Amber Balcaen

 

Amber Balcaen is a Canadian driver who races stock cars in the USA. She did the full ARCA season in 2022. 

She is from a racing family, but is the first to race on asphalt rather than dirt. Her career began with dirt-track karting when she was 10, in around 2002. As soon as she was old enough to race sprint cars as a senior, she got her own car and started winning.

After two or three seasons in sprintcars, she took part in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme in 2014 and 2016, as well as competing in Late Model racing in 2016. She was third in the Whelen All-American Series, with one win and six more podiums. She was the first Canadian female driver to win a NASCAR-sanctioned event. 

In 2017, she raced in the NASCAR K&N Series, in a Toyota Camry. She was 20th at New Smyrna in her only major outing. She took part in one race in the CARS Super Late Model Tour series in 2018, at Hickory. However, she crashed out early on. 

In 2019, she made another guest appearance in the same series, finishing fourteenth at Radford. She returned to competition in the 2021 ARCA Menards West Series, driving a Toyota. 

Although she only finished one of her three races, this was an eleventh at Irwindale. 

Her career took a hit in 2020 when she was injured in a midget car crash in July, at Valley Speedway. Her car turned over and she suffered burns, two collapsed lungs and broken bones.

Following several part-seasons, she put together a deal for a full ARCA programme in 2022, partly assisted by Busch beer’s Accelerate Her female driver sponsorship scheme. She was run by Mark Rette and usually drove a Ford, although this was substituted for a Toyota for a couple of races. When schedules allowed, she also made a few guest appearances in the East and West series, picking up one tenth place at Iowa in June.

It was her most successful ARCA main season ever, with six top-ten finishes. The best of these was a seventh at Kansas. 

A quieter year followed in 2023. She did three ARCA races for Bill Venturini's team, the best of these ending in sixth place at Daytona. She retired from the Talladega and Kansas races. She also made a guest appearance in the NASCAR Canada series. Her car overheated but she was classified in 17th place.

Away from the driving seat, she has appeared on TV in the USA, most notably in the NASCAR Racing Wives reality series. Despite the title, she was shown as a driver rather than a partner.

(Image copyright Amber Balcaen)