A mattress, his trusted Jeep and the open air.
It’s enough to put a wide smile on the face of Zach Veach any day of the week.
“We just throw the mattress in the back of the Jeep and kind of just venture around like a couple of vagabonds for a few days,” the 24-year-old Ohio native said over the phone during a recent campout with his girlfriend, Kate, somewhere near Traverse City in northern Michigan.
Veach is a rising NTT IndyCar Series star in his second full season racing for Michael Andretti at Andretti Autosport. Eager to build off last year’s solid seventh-place finish when he returns to the streets of Canada’s largest city for the Honda Indy Toronto this weekend, Veach could be viewed as a darkhorse contender as he attempts to turn a corner on what has been a topsy-turvy sophomore campaign.
But that work can wait. Everyone needs a hobby, after all, and when Veach isn’t in the garage or on the track he can be found living his best life through his many non-racing interests.
Veach sets out on camping adventures in his Jeep whenever possible, he has dabbled in aviation (he registered 20 hours in lessons a few years ago), he’s a published author (his self-help book 99 Things Teens Wished They Knew Before Turning 16 came out in 2011), races remote-controlled cars, planes and drones, and has spoken out against bullying.
His growing obsession these days, however, puts him on an entirely different angle than the race track. Veach has been rock-climbing for the past four years, often setting out with good friend and fellow moutaineering enthusiast Dalton Kellett, an Indy Lights series driver from Stouffville, Ont. They recently conquered the famous Half Dome in Yosemite’s Infinity Valley.
“We always plan a big trip. Last year, we spent a week in Yosemite after Sonoma. This year, we’ll spend two weeks out there right after Laguna,” Veach said. “We’re hoping to see how high we can get up on El Cap and take that out for a ride. It’s a lot of fun. I love that lifestyle.”
Are there parallels between rock-climbing and racing?
“The very first time you have your feet off the ground, getting ready to repel down, it’s kind of scary, but the most exciting feeling that you’ve ever had, which is much like driving a race car,” Veach said, adding the similarities likely end there.
“In motorsports, it’s man against man, or man against women. It’s very aggressive and you’re always out to destroy something, basically. With climbing, it’s fun because it’s the opposite. It’s about just kind of embracing eachother, just competing with yourself and enjoying the adventure.”
And finding some peace in a world far away from the chaos that is professional racing.
“Climbing for me … is a way for me to shut my brain off from all the other things you’re worried about in motorsports,” Veach said. “Racing still, at the end of the day, is what gets the most focus and what gets 110% of my effort, my brainpower, but when I do get the breaks, I try to take up other qualities that might be able to help me in racing.”
While racing is clearly a massive part of Veach’s life, it’s obvious that he views life through a wide lense – and a chance to influence youngsters who look up to him is an opportunity he fully embraces.
“If one kid gets to see me, whether it be racing or climbing … they’re sitting there, ‘you know what, if he can do it, I can do it.’ That’s my goal at the end of the day,” he said. “We’re all here to help people at the end of it. I want to have a hundred different cups and trophies in my cabinet in my home when I retire, but if you win five Indy 500s and you don’t do a single thing to help people along the way, it’s kind of a very selfish life.”
PULLING FOR HIM
Zach Veach lists his boss, the legendary Michael Andretti, as his racing hero.
But if there’s a racer of sorts the young Indy car driver thinks even more fondly of, it’s his dad, Roger, an I.T. specialist by day and a bonafide tractor-pull champion.
Veach, who was raised in a tiny speed-trap town of Stockdale, Ohio, grew up watching his dad dominate in the sport, which sees giant tractors connected to massive sleds with 50,000 pounds or more of moving weights.
“Is that a thing up there?” Veach inquired when the topic of tractor pulling was brought up.
Indeed, the small-town sport exists throughout North America, and it’s one that Veach thoroughly enjoyed immersing himself in as a kid.
“When I was a kid and my dad was doing that, I didn’t really understand the amount of effort he put in. I knew he built his own chassis and he basically rebuilt all his own engines and everything. I was like, ‘oh, that’s cool,'” Veach said. “Now that I’m 24, and I’ve been involved in motorsports, I’m like, not only were you managing your (IT) company from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., then eating dinner, then working (in the shop) until midnight … it showed me the level of dedication that he had and that sort of helped me along since.
“I admire my dad for how he’s just never given up, because things have never really been easy for us,” he added. “I think that’s what’s allowed me to (stay positive) with Indy car. If it doesn’t happen today, it’ll happen tomorrow. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, it’ll be next week.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
