Austin’s journey on and off the track

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Race for Autism team made a stop at the Strathmore Motorsports Park last weekend and for 16-year-old Uxbridge, Ont. native Austin Riley, this is a way of life that makes him feel content and accepted.
“Racing makes me feel free,” he said. “If I can follow my dreams, so can anyone.”
His father, Jason, remembers the day he got involved in the kart racing and how he never looked back but admits it was not easy at first.
“One day we received a flyer in the mail for an ‘arrive and drive’ go-kart program from Goodwood Kartways, which was 20 minutes from our house,” said Jason. “It took several weeks of convincing but Austin finally decided to try it. Then at age seven, my son sat in a go-kart, and for the very first time in his life I saw he was truly happy.”
He will never forget the endless enjoyment Austin got in kart racing as he finally found something he enjoyed.
“When he drove onto the track I remember hoping that this would work and we would find something he enjoyed,” said Jason. “It didn’t matter to me if he was good at it, I just wanted to be able to give the kid something he hadn’t had in his short life … acceptance.”
Austin refused to let his condition take over him fitting into the circuit.
“Just because you have Autism, it doesn’t mean you can’t do great things,” said Austin.
On that day, Austin would finish eighth in the race, but did not look back as he only got better each race he participated in.
That was the only time he missed the podium as he would make progression towards beating drivers that were older than him and making it to the higher ranks of kart racing.
“He is now racing at the highest level in North America and driving karts capable of over 100mph against men that are much older than he is still,” said Jason. “He has won three Karting Championships in his short racing career.”
Austin saw his performance on the track pay off with an impressive accomplishment and garnered the talk of the kart-racing world. Last August Austin realized his life-long dream and became the first person in the world with Autism to attend and graduate the prestigious Skip Barber racing school at Road Atlanta in Georgia.
However, it was prior to that where Austin garnered attention in the kart world when he competed at the Western Championships in Regina last year with times recorded at the top half of the race sheets.
On Sunday, the Strathmore Motorsports Park opened its doors to its 100 members racing in the establishment’s first race. The Calgary Kart Racing Club had approached town council last year in regards to relocating the multi-use motorsports park to Strathmore from Calgary. With too much red tape in the city, the organization was able to work with town administration and ultimately resulted of its construction near Eagle Lake.
“We are the only facility in southern Alberta, so we do draw from a number of different places,” said John Kwong, president of the Calgary Kart Racing Club. “It’s the kind of sport that makes people want to come from far and wide. Austin Riley, who [raced[ with us this weekend, he’s travelled across Canada raising awareness for Autism.”
According to Jason, Austin was claimed to be the best youth Autism racer from Ontario, and was amazed at the curiosity his story garnered from complete strangers.
“When the smoke cleared, Austin has finished an amazing third place and gained the biggest cheer from the crowd during the podium presentation,” he said.
In the 10 months that Jess Benje has been Austin’s educational assistant, she felt a special bond, not only in the classroom but because she races as well, that makes them comfortable around each another.
“When I first started with him in the classroom, Austin, he wouldn’t speak up if there were new people in the room,” Benje said. “He would go really shy and he would do all his talking through me.”
“As time has gone on, our relationship has gotten close. We kind of lost the teacher student thing,and I’m more of a big sister now. To say Austin progressed before the tour … he started to go into gym class and go into shop class and actually participate.”
Benje stated that Austin has been an inspiration to all and that disabilities should not limit what one can do in life.
He helped many kids around his age to get on the track and encouraged them to give the sport a try.
“Austin has inspired at least 20 kids in Ontario to race and all over world there’s a lot of connections that he has,” she added. “Lots of kids with Autism have started racing because of him.”
According to Benji, the main focus off track is playing racing games on his Xbox and going to Tim Hortons where Austin just recently began to order his own meals.