SASKATOON — Most people know Kim Breckner through her public roles as the MLA for Saskatoon Riversdale, Opposition deputy House leader and critic for trade and export development.
But in her other life, Breckner is a race car driver — a drag racer, to be exact — who has just returned from her latest competition at a major drag-racing event at Saskatchewan International Raceway last weekend.
“Yeah, I think it's not a well-known fact about me,” Breckner said while speaking to SaskToday on Thursday.
“People look at me, and ‘race car driver’ isn't the first thing that they would expect from somebody who's kind of a petite woman like me. So it comes as a surprise to a lot of people, but a lot of people think it's neat, and I really appreciate that.”
Breckner's appearance at SIR was part of a historic occasion for the track. It was the annual Southwinds Showdown, with this particular event marking SIR's 60th anniversary.
The special occasion drew Breckner away from her usual political duties and back onto the SIR track, a venue she still attends frequently and one to which her family has deep connections.
“I started racing when I was 12 years old,” Breckner said. Her dad, Mike Osemlak, has “been a racer at Saskatchewan International Raceway for quite a long time, and I grew up attending the races.”
She became a racer herself when the track introduced a program in which kids could compete on the track to win Beanie Babies as prizes.
“When I was 12, they brought in a children's program. It's called the Junior Dragster Program, where we could run a half-size version of a regular dragster, and that was for anybody aged eight to 18, and then I could compete for my own Beanie Babies at that point.”
What happened, Breckner said, is “I just stuck with racing. I stayed in the Junior Program until I got my licence, and then I moved up into an Altered. So an Altered is basically kind of an old roadster-type car that's been converted into a race car. It has no doors, you jump in over the tire, and we, over the years, have worked on it.”
That car ended up being “totalled” a few years ago, but they ended up working on a new Altered, and “we've just been building bigger and faster engines and enjoying time together out at the racetrack.”
“I just want to say how fun it is to be with my family every weekend at the racetrack,” her dad said.
Of the race car itself, Osemlak said the “body style on this car is based on a 1932 Austin Bantam.” It is called “an Altered” because the driver sits in the centre of the vehicle instead of on the driver's side.
The 1932 Bantam Altered has 1,200 horsepower and a 645-cubic-inch engine, with the engine described as Predator Big-Block Mopar. Breckner took the wheel of this vehicle during the past weekend at SIR.
For this special event at SIR, Breckner competed as the driver, with her dad serving as crew chief and regular crew member Norm Ebach of Moose Jaw joining them.
Joining them to cheer them on were two local Saskatoon MLAs, Vicki Mowat and April ChiefCalf.
Breckner said NDP Leader Carla Beck had also tried to join them but got caught up in “the extraordinary lineup and wasn't able to get in before she had to go to her next event.”
“So, I had April and Vicki out with me. I showed them the ropes and how we do things, and … Vicki came with me to the staging lanes and came with me to tow the car back and supported us, and it was really fun.”
While it was a memorable day for the Breckner team and its supporters, things did not go so well in the race itself.
“So this was the first time out with this particular motor that we had sent away to get some changes, and we brought it back, and it does 1,200 horsepower. We were hoping to maybe get down the track in maybe seven seconds flat,” Breckner said.
“We had a bit of an issue. It turns out we had a bad plug wire, and the converter is a bit inefficient. So we have to look at the transmission and see what has gone wrong there. So we didn't go as fast as we wanted to.”
She said they still went down the quarter-mile in 7.3835 seconds at 183 miles per hour, but they were hoping to go a little faster. They ended up losing in the first round.
“So it wasn't the greatest weekend for us, but it was a really great weekend for the track. I know they had record attendance numbers, both spectators and racers out there. And overall, it was just great to be with a lot of people and be out at the track, and so even when it's a bad day technically, it's always a good day out at the track.”
Breckner and her family part of the lore of SIR
All in all, Breckner is proud of how SIR has grown over the years. She noted there have been tracks closed throughout North America, but in Saskatchewan, “we're heavily investing in our track to make improvements. We're seeing people come from Manitoba, Alberta, B.C. and the United States, and year after year, we're seeing more people come out to participate and watch.”
Breckner pointed to the significance of what the racetrack does for public safety, as it “offers an outlet for people to test their vehicles and get that need for speed out in a safe and controlled environment.”
Breckner said the main aim of the racetrack itself is “to reduce illegal street racing” by providing that safe and controlled environment. She pointed to safety features at the track, including an ambulance on-site, safety checks, technical inspections, safety gear requirements and so on.
As a female participant, Breckner said she felt very much at home in what has traditionally been a male-dominated activity.
“I don't know what the particular statistics are, but I feel like we have a very good ratio of men to women drivers at the racetrack. It's a very welcoming place. I was the first female president of the track racing association, but I never felt out of place or different for being a woman. Women are certainly encouraged to participate. And I think that comes from the track adopting a children's program too, as this has become more of a family-oriented sport than maybe it would have been back when my dad started racing.”
After her humble beginnings as a junior dragster, Breckner rose to become track president just before entering politics. She said she oversaw a number of improvements there, including resurfacing.
All in all, she believes SIR and the sport of drag racing are in strong shape in Saskatchewan.
“I think we saw with the 60th anniversary feature event and the unprecedented numbers of participants and spectators that the sport of drag racing is alive and well in Saskatchewan,” Breckner said.
As for her own drag-racing background, Breckner thinks people will find it interesting.
“You know, as politicians, people often forget that we're humans too, right?” Breckner said.
“I think especially as an NDP MLA, you know, you wouldn't think that we have people who might be involved in car racing, but we have MLAs from so many different backgrounds and walks of life that I feel right at home in the caucus and having this unique hobby. And, well, I don't think it has really influenced my constituents too much in terms of who they would vote for. I think it contributes to that perception that your local politician is still a human with hobbies and interests and things that they care about. So I think that's the cool aspect of it.”
