Skyler Musel takes back roads to the race track

CEDAR RAPIDS — Skyler Musel has been a race car driver since before he had a race car to drive.

“My cousin Jordan and I had an old car (2002 Kia Rio) at our grandma's that we would just beat up and drive on gravel roads,” Musel said. “Then we found out about the enduro races.”

That led to the pair of teens purchasing their grandma's Kia for $100 and entering each of the various-themed races last season at Hawkeye Downs, although they used three cars throughout the year. With a 2000 Ford Escort and a 1997 Honda Accord joining their fleet of “race cars,” Musel likes to point out one common attribute each of their vehicles shares.

“All of the cars are older than us,” said the recent Cedar Rapids Kennedy grad who was born in November 2002. “It's just easier to scrap them because you don't need a title.”

After spending his pandemic year “driving around wasting money on gas” while waiting for the next enduro, Musel was presented with an opportunity to drive a “real race car” when his father Matt's friend, Sonny Parker, had an open Legend car and thought of the 18-year-old.

Parker — who started racing as a driver in the early 1990s and lives 10 blocks from Hawkeye Downs — got an itch to return to the track, albeit in a different role.

“I just decided to get back into racing,” Parker said. “I had been out of it for a few years, and to be totally honest, I like it a lot better where (Musel) has to deal with whatever happens on the track. I'll worry about the car and fixing it up.”

Besides Parker, Musel has the support of his parents Matt and Brandy ... mostly.

“(My dad) thinks I'm crazy when I go out there,” Musel said. “I think (my mom) loves watching it. Especially the enduros because they are fun to watch.”

Now after five races in Parker's Legend car, Musel and his mentor are continuing to learn to communicate.

“It's hard to explain, it’s just something you have to learn and it’s hard to translate when you're not on the track,” Parker said. “Standing up there watching is a lot different (than racing).”

As for Musel, he's just happy to have traded in his cruising around Cedar Rapids for circling the quarter-mile each Friday at Hawkeye Downs.

“It's a good experience,” Musel said. “It's fun and it might seem a little dangerous, but the actual race cars are some of the safest cars you can drive. It's probably safer than driving on the roads honestly.”