Crystal Lake Central's Clint Billimack unconventional 2-sport athlete

Clint Billimack, an incoming senior at Crystal Lake Central, is an unorthodox two-sport athlete. He is a goalie for the District 155 Predators hockey team that combines players from Central and Prairie Ridge.

This summer, for the first time, Billimack also is competing in auto races at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit.

Racing runs in the Billmack family, as Ken Billimack, Clint’s father, was a race car driver in his younger days, and now works at a company that services high-end race cars. The elder Billimack said he first took Clint to the racetrack when the now-17-year-old was just a toddler. Clint quickly fell in love with auto racing.

“Growing up on the racetrack, I had it in mind as something I definitely wanted to do,” Clint said. "I just remember thinking, ‘This is really cool, I want to try to do this.’ ”

It took a rigorous process for Clint to gain his father’s trust on the racetrack, starting with go-kart racing at a young age. When Clint was finally old enough to learn to drive, he also learned to drive a manual transmission vehicle for racing purposes.

This year, Clint earned both a completion license from racing school and his parents’ approval to start racing. Ken said his son’s willingness to listen to instruction was a sign he was mature enough to handle racing.

“He’s proven professionalism and listening and proving that he’s not overstepping his bounds,” Ken said.

Clint set a Sports Car Club of America track record on the Blackhawk Farms road course in the Super Production Under class (for engine sizes 3.0 liters or less) in a BMW E36 M3 in April.

Ken noted Clint’s goalkeeping reflexes help his son avoid accidents on the racetrack.

“In his first race, he got hit from the side, and we watched the in-car video and watched how fast his hands saved the car, where he doesn’t spin out the car or wreck or anything like that,” Ken said.

Clint amassed an 88 percent save percentage in his junior season as starting goalkeeper for the Predators, and Predators assistant coach Frank Tanzillo considers him one of the better goalies in the league. Although Tanzillo said he wouldn’t recommend other hockey players take up auto racing, he can see how racing might benefit Clint on the ice.

“It may help him with his focus,” Tanzillo said. “He is a pretty focused individual, but I would say with the auto racing, you’ve got to be focused 100 percent of the time, where in hockey, there’s times when a puck’s not on our end where they’re maybe not focused 100 percent of the time, so it may help with his focus.”

For now, hockey is still Clint’s main obligation. When he’s not at work at an auto racing shop in Woodstock or at the racetrack, Clint can be found in the gym, preparing for his senior season with the Predators.

“The racing season’s pretty much my downtime,” Clint said. “It’s not every weekend when I’m at a track or something, but it’s most of them. The winter’s a lot more busy, because hockey’s more involving than racing is.”