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Ferré Using Strong Work Ethic To Forge Career In Top Fuel
By
Susan Wade June 25, 2019
While overcoming an estranged relationship with his family, trying to compete in questionable equipment, and healing from ghastly facial burns, little did NHRA professional nitro-class racer Terry Haddock know he would be a mentor in the sport.
But he is today, with Road to the Future Award candidate Cameron Ferré driving his Top Fuel dragster. And one of his prime pieces of advice has been especially inspiring.
“When I first started driving for him, he would strap me in, and he would say, ‘You know, Cameron, regardless of what everybody says or does, you’re strapping into a Top Fuel dragster, and there’s about 30,000 people in the stands who wish they were in your seat right now. And you can say you’re one of only about 50 people in the world doing this right now. And that’s pretty cool.’
Photos by Chris Sears
“And when you think about it,” Ferré said, “that’s pretty cool. We may not win every round, but we’re out here doing it.”
It’s not the only amazing thing Ferré has done. The day before the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals kicked off at Norwalk, Ohio, he worked his shift as marketing manager at Racepak Data in Southern California, buzzed over to Compton College to teach his Auto Body and Collision Repair students, dashed home to Huntington Beach to grab his suitcase and kiss wife Angelina (production department at McLeod Clutches and daughter of longtime racer Tim Boychuk) and baby son Jett goodbye for three days, and caught the red-eye flight to Cleveland. He landed at 10 a.m. that Friday, drove an hour to the racetrack, dived elbow-deep into his dragster, and grabbed the provisional No. 15 spot in the first qualifying session by dinner-time. He ended up missing the cut that weekend. But it certainly isn’t because he didn’t give 100-percent effort.
“I’m not afraid of hard work. If I was afraid of hard work, I would have given up a long time ago,” he said.
I’m very grateful to have to opportunities I’ve had. I don’t want to stop until I become a successful drag racer. That’s what I set out to do when I was eight years old. Now we’re here, and I can at least say I’m living it. – Cameron Ferre
Ferré worked full-time while attending Cal State Fullerton and in 2013, which he said “seems like an eternity ago,” earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing.
But even that’s not the only amazing thing Ferré has done. The 33-year-old has a podcast with Top Sportsman racer Don O’Neal titled “Racers In Rental Cars.” O’Neal, who raced for 12 of his 27 years in the sportsman ranks while serving in the U.S. Army, is, like Ferré, a marketing specialist, whose Evansville, Ind.-headquartered company identifies, develops, and executes B2B and B2C programs. So the two of them have teamed for more than 30 episodes devoted to motorsports business and marketing.
Their podcast partnership was born not in the pits but rather in corporate communications. Although they already were friends through racing, their paths converged in their 9-to-5 lives, as well, for O’Neal was one of Racepak’s strongest distributors. And the match has been a popular one, for the weekly show “has been going really, really well,” Ferré said. “We kind of thought it was a joke at first. We look at the numbers every week, and we’re just flabbergasted at how many people listen and how many people are interested. Every race I’ve been to this year, a handful of people come up and say, ‘Wow. I listen to your podcast.’ And I think, ‘Oh my gosh – you listen to that?’ It’s crazy to think.”
“We talk about motorsports business, marketing, and yes, we reference what’s going on in the industry. It’s heavy drag racing, but we also talk about drifting, Monster Trucks, NASCAR, whatever, as long as it’s business-related,” he said. “I think people like that. There’s a lot of other awesome podcasts out there. We didn’t want to copy. So we went with a different angle, and people seem to like it.”