CREDIT: Bruce Stotesbury, Times Colonist Jean-Luc Lagan uses hand controls to drive his hornet car at Western Speedway and he's also happy to do all the other duties of a car owner-operator.

In 1992, Jean-Luc Lagan's world was turned upside down.

Lagan was a pilot working in Yellowknife when he decided to drive home to see his family in Victoria for Christmas. That is when he was in a car accident that left him a paraplegic.

"When the accident first happened, I was in total denial,'' said Lagan. "I just kept thinking that with time, I'd be able to recover.''

He didn't recover and now at the age of 36 he is in a wheelchair, but that hasn't seemed to slow him down much.

"After the accident, I didn't have a Plan B. Since I was very young, I had always wanted to be a pilot. It took about 18 months before I decided to go to the University of Victoria and get an economics degree.'''

Lagan then rejoined the workforce with the banking industry before becoming a financial adviser for Edward Jones.

With some of the spare time he has, Lagan drives autocross (timed event around pylons) and then more recently he got behind the wheel of a hornet class car at Western Speedway. Both of the cars are equipped with hand gas and brake levers.

"Jean-Luc would come out and watch us race the hornets and I asked Darrell [promoter Midgley] if there would be a problem if he raced,'' said brother Phil Lagan. "Darrell said it was OK so then we got Jean-Luc into a racing car that was a standard. The problem was that there were too many controls for Jean-Luc to operate. Then we got him an automatic which is a fast car.

"Jean-Luc does a good portion of the work on the car and nothing stops him from getting underneath it.''

On Wednesday at the Speedway, Jean-Luc was busy changing tires with his brothers Phil and Peter and making sure his car (1995 Acura) was ready to race.

"There is nothing that I really can't do but there are just some things I decide to stay away from,'' said Jean-Luc.

"I really like the hornet class because it isn't too expensive and it is a good entry level of racing. It is a lot of fun and you don't have to worry about high-speed crashes. I don't have any desire to move to another class of racing because it is too costly and I don't have the time to make a big commitment to it. With my job, I work many long hours as I'm trying to build up my client base.

"In the hornet class, I have a quick car and now I just have to get more experienced at driving it. I'm a pretty careful driver on the track as I'd rather give up a spot then have somebody injured. I would like to win but not at the expense of putting someone into the wall.''

Jean-Luc is married to Lois and they have a 17-month-old baby girl Julia.

IN THE PITS: There is a monster weekend planned at the speedway. It all kicks off on Saturday with the Kanata Boat Series, a 200-lap late model stock car race. The Old Time Racers Association will also be on the card. The time trials are at 6 p.m., followed by racing at 7 p.m.

On Sunday, it is crash for cash night with the demo cars and demo trucks featured. First prize for the demos (hit-to-pass racing) is $1,000 and $700 for seconds. The mini figure 8s and claimers will also race.

The long weekend wraps up on Monday with the WilRoc sprint cars and stock cars. Qualifying on Sunday and Monday is 5 p.m., with racing at 6 p.m.

All three nights will also feature the monster trucks and monster truck rides. In May, Monster Moose, driven by rookie Jen Consoliver, and Public

Disturbance, with Brad Campbell behind the wheel, were the main attraction at the Speedway and they put on an entertaining show. They will be back for all three nights.