Father. Mentor. Friend. Those are the first words that come to mind, but they’ll never do him justice.
This is my father-in-law — Don Campbell. He means more to me than any man in my life, and this picture will always be one of my favourites.
Almost every lesson I’ve learned — in life, business, and especially in racing — came from Don. From day one, he treated me not as his daughter’s boyfriend, but as his son.
Some of my favourite “DC lessons”:
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“If you don’t have time to do it right, what makes you think you have time to do it twice?”
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“You can’t win in racing without luck.”
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“Like the farmer said when his dog died — he never did that before.” (An inside joke, but one that stuck with me.)
In 1992, the same year Leanne and I graduated high school, her mom took her to Europe while Don travelled to the Pacific Northwest for races in Woodburn, OR and Kent, WA. To my shock, he invited me to come along. Pretty remarkable as we’d only been dating a few months at that time.
Up until then, I had never even been to a racetrack. But suddenly, there I was — in Don’s garage, staring at his Super Comp dragster like a kid seeing Christmas morning. I got to wax the car, help load it into the trailer, fuel it, and even drive the tow vehicle. They were small jobs, but to me, I felt what it was like to be in racing.
I had no clue what I was doing mechanically, but I learned how much work goes into keeping a race car alive. That lesson carried into every form of racing I’ve done since.
That trip ended with Don winning his first-ever NHRA Division 6 race — a career highlight decades in the making. At the time, I didn’t realize how rare that kind of moment was. One race, one win — I thought racing was easy. The next weekend in Seattle taught me just how cruel this sport can be. Racing giveth, racing taketh away.
From there, the garage became our second home. Nights spent wrenching, listening to Oldies 1260, playing “name that tune.” Some of my favourite memories are right there, just the two of us.
In 2008, Don and Mark stepped back from drag racing, which opened the door to karting. We bought one kart to share, but after the very first night we realized we’d need two. (We weren’t built to split track time!)
My path took me deeper into karting, then into working with Alex in IndyCar, and now NASCAR Canada. But it all started with Don.
Just last weekend, he joined me at EDKRA. Before long we were turning wrenches, chasing performance, and finding speed in the smallest places.
Any day with DC is a good one. But a day at the racetrack with him? That’s something no words can truly define.
Thanks for everything, Don.