. What are your plans for 2022? CS – Back up the championship. Will be nice to race a full season and put covid behind us. And of course, win as many times as I can. Click images to supersize or to view a slideshow. Copies are available by emailing KensPhotos@ns.sympatico.ca.
