Seven-year-old Raelin Deschenes has inherited a need for speed.

Deschenes has a small (but hopefully growing) haul of trophies in her garage, a roadmap to her successful first season in the Claremont Motorsports Karting Series.

Only 6 when she first entered the series, Raelin ended the season with 13 races under her belt, five top-three finishes, two wins and the title of Rookie of the Year, placing third overall for the season.

Raelin first became interested in racing watching some of her friends of a similar age get into other racing sports – particularly dirt bikes. When she asked her dad, Jamien Deschenes, if she could try it, he started looking for an option that was safer than dirt bikes, but would still get his daughter on a track.

They ended up finding go-karting, which has both youth and adult leagues and was a natural fit, since Raelin has been driving a non-souped-up version of a go-kart since she was 3. At Raelin’s age, the karts only go about 20 mph, but she said her first time behind the wheel at a track was nerve-wracking.

“It was a little scary,” Raelin said, of her first time on the track, “because everyone was going faster than me.”

But despite her fear, she decided to give it another go when the 2022 season rolled around. Soon, she said she was more used to it, had made a bevy of friends at the track and now the speed is her favorite part of the sport – except for perhaps winning.

“I really started liking it, and it made me braver and braver and braver,” Raelin said. “Once I got used to it, it wasn't hard. Once I started to go fast, it wasn't hard at all.”

Now she said, she has her eye on the 2023 season, is aiming for more first-place finishes and is hungry for a championship.

Raelin races in a go-kart with a Subaru engine, with about 4.5 horsepower, painted purple – one of Raelin’s favorite colors – and fittingly dubbed “Violet.” On the front is the number 2.

Jamien said he knows from personal experience how enriching racing can be as a sport. At the age of 11, he and his father discovered the youth sport of mini-cup racing, which uses miniature cars, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, when he and his father were there watching a race together.

“And after much begging, we convinced my mom to let me do it,” Jamien joked.

Jamien competed in mini-cup racing as a hobby until he was able to get his NASCAR license at 16, and continued racing as a hobby until he was 25. It was a way he bonded with his own father, an avid NASCAR and racing fan.

“It’s a different community than any other sport, because it’s not one team against the other. It’s a field of cars, all going for the win. You learn a different kind of competitiveness than a typical team sport,” Jamien said. “I grew up in and around racing, so it was something I was always passionate about. When I started doing well and moving forward with it, it was a lot of time I got to spend with my dad. We traveled all over New England, into Canada a couple of times, and made a lot of good friends.”

Jamien said when he gave up racing, he stopped going to racetracks to watch races, saying it wasn’t as fun when he wasn’t able to be behind the wheel himself. But he has rediscovered the love for the community while supporting his daughter, plus he gets to share that same bonding experience he had with his own father with his daughter – including the traditional step of having to convince Raelin’s mother, Stephanie Deschenes.

“She didn’t talk to me the entire week before her first race,” Jamien joked. “But she didn’t grow up around racing, so she didn’t know what to expect, and she was very nervous. But she really likes it now that she knows how it all works.”

Jamien admits it was a more nerve-wracking experience for him than he was expecting watching his daughter on the track.

“Her first win was the hardest race I ever drove. The longest for sure. It felt like it took forever,” Jamien said.

For Raelin, who recounts her winning race, which included a restart, an early pass taken on a curve and flooring it across the finish, it went by much quicker.

Stephanie has become an avid participant since Raelin’s racing debut, and her parents and dogs, Whiskey and Mabel, are her regular cheering section.

In fact, Raelin’s racing number, 2, is a number she inherited from her father, who picked it to match NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, his favorite driver growing up.

This year will be Raelin’s last year in her current division, which is open to 5- to 7-year-olds. In the coming year, she plans to get more experience under her belt by attending more races, both at the Claremont track and by traveling to Pomfret Speedway in Connecticut for additional races. After that, she’ll move on to larger go-kart engines, capable of faster speeds in the older divisions, and she hopes eventually to larger and more-complex cars as she gets older.

“It’s very fun. I like doing it. I just wanted to keep doing it forever and ever,” Raelin said.

Raelin is sponsored by multiple local businesses, including Red’s of Jaffrey, Monadnock Disposal Service, Monadnock Country Cafe, Union Street Kitchen, Davis Construction, the Freight Kingdom, Deschenes Auto & RV, The Why Not Co. and Cliff’s Autobody.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.

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