D.I. COLUMNIST
The Enders Elevation
R
emember when I said I
wouldn’t concentrate on
the folks who want to, dare
I say, “stomp on that loud pedal?” I
unintentionally lied.
Sometimes the original dream
comes full circle after a windy road
of opportunities you didn’t even
know you needed. You knew in your
gut what you wanted and you were
willing to alter your personal and
professional path to get there. Meet
Exhibit A: Cameron Ferré.
His journey started like many:
See cool dudes go fast, need to go
fast! The dream is simple, but the
journey never is. Cameron’s began
at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona
with his dad, Brian, when he was 8
years old. After the Top
Fuel dragsters “scared
the daylights out of him,”
he vowed that would be
him someday. And it is.
While Cameron’s drag
racing career is long, im-
pressive and not even
close to peaking, it’s
the other side of what
Cameron does to keep
his dreams alive that
has always impressed
me. Flash forward to
today and Cameron is a
touring Top Fuel driver
for Terry Haddock Rac-
ing, host of a successful
odcast (Racers In Rental
Cars), and the market-
ing manager for Ra-
cepak. Pretty dang cool
for a young kid dream-
ing big, right? Well,
here’s the CliffsNotes of
his story, so far.
Between 1998 and 2003, Cam-
eron had a crazy successful Jr.
Dragster career with over 25 wins,
multiple national championship
final rounds and the elusive na-
tional championship (the only race
I never won – just sayin’) in 2002.
Unfortunately, once you’re out of Jr.
Dragsters, this doesn’t mean much
in the “big car” world. Driving gigs
don’t just show up on your door step
and Cameron was fully aware of this,
so he went to work. In 2004, Larry
Miersch hired Cameron to work on
the clutch of his Top Alcohol Drag-
ster, which Cameron
used as an opportunity
to get to know the cars
and the workings of the
team.
Since then, Cameron
has licensed in literally
everything from Super
Comp to Top Fuel, but
everything changed in 2008 when
he was hired by Racepak in the sales
and tech department. To make a 10-
year story short, Cameron’s growth
with Racepak happened almost im-
mediately when they noticed the
many benefits of having Cameron
out on the road. Not only were sales
great, but it allowed Cameron to be
at the track, while racing sometimes, that we really are just like
them chasing the same
dream. Through all of
the success, my journey
led me to my current role,
marketing manager.”
“Racers In Rental
Cars” is a podcast that
Cameron, the folks at
Racepak, and Top Sportsman racer
Don O’Neal put together to reach
what they felt like was a void in the
“everybody has a Podcast” era.
“The vision for this was born
when Racepak thought this may be
difficult to maintain, so I pitched
the idea of having a co-host (Don
O’Neal), where we would cover a
wide span of racing business tactics,”
to help the customers with their
products.
“My relationship with Racepak
allows me to meet so many people
within the industry, which did noth-
ing but open doors for my racing
career, as well for Racepak and
our customers,” says Ferré. “They
understood my passions and actu-
ally encouraged me to chase them.
They did whatever they could within
reason to allow my racing career to
blossom, as well as help their com-
pany out along the way. Me being at
the track allowed customers to see Ferre explains. “Hosting this show
doesn’t mean we have all of the an-
swers, but one of my favorite parts
about this is bringing on guests from
all areas of the sport, from drivers
to sponsors and in between, to get
those answers. We pick their brains
and hear their stories of struggles,
success, hardships and, of course,
fun in rental cars on the road!”
The show has thousands of lis-
teners and is growing rapidly as
the public becomes more aware of
it. Hell, if you’re into what is in this
magazine, you should really check
it out! It hits an untapped niche of
the how’s and the why’s behind race
teams around the industry.
Cameron is nowhere near his
professional destination. The hustle
continues and I can’t even imagine
the success he will see in the next
few years. All of the work he’s put
in at Racepak, the dozens of teams
he’s worked with along the way, the
experience behind the wheel, spon-
sor relations lessons, B2B opportu-
nities that were successful and not,
all of the speed bumps and road
blocks he’s faced, they are all nec-
essary. Although his dreams were
filled with him stepping right into a
driving job and taking the world by
storm, he continued to seize every
relationship and oppor-
tunity that came his way,
nothing being too small
or too difficult.
Persistence pays
off and Cameron is a
prime example of that.
He’s had supportive
parents since the day
he decided to race and
now has a wife, An-
gie, who comes from
a racing family as well
and works at McLeod
Clutches in California.
Cameron and Angie
just had their first baby
last year and anyone can
already see the passion
is in the blood.
On a personal note,
Cam and I have been
friends for what seems
like forever. We used to
run around the JDRL
Nationals at Bandimere
together and a life-long friendship
grew over the years. He’s been a part
of every big part of my life, and it’s
been a pleasure to watch him be-
come who he is today. He’s never
taken a single part of his success
for granted. If more dreamers had
the fire in their souls and work ethic
in their heads, the world would be
better off. We could use a little more
Cameron. Here’s to you, Cameron!
I’m so proud of all you’ve done and
can’t wait to watch you continue to
climb. Looks like that “luck finally
changed.”
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58 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
DI DI DI
Issue 145
with Courtney Enders-Lambert