Celebrating, promoting and supporting women in motorsports and Moto Enthusiasts

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Horsepower & Heels Blog

Erica Ortiz is a professional drag racer from the all-female pro modified team Horsepower & Heels and strong advocate of women in motorsports. A veteran both behind the wheel and behind a torque wrench, Erica brings over 10 years of experience navigating the male-dominated motor sports arena from the female perspective.

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Flat Emmy goes racing

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One of my online friends Gloria put out a request on behalf of her niece Emmy, to help with a school project. Emmy drew a flat version of herself to send off on a journey to different places and report back on her experiences with photos and a story.
I offered to take Flat Emmy with me to the races, so Emmy and I are headed off to St. Louis for the World Street Challenge. We’ll be traveling 6 hours by car from my home here in Huntsville, AL and I’m hoping to stop along the way to show her some of the sights.
We’ll report back on our travels and adventures here too, so you get a play-by-play of the weekend.
Wish us luck!
-Erica and Emmy

Piensas mas alla

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Piensa Mas Alla….Think Beyond

Recently, I was asked by the Palomita & Chucho Clothing Co. to design a special edition t-shirt to be auctioned off at an event in June benefitting education. Palomita and Chucho are fresh, fun brands that capture the nostalgia of Latin America, the bubbly soda us latinos drank with our school lunches, that salty candy that made our fingers all sticky, or that loveable mouse we watched on television before we were tucked into bed.

 

The t-shirt design was sent to me blank, with just the word “WOOPY” on the front of the shirt. Woopy is a fruit juice drink with a fun and playful attitude. This drink was launched in the 70’s and was the drink for the new generation. I wasn’t really sure what to draw for WOOPY, so I had a Palomita champagne bottle popping with WOOPY. Not exactly a fruit juice, but maybe you could say it was our adult version now that we’re all grown up. My drawing skills as you can see are lacking a bit, but hopefully it will do well at the event for this great cause.

The event, the 1st Annual Latino Fashion Show Auction benefitting the Palomita Education Fund, will be held on June 12th in San Francisco, CA. I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend, but I think it will be a great event! If you are in that area, reserve your seat and help the cause!

June 12, 2008
Terra SF
511 Harrison Street,
San Francisco, CA

6:30pm
Pink Carpet Arrival
Cocktails & Silent Auction
7:30pm
Live Auction of Special Edition Tees designed by Latino Personalities followed by the Palomita & Chucho Fashion Show

For more information contact events@licenzing.com

Mother of drag racing

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Its Mother’s Day, and I thought I’d pay tribute to a different kind of mother…. the Mother of Drag Racing.

Shirley Muldowney is undeniably the Mother of Drag Racing. She came to find drag racing in its infancy, back in the 60’s, when women were not expected or ALLOWED to be involved in such a sport. She fought for acceptance when most would not allow her in their midst, gaining her NHRA competition license in 1965 through much trouble and discouragement. No only would she show that a female could drive a car faster than stock, but she worked up the ladder all the way to the pinnacle class of the sport, Top Fuel, where she competed for over 30 years.
Shirley’s hard fought battles opened the doors for all of us women in drag racing and in all motorsports. She was the first woman to win a major autosport in 1976 at the NHRA Spring Nationals, and went on to win 3 World Championships in her Top Fuel career.
Though the gender barrier can still sometimes exist today, Shirley pioneered the sport for all women and made it easier to be accepted in a man’s world. Each of us women involved in racing today owes a lot to the woman who fought the fight for us early on, and made our dreams possible.
This mother’s day goes out to our own Mother of Drag Racing, Shirley Muldowney!

The emotional rollercoaster of racing

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The ebb and flow of the racing tide is about as predictable as the winning lotto numbers. The real competition in drag racing begins long before a car ever reaches the racetrack.

The past two years have been very difficult for me. I ended 2006 on an emotional high of finishing #2 in Pro 5.0 in my rookie season. I had so much momentum going for me, and was eager and excited to continue on by improving the car’s performance and image with sponsor Brisk USA stepping in to help.

But then life happened, and a series of heartbreaking events that have put delay after delay, and road block after road block in my way, sidelining me for 2 years now. I try to stay focused and upbeat, but with time comes frustration and depression of not racing, and worse, not being able to keep my commitments to Brisk and Harland Sharp of a great season.

I won’t give up…. I’m still working very hard and inching closer to getting the Horsepower & Heels car back out on track. I’m lacking just a few things, but it seems like time and labor is hard to come by now-a-days…. things that I am not able to do on my own, out of my control. That’s the most difficult part of the whole deal… being helpless and forced to just sit and wait.

Motorsports marketing is one of the greatest forms of marketing available. I know that I will be able to make good on getting exposure for my great sponsors and telling their stories. I just hope that the damage that this delay has caused will not be permanent. As they say… this too shall pass. The lows of the racing rollercoaster.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been approached with opportunities: some to drive, others for sponsorship, etc. Everything from pro mod rides up to Top Fuel and Funny Car. Each and every time, I put an enormous amount of energy into each opportunity… offering assistance, marketing materials, interviews, phone call follow-ups, etc.

I’m hoping that pretty soon, the law of averages is bound to shake out a green GO light on one of these opportunities. And until then, I’ll put every ounce of effort into every offer that comes my way.

But it still does not lessen the excitment, nor the disappointment that each trip on the emotional rollercoaster brings.

St. Louis NHRA

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Mondays after race weekends are tough. Especially when you have to drive 6+ hours after a long weekend.

This past weekend, I drove up to St. Louis to attend the 28th Annual MidWest NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway with some friends. Though I had many times been to Gateway for the World Street (Ford) Challenge, I hadn’t ever seen an NHRA race there.

Friday was nice and warm, with plenty of good racing. But Saturday, the temperature plummeted and the wind was fierce, delivering the chill straight through you. We looked like a bunch of shivering puppies. It is difficult to be at races when you have been sidelined like I have for so long now, but it definitely helps to network and motivates to keep the progress going on my car.

Elizabeth and Ashley hadn’t ever attended a drag race before, so its neat seeing their reaction to their first Top Fuel encounters. The power of a nitro car cannot be appreciated or understood until you actually see, smell, and FEEL one in person. TV, HD or not, just doesn’t do it justice. Ashley said they weren’t too loud when they were doing burnouts (we were sitting at the 1/8th mile) but when they passed her under power, she hit the deck!

Its a long trip to St. Louis, and I’ll be repeating this trip in just a few weeks for Debbie’s race, the World Street Challenge.

Mainstream media thumbs nose at Drag Racing

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There has been a lot of great news happening in Drag Racing, and really all of Motorsports lately.
2 weeks ago, you see the media firestorm surrounding IRL superstar Danica Patrick winning her first race in Japan. In doing so, she is the first woman to win a major IRL event: a journey 3 years in the making. All of motorsports, and especially all women in motorsports rejoiced at her victory.

Then this weekend, we see our own Ashley Force win her first Funny Car race, being the first woman to win a National event in that class. Ashley now joins several other PRO category National event winners: Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Sampey, Melanie Troxel, Peggy Llewellyn, Karen Stoffer, etc.

The event, though very much historic as well, did not receive the media attention of Danica’s win, a fact that we have grown accustomed to in our sport as a whole. Though NHRA Drag Racing is one of the most actively participated in and watched of all motorsports, its seems to be the ugly step-child of the motorsports divisions in the media’s eyes.

This isn’t new to us as drag racers. The media’s only mention of drag racing is normally incorrectly portrayed as the illegal street races that end in tragedy. I know for certain, that events like this one being labeled as drag racing instead of illegal street racing, has caused many a sponsor from becoming involved in the sport, as they are unsure of the legality of our very legitimate sport.

So understandably, several drag racers took offense to reports by the media on Danica’s win being “the first female racer to win any major motorsport event” as a slap in the face to our many female champions and event winners (Shirley Muldowney captured 3 World Championships in Top Fuel nearly 20 years ago). They did what any citizen reading an inaccuracy in their news would do… they took to writing letters to educate them of the many NHRA female national event champions.

But this time, someone from the media fired back. In a message sent to the popular drag racing message board, Nitromater.com, Charles Everett wrote:

Subject: NitroMater on Danica: Childish and unprofessional

The people who post to Nitromater are a bunch of reactionaries, not unlike
a right-wing pressure group. I’ve been in the newspaper industry for over 30 years. I’ve dealt with a lot of selfish people but I’ve never seen a more self-centered bunch than the clique that follows the NHRA.

People who follow the NHRA expect the media to bow and scrape before your sport. They don’t and for good reason.

Every time there’s something you don’t like, you whine and cry like a bunch
of babies. It’s not unlike the censorship advocates at the American Family
Association or the Parents Television Council.

Jon Asher lied when he said the press was following an IRL press release.
Sounds to me like he’s never worked in TV or newspapers. The New York Times was relying on the Associated Press wire. So were CNN, Fox Sports and most other news outlets. ESPN had instant access because ESPN Classic televised the race live. Mr. Asher told your board to flood the local press and TV with complaints. That’s not gonna help your cause — in fact it might prompt the local press and TV to tell you to CEASE AND DESIST or you’ll get sued for harassment. It’s bad enough that newspapers all over are laying off people. Targeting the press with a flood of complaints won’t help.

I also love how the NHRA clique worships Shirley Muldowney. She won a lot of races but she treated so many people like dirt, they want nothing to do with her. How you treat people goes a long way in how your sport gets covered.

Danica Patrick and the Indy Racing League do not owe an apology to anyone. Nitromater and its members owe an apology to Ms. Patrick and the IRL.

As for the New York Times? It ran a very telling story on the front page on April 20: All those retired generals appearing on TV news are nothing more than Pentagon pimps.

Signed: Charles Everett (as posted on Nitromater.com)

Never before have I seen such arrogance, and ethically challenged diatribe coming from someone claiming 30 year veteran status in journalism. The very fundamentals, the CORE of journalism lies in the Tenets that govern the trade. This is in direct violation of those core values.

Let’s break this down:

“People who follow the NHRA expect the media to bow and scrape before your sport. They don’t and for good reason. Every time there’s something you don’t like, you whine and cry like a bunch of babies. It’s not unlike the censorship advocates at the American Family Association or the Parents Television Council. “

So by this, you are admitting that the media knowingly persecutes drag racers because they are believed by your type to be “a bunch of babies”? What about Tenet #4: Maintaining an independence from those they cover? Injecting your personal beliefs about who you deem media-worthy because of their alleged attitude is a direct violation.

“Mr. Asher told your board to flood the local press and TV with complaints. That’s not gonna help your cause — in fact it might prompt the local press and TV to tell you to CEASE AND DESIST or you’ll get sued for harassment. It’s bad enough that newspapers all over are laying off people. Targeting the press with a flood of complaints won’t help.”

Oh okay. We are not entitled to exercise our freedom of speech to tell you when you are not being factual? What about Tenet #6: Provide a forum for public criticism and compromise? Had you properly exercised Tenet #1: Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth and Tenet #3: Discipline of verification, we would not have something to “whine & cry” about, now would we? And maybe your jobs and livelihood wouldn’t be threatened by the growing Citizen Journalism movement aimed at getting out the true stories you are above reporting. Even more appauling that you threaten us with legal suit for asking you politely and repeatedly to simply do your job correctly.

“I also love how the NHRA clique worships Shirley Muldowney. She won a lot of races but she treated so many people like dirt, they want nothing to do with her. How you treat people goes a long way in how your sport gets covered.”

So now, your personal opinion about the personality of a member of our sport dictates what coverage our sport receives as a whole? What about Tenet #8: must keep the news comprehensive and proportional? Your personal bias against drag racing, and your slant to other areas distorts the comprehensive and proportional coverage. Not to mention that you are admittedly violating Tenet #2: First loyalty is to citizens, namely us DRAG RACING citizens, when you exclude us from coverage on our historical and newsworthy events.

That leaves us Tenet #5: It must serve as an independent monitor of power, which by your bullying tactics should be focused back on monitoring YOUR power of biased reporting; and finally Tenet #9: practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience, which I do not see you truthfully doing in such a bigoted approach to drag racing coverage (or lack thereof).

Maybe the IRL doesn’t owe drag racing an apology, and drag racing doesn’t owe IRL one either, but you my friend, are another evil entirely.

Erica Ortiz hospitalized for injuries

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We are reporting to you from Huntsville Medical Center. Erica Ortiz, your blog writer and driver for Horsepower & Heels has been brought in today for emergency treatment.

While working to prepare the Horsepower & Heels Mustang, Erica had a tragic accident causing some serious injuries to the driver. Evidentally, her 3 inch stilleto heel hit some spilled gear oil and sent the driver flying across the floor, snapping her favorite heel off the shoe and leaving her with some serious injuries.

Her injuries include a broken accelerator foot, 3 broken nails, and some damage to her hair in the fall. Specialist Ken Paves was called in to assist with the injuries. Doctors are expecting a full recovery following some inpatient rehab. The Horsepower & Heels driver will be transported to Bliss Day Spa for rehabilitation of her injuries. Treatment is said to include a full manicure/pedicure treatment, moisturizing hair anti-breakage treatment, and some soothing massage for mental trauma experienced as a result of the fall.

Erica is said to be in good spirits, though has not been told the fate of her favorite heels.

For donations to aid in her recovery, fans and friends may contribute to:

Horsepower & Heels Racing Broken Nail Fund

Happy April Fools!

Gator Nationals Day 4: Sunday Recap

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Great eliminations day! More beautiful FL sunshine left me more than a little sunburned, but I still had a great time! Even though Melanie Troxel didn’t qualify, the rest of the girls did pretty good! Gotta support that girl power!

We watched Scott Kalitta warming up the funny car, and it is surreal. You should see his face as he wops the throttle. Its the most intense thing…. he definitely gets pumped up!

Unfortunately, my good buddy Ben had some family emergencies come up, so he and Leanne ended up leaving early. I hitched a ride home with my friend Sarah and her dad, who live in Columbus, GA and then headed the rest of the way home Monday morning.

Gator Nationals Day 3: Saturday Recap

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After the rain drenched day on Friday, all of us were ready for some Florida sunshine. When I woke up Saturday morning, the sun was just starting to poke through the clouds. It looked a little iffy with the overcast clouds looming most of the morning, but by noon, the sun was out in all its glory.

There is nothing more exciting than getting your first whiff of nitro for the year. Frankie had us all hooked up with hospitality passes at the Kalitta camp courtesey of DHL, so we had a little VIP treatment with the team. Its also great to be able to get in from out of the sun at times as well.

 

Debbie, my Horsepower & Heels partner in crime, showed up for a bit with her family, but since our seats were not located together, we lost each other early in the day and never could hook back up. Not sure what it is about all that broadcast equipment, but when ESPN was filming, no cell phones were working.

 

The 1st Jeg’s Pro Mod Challenge event of the year kicks off in Gainesville as well, so of course I was excited to cheer on Mike Ashley’s return to Pro Mod. His first round run had him in #16 position entering the last attempt, and he was bumped out early in the round. We were all on pins and needles as he made his attempt to get into the show, but in grand Gotham City style, they moved straight to the pole with a 5.94! YAY Gotham!

 

After the final round of qualifying, we headed over to Max Naylor’s Vegas Fuel energy pit party. Max was kind enough to host the Nitromater.com meet-up at the Gators, and my sister and I had a great time meeting all the people who showed up from the Mater clan. They are all great people!

I really love what Max is able to do for VegasFuel. He’s got a great program together, and makes his sponsor proud! We did get to try the new Energy drink, and it tastes great!