ESTEVAN - Eli Turnbull,9, might be young but he is pretty set up on what he likes and what he wants in life.
With a family history rooted in racing, the young man grew up being a race driver.
"He's been watching races since he was a baby, he really enjoys racing," said Eli's mother Taunia Turnbull.
Reading books about races, especially the Captain Insano series, along with colouring were other Eli's hobbies, when his dad came across the contest offering young drivers to become a part of their favourite racebook.
"He reads these books. It's a series. It's called Captain Insano. So they have a series of children's books that they make, and he reads those all the time," Taunia explained.
"They had a contest for people to send a picture of themselves. And they would get them into different groups and do a little bit of a voting thing. So everybody voted for him, which was super cool. And then he got chosen to be in the book. So it's a full circle for him because he loves reading those books. And he loves racing. So he's not interested in other things. But he'll read if it's a racing book. And he also loves drawing."
Eli said that when his dad came up with the idea of having his picture transformed into a colouring page in his favourite book he felt "happy." A lot of people voted for him, and while it was a very tight race, Eli confidently took first place in the contest.
The family just had to pick a picture and send it in. Once Eli won the contest, the book creators turned the submitted picture into a colouring page, included in a book with a number of other North American racers.
"This is exactly how Eli's car us. They make all the cars into cartoon characters. And then they're featured in the book," Taunia explained.
The contest was organized for whoever reads the books and is passionate about racing. Taunia said there were no age limits for the contestants, so Eli was competing against people of different ages and from different places.
A lot of Eli's favourite racers were also included in the book. Many of them he watches on TV, others his dad knows through the racing community, and some Eli has also met in person. He pointed out that there was one other racer from Canada.
Taunia said that contests like that don't happen too often, which made the occasion even more special.
"They had one about five years ago, I guess. We have this series of chapter books. And then when they released this (colouring) book, they released another set of chapter books. So it'll probably be a couple of years before they do another round," Taunia said.
The family chose Eli's favourite picture, but even though he is still pretty young Eli already had many racing pictures to chose from as racing is a big part of life in their family.
"My grandpa, uncle and dad (also race)," said Eli who's been racing his own car since last year. "And I got third last weekend."
Taunia added that Eli feels really comfortable in race cars and in general, he's pretty particular about his hobbies. For example, he really likes colouring, but he likes colouring only with Sharpies. And the Captain Insano personal picture hasn't been coloured yet.
"He's very creative. So it was really neat to see him in there, but he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to colour it yet. He wanted to frame one. So we framed one. But he hasn't coloured it because I think it's still pretty special," Taunia said.
Eli also got to like signing autographs, giving signed copies to friends and family that supported him in this achievement.
Eli said it felt "good" when the book with his page and his name in it arrived, but he added it wasn't better than racing.
