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A fan of racing of all kinds, Wakewich has long had a special interest in sprint cars. He and several of his friends used to take turns playing sprint car racing games on the computer at each other‘s houses. “That got to be kind of boring, so we said ‘let‘s race each other on the Internet,‘” Wakewich recalled during an interview on Sunday. “But that was kind of boring (as well), because everybody was at home and we couldn‘t type (while playing), so you can‘t even talk to each other, and we went back to the old way.” Eventually, at a friends‘ suggestion, Wakewich decided to take the concept of virtual racing one step farther and turn his hobby into a business. He bought several sprint car chassis and put video gaming controls inside them. With the help of friends and family members, the process took eight months, starting in March 2007. “We just did everything ourselves,” said Wakewich. The result was a row of actual race-used sprint car bodies with linked computer screens, which Wakewich says combines the social aspects of gaming with the convenience of gaming online. The racing software comes from a sprint car racing game made in 2002 by Ratbag, a now-defunct Australian company. The rights for the game are held by Midway. Wakewich contacted the company to secure a licence or come to some sort of agreement, but one year later he is still waiting for the response that Midway assured him would be coming. The virtual sprint cars were first made available to the public in October 2007 at Arthur Street Marketplace, and ThunderSprint Racing was born. “(The Marketplace) was good exposure,” said Wakewich. “The people were there.” Then Wakewich was approached by the management of the Sports Dome. A deal was reached, and the virtual sprint cars found a new home. “Now I‘m in an entertainment facility instead of a mall,” said Wakewich. Although ThunderSprint is paying for itself and more, Wakewich said, h has had to devote a great deal of time to the business in addition to his job as a mechanic for Happy Time Tours. “Since I‘ve been (at the Sports Dome), I‘ve put in about 245 hours per month – not including my day job,” he said. Wakewich said his wife and their three teenage children have been very tolerant of the long hours he puts in. Fortunately, Wakewich‘s efforts seem to be paying off: he has a growing number of regular drivers and the second Virtual Sprint Car Invitational, which benefits Brain Injury Services of Northern Ontario (BISNO), runs on April 12. In the future, Wakewich said he would like to broaden ThunderSprint‘s involvement with local charities, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the George Jeffrey Children‘s Centre, for example. Although more events would entail still more work for Wakewich, he‘s up to the challenge. “This isn‘t a job to me,” he said. “This is fun.” Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |