There’s nothing wrong with a little father and son competition.
Especially when two generations of the McCarrolls, Jonathan, 46, and Connor, 16, continue to tear up the national motorcycle racing scene and put Okotoks on the map in the high-speed, high stakes world of road racing.
“The competition I love,” said Connor, a Foothills Composite student. “Since I was little I’ve been very competitive. Even if it was playing street hockey with buddies on the driveway, I love winning.
“The adrenaline rush you get out of the speed is awesome.”
Racing their Honda RS125’s to speeds up to 170 kilometres per hour on pavement, counter to the dirt tracks used in motocross, adrenaline isn’t in short supply on the track.
“What we do is on the edge. There is a fine-line between winning and crashing out,” Jonathan said. “That’s why I’ve been doing it for 38 years. Finding the line between the top of the podium and the ambulance.”
Jonathan, who says he’s knocked himself out in a couple of bad crashes, has never broken a bone in his body.
There is little time to worry on race weekend with everything from tire pressure, suspension to preparing the bikes front of the mind.
“There’s 30 years between us. I’m competing against everything,” Jonathan said. “When I’m on the track I don’t fear crashing. As soon as you fear crashing, you may as well stop competing. You’re out for a joy ride.
“Connor is riding with no fear. You don’t lean a bike over the way he does and expect not to crash.”
Connor’s mother Claire has gotten used to watching her son, relatively speaking anyway.
“The first year I didn’t really want to watch. I would come to some of the races, but not all of them because I was just waiting for him to crash,” she said. “
Pushing those limits drives the precocious teenager forward.
After a scary high-side accident at a practice in Vancouver, Connor brushed it off, got back in the saddle and broke a track record at a race last year in the gorgeous seaside city.
He’s learned the tools of the trade from a racer with four decades of experience.
Jonathan, born and raised in Belfast, caught the racing bug nearly four decades ago across the pond.
“I started 38 years ago. I was racing motocross and I didn’t switch from motocross to road racing until 2003,” he said. “I always wanted to try it and I actually won a provincial and national title my first year.
“I found it very easy compared to motocross.”
Turns out the racing gene was passed down to Connor, who after initially showing no interest in the sport, jumped in with two feet four years ago.
Watching Canadian Brett McCormick make history as the first from the country to make it into World Super Bike on television while in Ireland got the Okotokian on board.
“Right in the first year we were racing against each other,” Connor said.
It was about time, according to Jonathan.
“I promised Claire that I would never force him into it. I was going to the track by myself,” Jonathan said. “I would rather line up beside him on the grid and race him to the first corner because usually after that, he’s gone, than be a mechanic.”
It’s since become a family business with Jonathan, Claire, Connor and Taylor, 14, packing into the trailers and hitting the open highway to the tracks across the country.
Connor proved himself a natural on the bike, finishing second at nationals in intermediate in his rookie season.
He jumped up to the expert division as a sophomore to kick-off a litany of championships. The understudy took centre stage last summer in Regina when Connor beat his father to the finish line for the first time.
“It was surreal watching my then 15-year-old son pass me,” Jonathan said.
At the 2014 National Mini Road Racing Championships, Connor won two number-one plates in earning both the Spec Supersport and Spec Thunder national titles.
Dad held his own at the competition, finishing second in the Formula GP and nationals and ranking as the top-Alberta racer.
The winning ways have continued on in 2015. Connor is yet to lose a race in the eunder-21 category. Jonathan finished third overall at the Western Canadian Championships, held on back-to-back weekends in Chilliwack and Quesnel, in Formula GP, just behind Connor in second and veteran racer Scott Borthwick in first.
Nationally, Connor is back in the familiar pole position.
He’s setting his sights on the international racing scene, looking to join McCormick as the only Canadians to compete in World Super Bike – the F1 or Indy car equivalent in motorcycle racing.
“Once you start dominating here you can head out to World Super Bike or Moto GP,” Connor added. “It’s totally do-able.”
Odds, history be damned.
“It’s virtually impossible to get a Canadian in there,” Jonathan said. “Some kid has to get drafted to the NHL, the odds are slim, but someone has to do it.
“You never know.”
As for dad, he’s not leaving the racing world anytime soon.
“I don’t know how long I can keep going,” he said. “As long as I’m hitting the podium now and again.”
