Monrovia Engineer's Break-Out Auto Racing Season

Nothing looks too unusual about Todd Cameron’s NASCAR Super Truck that he races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. It’s a white truck with black 99 decals on the doors and roof. There are a few dents from a race in June. To see wrinkled panels and fenders is a little surprising for a truck that has won two races at the track.

A closer look at the windshield reveals a single strip of plexiglass, about an inch wide, that runs vertically in the middle. It is a part that did not pass inspection on a satellite Cameron, a 44-year-old from Monrovia, helped design.

“It’s good enough for a race car, but not good enough for a satellite,” said Cameron, one of the top drivers in the NASCAR Super Trucks at Irwindale. “It’s just as strong as steel, but lighter.”

Cameron is a mechanical engineer and works for an aerospace company in Los Alamitos that designs and produces satellites for NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has worked on vehicles that traveled to Mars and spacecrafts that explored the universe.

He said having an engineering background gives him a bit of an edge against some of the better teams and drivers at Irwindale. It has also created some problems.

Part of his job as an engineer is data acquisition. He set up a system of sensors to collect data on his truck during practice when he first started racing at the track years ago. He didn’t take off the sensors during races. While it didn’t give his truck any advantage during races, it was against track rules to have the sensors on his truck. He was penalized and learned the hard way to not leave any unapproved parts on his truck.

“I try to apply that everywhere I can,” Cameron said about his engineering background. “There’s little bits and pieces I’ll put on here. I’ll put data acquisition in it on practice nights, have the computer hooked up and gather a bunch of data, then pour through the data and calculate some stuff out to try to make it run better. It’s really given me somewhat of an advantage. These are some top drivers, but I think I’ve got that engineering background that’s helping bringing me up to stay with these top drivers.”

Cameron started racing at Irwindale and in the Super Trucks series in 2006. He won the first race of his career at Irwindale in April. He has been steadily improving as a driver through the years, finished as the runner-up in the Super Trucks championship at the track last year, but this might be his break-out season.

Ryan Partridge from Rancho Cucamonga won the first 10 Super Trucks races and ran away with the championship last year. Cameron was the runner-up in five of the 14 races, but still finished 24 points behind Partridge in the Super Trucks standings.

“I won my first race this year. Ran a whole bunch of seconds last year,” Cameron said. “Partridge kind of sealed the deal on that winning 10 in a row. Last year we were just kind of chasing points, running conservatively. This year, first race of the year, I think I was running in second place coming down to the last lap, and just overdrove and blew the first race of the year.”

He finished in 14th place in the opening night race at the track.

“But we did come back,” Cameron said. “The race after that we just stayed calm, didn’t want to do that again, overdrive the thing. Just let the truck come to me and stayed patient when we had to. We had three laps to go, passed for the lead and won the thing, unbelievable. It was amazing to finally win.”

He didn’t waste much time notching his second win in the Super Trucks. After posting another runner-up finish, he won again two weeks later.

“Backed it up so it wasn’t a fluke,” Cameron said. “That was one I ran away with. These trucks are so tight, so spec, it’s a spec truck. Everybody’s so close, it’s almost the luck of the draw with these things on the start. It’s where they invert the start. If you get lucky, if the dice rolls your way, you can luck out and be up front.”

Cameron said luck has as much to do with winning races as skill in the Super Trucks. The starting line-ups for races are determined randomly. The top qualifier rolls a die to determine the starting order for races. Sometimes the fastest truck in qualifying will start sixth, sometimes first.

After seven races, Cameron is fourth in the Super Trucks standings. His two wins are only second to Partridge’s four. Jeff Peterson from Riverside is the only other driver to win a Super Trucks race this season.

The next Super Trucks race is July 16 at Toyota Speedaway at Irwindale.

“It’s running well this year, it’s amazing,” Cameron said. “I’m hoping, it’s going to take a lot of luck to make that up, to make a bid for the championship. We’re still fourth in points, third’s not out of the question or second. I really just need some good rolls. That’s what it’s going to come down to.”

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