If you ever have a chance to sit down and enjoy a chocolate milkshake with Eric Clements, I highly recommend you do. Eric and his wife Mari do more awesome things in one year than most of us get to do in entire decades (see question #3). In addition to stories of adventures gone right, Eric has plenty of entertaining stories about MacGyver-like fixes on the fly. Resourcefulness and agility are common traits in our Track Night Event Leads, and Eric has those in spades.
Motorsports is a family affair for Eric as the whole Clements clan can often be found at autocrosses, and their trophy shelves are very well decorated. Through their racing careers and their 3-year tenure as Co-Chairs of Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals, which included our 40th anniversary event, it’s undeniable that Eric and Mari have left an indelible mark on our autocross program. Always looking for a new challenge and more triumphs, Eric is currently in the process of building a new A-Mod car with his son, sure to break records and hearts once it hits the course.
He has two amazing dogs that frequently travel with him to competitions, Shelby and Raven. There’s no sign of them being interested in getting behind the wheel, though. They seem content to just tag along in the trailer or stay home and chase bears away (seriously).
As our West Coast Event Lead, Eric keeps things running smoothly for us at our California and Pacific Northwest tracks like Auto Club Speedway, Pacific Raceways, The Ridge Motorsports Park, and Portland International Raceway.
Get to know our very own Star-Spangled Man with a Plan- Eric Clements:
- What or who got you hooked on motorsports?
Always played with motorized toys: mini bike, snowmobile, boat, cars.
- Favorite motorsports memory?
Winning ProSolo Championship, being .75 behind moving to .75 ahead.
- What’s the best drive you’ve ever taken?
Soo many... Sebring to LA in two and a half days picking up A 135i for Mari, showing Army Rangers how to drive out of bad situations, giving Polaris slingshot thrill rides at LA auto show, that time JK and I took a dying rental truck over Donner Pass and it started snowing.
- What’s at the top of your motorsports bucket list?
FTD at Solo Nationals, car is under construction.
- What’s your favorite music to listen to while driving?
SiruisXM Classic rewind.
- What music do you listen to when you need to get energized?
Classic Rock is my preference. If The Ramones “I Want to be Sedated” or Talking Heads “Burning Down the House” comes on the radio you can be sure the volume is going up and we’re having a sing-a-long.
- If you could take any road trip tomorrow, where would you go?
Alaska.
- What Track Night in America event do you most want to go to?
The one where India and Courtney are in charge!
- What’s your favorite Track Night memory?
Getting someone into an event that they were nervous about driving on a racetrack and then hearing the story that it was the best day of their life.
- What do you wish someone would’ve told you when you were first starting out?
Use earplugs around loud cars.
