COOL AS ICE
By Kevin Ma, Staff Writer

A cold wind rolls over the Stratotech raceway near the Bunge Canada crushing plant in Sturgeon County.

Racing through it at about 130 km/h is The Iceman: Mike Czaja, Bellerose Composite High School student and the Alberta Senior Rotax go-kart champion. He is focused, his head ducked low for speed, hands wrapped tight around the wheel, the roar of the 25-horsepower motor filling his ears and rattling his bones. He rockets through the corner on the tiny kart, his butt just two inches from the tarmac, blasting the few onlookers with a Doppler-enhanced breeYOW!

He plans to get his learner’s licence next week, he says.

Mike is one of the top kart racers in Alberta. At 16 years old, he was also the youngest person ever to race in the SuperKarts USA SuperNationals held last week in Las Vegas.

"This is my passion," Mike says of racing. "This is what I want to do …'when I’m 19 or 20 years old, I don’t want to be go-karting. I want to be racing real race cars."

The Iceman cometh

LIVING AT HIGH SPEED Sixteen-year-old Mike Czaja, a student at Bellerose Composite High School, stands amid a large group of go-karts at the Stratotech raceway near Fort Saskatchewan where he trains. Czaja recently entered the SuperKarts USA SuperNationals race in Las Vegas. Photo: April Bartlett, St. Albert Gazette

Ed Czaja, Mike’s dad, watches him from the sidelines. Mike set the track record in a race earlier this year, he says proudly. "Down this stretch, we’ve had Mike doing about 85 miles per hour."

Ed says he’s a big fan of auto-racing, having been a drag racer himself in years past. Mike picked up his enthusiasm when the two of them went to the 2000 Molson Indy in Vancouver. It was at that race that they saw a display of young kids racing go-karts. Intrigued, they visited the Stratotech track to watch a race and soon decided to buy their own kart. Mike was 10 when he started racing.

Ed and Mike head into the track warehouse to escape the cold. Inside are Chris Beith, the greasy-fingered jump-suited manager at the track, and about 45 go-karts on carts. "It’s pretty much the only way to move them without cursing," Chris says. Most of these carts are little more than a metre-square in size and weigh about 200 pounds.

Ed and Chris describe Mike as a passionate, competitive and slightly reckless driver who’s pretty popular around the track. "I think he’s flipped more karts in his three years here than any other junior," Chris says, referring to a racing class.

You can see hints of Mike’s nickname, "Iceman," in his attitude off the track: he’s confident in his stance, but not cocky, and otherwise calm, relaxed and cool.

Mike says he got his nickname from his almost supernatural ability to stay focused on the track. "When I go into the cart, I go into a completely different state," he says.

First, he closes his eyes, lowers his visor and says a prayer. His heart rate drops to about 62 beats per minute (the average rate for men is 72) and he zones out all distractions — the roar of 50 grumbling motors, the vibrations of the cart and the other racers. "Sometimes my dad taps me on the head and tries to talk to me and I don’t even notice he’s there." Then, when he hears the signal, he wakes up and is ready to race.

Tools and tricks

Ed, Chris and Mike describe racing as one part mental, one part mechanical.

"When you’re in a pack of close to 50 karts," Mike says, "you need to be relaxed." Staying calm lets you drive a consistent path every lap, he explains, which means a faster time. This can be tough in a race when you’re choking on exhaust, tailgating opponents and ramming people to speed up.

Drivers also have to contend with psychological warfare. The lead driver is under immense pressure to keep ahead, Chris says, pressure Chris personally exploits by letting his shadow slowly creep into his opponent’s vision. Drivers watch their opponents carefully, wait for a mistake and then pounce on it to advance.

Mechanically, racers must ensure their karts and bodies are in peak condition. Drivers experience up to three times the force of gravity in some turns, Mike says, and need the stamina to last through an entire race. "You can feel the blood in your body moving to one side," he says.

The karts, which cost about $6,000 to $12,000, must also be tuned for performance and safety, Chris says: good brakes, un-cracked bumpers and tight mounts. "You don’t want a five-pound chunk of lead coming off the cart when you’re doing 100," he says, referring to the weights added to carts for certain weight classes.

These skills and preparations come together when a racer has to survive the worst-of-all-scenarios, a crash.

Mike has the dubious distinction of being in the worst accident ever seen at the Stratotech track last year. "I remember every second of it," he says. "It made me a better driver."

It happened when another driver swung wide during a turn forcing Mike’s kart off the track. The kart hit a ditch at 80 km/h, flipped and sent him flying.

"Everything slowed down," Mike recalls. "I pushed myself out of my seat," after which time sped up again and the steering wheel rammed into his gut. He and the kart hit the ground, the kart briefly landing on top of him before it rolled away. "I think I rolled about 25 to 30 times and flew about 110 feet." He was taken to hospital with a concussion and bruises, his helmet, racing suit and neck brace saving him from serious injury.

Ed says he and his wife were a little reluctant to let Mike keep racing after this happened. "What made me want to do it again was his reaction. He wanted to go back right away."

Mike says he was back on the track within two days and placed in the top three the following weekend. "Honestly, I think I was the most relaxed of the whole situation," he says of the crash. The track managers also gave him a "high-flier" award to commemorate it.

SPEED MATERS - Mike Czaja, in the orange helmut in the upper left, enters turn five of the Super-Karts USA SuperNationals held last week in Las Vegas. Photo: Ed Czaja

What happens in Vegas…

Mike and Ed brought all this experience with them last week last week when they entered the SuperNationals XI race in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It was a pretty crazy place, Mike says of the city, with the streets full of traffic and revellers at two in the morning.

It was also about 26 degrees Celsius the whole week, Ed adds. "I asked myself why I live here!"

Mike did well in the qualifiers, Ed says, working his way up from last to 23rd place in the first few heats.

Mike says he was a little intimidated by the other drivers at first, but that faded away once he started passing them. "I felt I was part of the race instead of just a bystander."

He reached 18th in the Sunday final before one of his brakes seized up, Ed says, causing major drag on the wheels. A driver then nudged him from behind, throwing his kart sideways into a fibreglass, water-filled wall at 137 km/h. "That was the end for Mike."

A BAD FINISH - A nudge from behind sent Czaja careening into a fibreglass wall, bruising his body and finishing his race. Photo: April Bartlett, St. Albert Gazette

Mike says he ended up with bruises on his ribs, shoulder and left leg, but was well enough to return to school this week. "This was more a learning experience than anything else." Just watching some of the top drivers from Italy and South Africa race taught him a lot, he says.

Ed says he and Mike both learned more in those five days of racing than they have during the last five years. "I’m really proud of what he accomplished and what he learned and I’m happy he came off not injured."

Mike says he is now preparing for the Florida winter race tour and hopes to race in next year’s nationals in Quebec. He also plans to be at SuperNationals XII.

But his next immediate challenge is getting his learner’s licence. "Honestly, that’s not a big deal right now," he says. "Racing’s more important."