Music: {allcanada} Wallace Returns To Clam Alberta Title

Thursday, October 28, 2010

{allcanada} Wallace Returns To Clam Alberta Title

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Roy Wallace exceeded his own expectations and celebrated his return to racing with a NASCAR championship.

The 42-year-old Edmonton, Alberta, driver edged Greg Moir to win the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Alberta championship. Wallace had six wins and 15 top fives and 16 top 10s in 16 starts to edge Greg Moir for the title.

"We totally surprised ourselves," said Wallace, who took last season off. "Greg is such a class act. He is the driver who everyone else measures themselves by around here. We were in pretty close point races all season."

The NASCAR Alberta champion was determined by the driver's highest 18 finishes at NASCAR sanctioned tracks within the province. Both Wallace and Moir race in the WIR Late Model Division at Edmonton International Raceway, a .250-mile paved oval. While Moir won the track by three points, Wallace was able to take the provincial crown by 13 points.

2010_NWAAS_Feature_Callout_box "I love the whole NASCAR experience," Wallace said. "I was always a fan of Rusty Wallace so there's a sense of connecting with the big time through the NASAR Whelen All-American Series."

Wallace started his racing career with high school friends in motocross motorcycle competition as a teen, then worked his way through Mini Stocks and road course racing before discovering Edmonton International Raceway.

"Edmonton International Raceway is one of the longest continuous running tracks around us," Wallace said. "It opened as a dirt track in 1969 and was paved in 1994. It's located an hour outside of Edmonton so it's away from the big population center, but it always had a great local following.

"We didn't catch on to it until 2004, and then we were hooked. I've been living cars and loving racing ever since."

He started out in the Claimer division. He posted a 12th-place finish in track points and won the fall championship race. He moved up to the K-Rock Thunder Car division in 2005-06 and finished third and second, respectively. In 2007, he advanced to the Late Model division and was named Most Promising Driver for the Year.

He fulfilled that promise by winning the division championship in 2008.

Of note to Wallace is that he's been able to race within a reasonable budget with a 15-year-old chassis. He said the car's lineage goes back to Greg Biffle's Vancouver, Wash., race shop in the mid-1990s. Biffle narrowly lost out on the 1995 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship on a tiebreaker to the late Larry Phillips, a five-time series champion.

Wallace has spent 25 years as a Hyundai automobile dealership mechanic and his employer, Sherwood Park Hyundai, sponsors his race car along with DC Automotive.

In addition to wife Michele, Wallace's team members include crew chief Todd Knowles and crewman Ryan Emberly.

Wallace and his wife visited Charlotte Motor Speedway in recent years while the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte was still under construction. The highlight of the trip was participating in the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the big track.

"Those Cup cars seemed so cumbersome and heavy compared to Late Models," Wallace said. "The top speed they allowed us was 50 mile an hour slower than when they're actually being raced. I gained a whole new respect for the guys who race those cars."

Wallace will return to Charlotte to be honored Friday, Dec. 10 at the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards Banquet at the Charlotte (N.C.) Convention Center's Crown Ballroom in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion, U.S. state and Canadian provincial champions, track champions, rookies of the year, and special award winners will be recognized.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is the grassroots, foundation of NASCAR and consists of more than 50 short tracks across North America. Since its inception, NASCAR Home Tracks have served as a springboard in the careers of many NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, and Jamie McMurray are among the drivers who began their careers racing in NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.