There are a lot of different stories out there about how each of us find our way to the world of motorsports.
Some of us are born into the lifestyle, with parents who are already actively involved in the sport and bring those playpens into the pits for race weekends. For those lucky children, racing is just a part of who they are, it’s the life they’ve always known. Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney Force grew up with their famous NHRA Funny Car father, traveling the country one race weekend at a time. When each came of age, it was no surprise that they would all follow in their father’s footsteps with racing careers of their own.
Racing families such as the Forces are common in motorsports. The lifestyle continues on for generation after generation of racers, crew members and team owners.
For others, they come across it later in life. Maybe its a friend, or another relative. Some discovered racing because of mainstream tv or movies. Still others come across it on their own terms.
Getting Started in Racing | What now?
Me personally, I had no family that was into racing. My parents’ idea of automotive enthusiasm was being religious about their oil changes and keeping it cleaned every Sunday. They had no idea where their little girl picked up an interest in all things fast and shiny. While most girls liked dolls and makeup, I was fascinated by RC cars and Matchbox cars.
When I turned 18 and it was time for a car of my own, I purchased my first Mustang. It was a 1990 GT, and along with some newly discovered gear head friends, I started pouring into magazines and the internet trying to find out how to make it faster. I joined message boards and would ask questions, and just submerged myself into learning.
On those message boards and through even more recently acquired gear-head friends, I learned that the local track had what was called an open Test & Tune night. Anyone could pay $20, sign a waiver, and take a trip down the 1/4 mile. My group and I decided to go, and after asking people a million questions and watching a few hours worth, I decided to pull up and give it a try.
That first pass (which if I looked around, I have that first timeslip saved somewhere) was a break-neck 15.4 @93 mph. But it was enough to get me hooked.
Once I started upgrading the GT with some mods, I became a regular at a local speedshop called Lugo Performance. I befriended the owner, and would travel to watch their class races around the South. There, I learned the behind-the-scenes of a racing team, and took lots of notes until I ended up working there for several years myself and launching my own career.
Regardless of how it starts, most of us agree that once we’ve discovered it and began our own journey, its hard to imagine life without it.
LADIES TELL US YOUR STORY! When did you know that you wanted to race and how did you get started?
Enders/Anderson controversy
Dirt track racing was not a part of my family until 2008 when we went on a family vacation and stopped by the local dirt track of Amarillo, TX. The only racing that my family had been involved in was my brother drag racing his street car, which was before I was born, and my dad watching NHRA whenever it came on. When my dad suggested going to the races, I begged my mom not to make me go, “I can stay at the motel and y’all can go”. That wasn’t going to work for them; but, when we pulled up to the track and got out, bought our tickets and walked in they were starting the A-Main’s. All the cars were lined up the front stretch and they were introducing them. I remember seeing on of my now friends Brittany Hogan and hoping she won. Listening to the cars scream as they went around the track and the mudslinging, I fell in love. We went to every race after that for the rest of the season. The next year I begged my dad for a car, every day, multiple times a day I asked for a car. He said we will see. I came across a good deal on a car, and told my dad about it and before I knew it we were unloading a brand new (well new to me) cyclone racecar. Me and my dad built the car and we took it out to a track in Oklahoma. To say we didn’t know what we were doing was an understatement, it was a disaster. But we’ve learned what to do, with the help of some fellow racers, and we have come a long way from the sixteen year old girl from Memphis, TX, knowing nothing about racing, to a girl who can keep up with the boys and can win. We are now a brother/sister team with my dad as my crew chief. I love the sport; it’s my life I don’t know what I would be doing without it. It’s in my blood and I plan on doing this for the rest of my life. It’s an addiction!!
I remember the very first time I went to a track was during my childhood with a friend. We got there watched one late model race and left. Once I got older I talked my husband at that time into going to a dirt track race, we lived in California at that time and well racing is a bit different out there. The cars looked different at least. I really got “into” racing when my uncle and I were looking for something to do on a saturday night. Once we found the local track and we quickly became regular fans, that was in 2007. By season start of 2008 we had our own car. Knew nothing except, how to crank it, air up tires, brake and gas. My uncle only got to race it a couple of times before getting ill. I took his car out with him in the hospital on my birthday August 23, and gave him a call on the way there. Said hey Im gonna race this thing in the beginners class. Ill be real careful. I got to the track registered the car, didnt have a pit crew, just a friend who towed it for me and some friends in the stands who were ready to go party afterwards. When it was my turn, I put on my uncles over-sized firesuit and helmet and slowly pulled onto the track. I drove just as you would if you were going through a school zone. Nice and easy! My uncle passed away later that year and the family gave me his car. I raced it all of 2009 and 2010 but for the 2011 season I built my own car. My uncles car was getting too many bumps and bruises and I would get emotional anytime something happened. I still have his car, its a trophy! Just a really big one from him to me. As of 2012 I began running factory stock with the experienced guys and I have started a local all girl racing team. When I first started in 2008, a girl on the track was not common. Over the last four years we have earned respect and are now welcomed to join in. We dont give up or give in to the guys, and we never will. I love dirt track racing, and would not trade it for any other sport or saturday night event.
My family has been racing for almost 50 years. My grandpa had a race team back in 1964 and since then my aunt, uncle and dad have all raced. I started racing in 2007. You were supposed to be 14 to race but I wanted to race so bad we lied about my age a little (I was really 13) and I made my debut. At first it was ugly, and we all expected it to be since I wasn’t even old enough to drive on the street. It wasn’t long until I caught on though. By 2008 I won my first heat race and was finishing further and further up towards the front every night. By 2009 I was unstoppable in the hobby stock class. I won 7 feature races and finished 4th in the points standings in the whole state of Iowa. Since then I have won 3 more features in the street stock class (a step up) and I’m trying my hand at a late model on Saturday nights as well. In about a month I’ll be moving to Cridersville, OH to start college at the University of Northwestern Ohio. I’m studying High Performance Motorsports and plan on carrying on my dad’s business (Gade Race Engines) and maybe even building chassis. I can’t wait! This is my whole life. I guess you could say it was just in my blood. I have grown up around racing since I was just a baby. Heck my mom even brought me home from the hospital in a checkered flag onesie! My dad told me once that since he didn’t have a boy he had to teach me to do boy things lol….I’ve just been lucky enough to get the opportunity to do what a lot of girls would love to do if they had the chance!
Glad to hear these great stories. As a gal raised in the 60’s and 70’s I was not allowed to enter the local Soap Box Derby, simply because I was female; same for Little League Baseball. I was made fun of by everyone that my interest in cars was “unnatural.” So I am more than pleased that all of you young ladies who may never become the next team Force, still have a love for it and will encourage your own children, other family members and friends-alike that females can love motor sports, and be good at it, just like little boys.
Bravo!
My husband was drag racing his street car when we go together in 1993. When I was pregnant with our daughter he sold his baby to help pay for our baby. He got into dirbys and figure 8 races later and in 2007 we went to a local dirt track to watch, he said I am thinking about getting into this. soin 2008 he got a car and satarted racing. I have lived in the garage with him ever since! I loved watching him get his wins, rookie of the year, Track champion, track champion, he did really well, but I wanted more ! I wanted to get out there and enjoy racing since I was always working on cars and never doing any thing else. He got me on the track in 2010 and I started out doing really good, he was impressed since he thought I would make it hard for him to race because he would be so worried about me that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his own driving. we were in the same class and racing against each other. After he saw that I could handle my self out there he was excited about me being out there too. I was passing guys that had been driving for years !!!! I raced the first half of the rear then was hit in the drivers side in the corner, spun then hit head on at full speed. I was fine but my car was done. I sat the rest of the year out. My husband moved up a class to modified last year so I sat out so that he could concentrate on learning how to drive his car. I got back out there this year and so far I am not doing too bad. I was on may 5th I was the first woman to win a feature at my track” Florence Speedway ” I think I have proved that I deserve to be out on the track with the guys !!!!!!! I am addicted and enjoying every min of it even when I don’t do so well, I had rathwer have a bad night in racing than not be out there !!!!!!
“My grandfather was a mechanic, and my uncle raced a few years before my brother and I were born. I guess you can say that racing was in my blood. I have attended NASCAR and NHRA since my youth, and I had never thought that I would be racing my own car someday. Unlike most people, my mother is the one who kick started my career. One Friday night towards the end of my sophomore year in high school, my mother took me to our local dirt track to watch some friends of ours race. The sound of impacts and the smell of racing fuel immediately drew me in. As we were sitting in the stands waiting for a race, the UMP Sport Compact class came out. My mother jokingly said, “Hey, look Shannon. We should get you one of those!” Little did she know that I would take her seriously. A month later I had a car, another month passed and I was racing for my first time at Lasalle Speedway.”
To say the least, I was instantly hooked. The adrenaline and desire to beat all of the guys really fueled the fire. My sport compact days are over, and I am now in a UMP Open Wheel Modified. I love the challenge of a new car with a very competitive field. I’m so thankful to be a part of Race4Girls! I can only hope to someday be traveling coast to coast to race.
My Husband & I both started out as Fans from a very early age, and over the years it’s become apart of our every day lives. Here’s our story:
We both were apart of dirt track racing from the start of an early age. Derrick first got involved in racing when his Grand-Father (Sam “SAMBO” Wynn) who raced in the early days (1970’s) with (Tommy Rascoe & Bill Brock) at the old Hilltop in Haughton, Louisiana. Derrick “DROCK” Daniel, would spend his time in his Grand-Father’s shop turning wrenches, and sweeping the floors, and dreaming big dreams that one day he too would make his Family proud. That was the beginning of how we became “Daniel Racing”.
When we started Racing in 2006, we wanted to continue the family name of being behind the wheel and going out there on the weekends to experience the same joy & excitements as those before us. This has become apart of our lives, and we hope to set examples that everyone can relate to.
In 2006-2007 I (Tracy) was asked to see what I had in me to jump behind the wheel at a Powder Puff Race (all ladies) and see if I had what it took to get out there on dirt. So I did, at out of all honesty I was riddled with nerves, scared of the what if’s….I went out there, and gave it my best shot. The whole time all i could do was talk to myself before each turn coming up, and had to keep reminding myself that it was all for fun.
The final lap came, and I hammered down and went for it. I admit I had a very big head, and couldn’t stop thinking to myself how I just drove a racecar for the very 1st time. From then on, it’s been a weekly sport that I love to support, and yes of course get involved in.
I Thank my Husband (Derrick) first and foremost for supporting me in doing the very same thing he, himself does on Friday & Saturday’s nights. My Family & Friends, and most of all my FANS!
The world of Racing is certainly changing, us Ladies are becoming more & more involved in driving than ever before. It is amazing to run weekly with guys from all different driving styles on a Saturday night, but you can bet that us girls will be showing them the way around a Track….
Racing is in my DNA so-to-speak. My father has always been involved in racing in some form since before I was born, mostly in drag racing. As early as I can remember I have been there with him at the track. I was always helping him work on cars and learning all I could. As a little girl I vividly remember witnessing Shirley Muldowney and Don Garlits racing side-by-side in their top fuel dragsters and I knew that is what I wanted to do. My first experience as a “real” crew member was when I was a teenager. My father was crew chief on a few cars that ran SCCA road circuits. That led to some experience crewing with an IRL (Indy Racing League) team. But, it was always my goal to get into drag racing so I quit crewing worked toward getting a shot at driving dragsters. I went Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School which was my first “real” experience driving a fast drag car. After that, I jumped head first into drag racing and realizing my dream.
I remember being 12 years old, sitting in the stands at the National event at Sonoma, and Karen Stoffer and Angelle were racing. They put on their helmets and their gear, and you couldn’t even tell that it was a girl except for their hair sticking out the back of the helmet. Watching those women ride pro stock bikes was amazing, but watching them race against the boys… and better yet win against the boys, was what made me fall in love with racing and pro stock motorcycles. At that point in my life I was racing jr. dragsters, and I loved it, but I knew in my heart I was going to be a pro stock motorcycle racer. I loved everything about racing, but my favorite part was that it didn’t matter if you were a man or a women. Once the helmets go on, it just doesn’t matter anymore. Once I had my heart set on racing motorcycles at 12, that was it. It’s all I have done, thought about, and dreamed about since that time. I also was lucky enough to have a dad who shared my passion, and always told me I could do anything I set my mind too. My parents have helped me and supported me ever since I was just a little 12 year old girl with huge pro stock motorcycle dreams!
My father has always been apart of racing my whole life, he did not have sons just two daughters. My sister did not show interest and I wanted to do everything my Dad did. He started as an official, then began racing dirt track stock cars, then decided to quit racing and buy our local racetrack. We lease it to a promoter and do not run it ourselves. I have literally grown up there. I sold popcorn and candy in the grandstands and played trophy girl every once in a while. I always dreamed of racing a car myself. My oppurtunity came when I was seventeen years old and getting into some trouble. My Dad decided to put me into a ministock and keep me busy on the weekends, to keep me out of trouble. I am forever grateful to him. I could have went down the wrong road and he with racing pulled me out of that. When I was nineteen years old, I met my now husband Jim racing. I accidently spun him out and told him I owed him dinner…..that was our first date. After a few years of racing together we took 8 years off. 5 years ago we decided to race again. I am currently a three time past champion in my ministock. I hold a record for most wins in a row (10) at our local track Marysville Raceway Park in Northern California. I am currently in the points lead in the ministock class at Marysville Raceway Park and Silver Dollar Speedway. I also race a Pro 4 Sprint car and I am currently running second in points in that class. I won rookie of the year in my Pro 4 Sprint in 2010. My husband races a Super Stock and is currently running second in points. With three race cars at two different tracks all in the top three in points we are very busy and our lives revolve around racing. We love it and would not have it any other way.