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Breaking Barriers at Full Throttle: Women Who Own the Short Track! · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  The following episode is brought to you in part by Women in Motorsports North
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  America, a community of professional women and men devoted to supporting
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  opportunities for women across all disciplines of motorsport by
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  creating an inclusive and resourceful environment to foster mentorship,
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  advocacy, education, and growth, thereby ensuring the continued strength
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  and successful future of our sport.
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  It's International Women's Month, and we couldn't think of a better way to
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  honor it than by bringing together three phenomenal female drivers who are tearing
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  up the track and rewriting the rules.
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  From late models to sprint cars, these women have proven that
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  racing isn't just a man's game.
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  It's anyone's game.
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  If you've got the grit, guts, and drive to win, we'll talk with Aaron
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  Crocker Evernham, Allison Slode, and Taylor Ferns about their journeys,
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  challenges, and how the sport is evolving for the next generation.
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  So buckle up because this conversation is going to be fast, fierce, and full
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  of insight from the best in the biz.
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  And with that, I'm your host, Crew Chief Eric from the Motoring Podcast
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  Network, along with Lauren Goodman from the Revs Institute, welcoming
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  everyone to our Center Conversation.
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  Aaron, Alison Taylor, welcome to the show.
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  Hello.
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  Hi, thanks for having us.
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  Great to be here.
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  There's always a superhero in origin story.
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  So let's briefly talk about how everybody got into short track racing.
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  Can each of you share a little bit about your journey into
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  this discipline of motorsport?
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  What sparked your passion for the sport?
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  Who wants to kick it off?
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  Alison?
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  Sure.
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  So I actually started out very young in my career doing gymnastics and dance.
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  Had nothing to do with motorsports whatsoever.
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  So I watched my younger brother run around the racetrack and quarter
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  midgets at a local track near us.
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  After a year of watching him, I told my dad, you know, this isn't it.
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  I don't want to sit in the stands anymore.
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  So he put me in a car and that's really history.
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  Pretty simple.
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  I wasn't too great when I started off.
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  I was very timid, quiet, not very aggressive.
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  So my dad, like three years in said, I don't know if this is for us.
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  I don't think this is going to work.
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  And I don't know what it was, but a switch kind of went off in my
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  head and I haven't stopped since.
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  I've been racing since I was about seven.
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  So a little over 25 years.
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  Taylor, you've got a similar story starting off real young in sprint cars.
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  Yeah, I started off in quarter midgets at six years old, but I got into that
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  because I come from a racing family.
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  My uncles on my mom's side, raced late models and ARCA back in
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  the eighties and early nineties.
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  So before I was ever even around, I just ended up growing up around it.
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  You know, we celebrated Daytona 500s and our family, like it was the Superbowl.
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  When my dad and my uncle discovered quarter midgets, when I was about six,
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  we drove up to nearby Lansing, Michigan, and I sat in the car for the first time.
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  And just, it was.
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  Love at first sight.
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  Been doing it ever since.
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  It's definitely my number one passion.
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  I'm completely obsessed with it, and definitely couldn't
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  imagine my life without it.
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  Aaron, how about you?
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  My story actually is very similar.
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  It started in quarter midgets.
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  I'm the youngest of five.
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  I have two older brothers and two older sisters, and I did
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  everything my brothers did.
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  I played ice hockey.
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  I played in the dirt, dirt bikes, you name it.
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  So I grew up at the racetrack and I wanted my turn.
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  I had one older sister who had raced and my dad called her a social
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  racer because she wasn't aggressive and she would let people pass her.
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  So I knew from the get go that I needed to start strong.
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  So I started at seven years old and that was the beginning of a wonderful career.
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  Let's talk a little bit more about growing up at the track.
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  Like you guys, I grew up around the track too, in the road racing
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  world, you know, the asphalt tracks.
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  And you started to see a lot of kids phase out of racing because they
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  were involved in it for so long.
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  You guys followed in your family's footsteps.
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  So what kept you there?
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  What kept you committed?
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  What kept you grounded in racing after all those years?
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  I didn't specifically grow up watching my uncles race because
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  they raced before I was born.
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  But I think being around the family that I was and how immersed and
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  passionate my family was about it.
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  And then when My siblings and I, my cousin eventually started racing.
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  We were just so passionate about it.
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  You know, I did have opportunities when I was 18, 19.
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  And then through my early twenties, I went off and I went to college.
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  I went for my master's, you know, I worked for a law firm for five years and I
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  wasn't really racing that much, if at all.
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  And at that time, that's when I really realized.
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  I always kind of knew I was really passionate about racing, but you
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  know, it's kind of like you don't recognize what you have until
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  you lose it type of situation.
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  So then when I came back, I just automatically knew that this was what I
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  wanted to do even more so than before.
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  I think it's your passion.
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  I think you also realize your impact being a female in motorsports.
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  You know, I remember growing up when I was watching racing before
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  I actually physically started.
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  And there wasn't a high visibility of females in motorsports.
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  So, you know, I wasn't sure at that young age of what I could actually do in racing.
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  And so then grew up and I was younger and I'd be racing.
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  I remember seeing Aaron race the Arca races and we'd be watching
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  it on the TV in the trailer.
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  That's that visibility as I feel like I was coming up the ranks that more
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  females got the more time has gone on.
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  So were there any other girls?
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  on track with you?
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  Or are we looking at people like Aaron on the TV for your
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  inspiration or even camaraderie?
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  Yeah, I would say in quarter midgets, there was more girls, but it was
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  almost kind of like the funnel effect.
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  You know, you talk about people phasing out as they go up the ranks or they
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  get older and have opportunities to go to school or play sports or whatever.
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  And, you know, as I got older and went up through the ranks, it was almost like
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  immediately as I started racing midgets and sprint cars when I was 13, 14, I was.
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  mainly the only girl for the most part, if not one extra here and there.
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  Is that true for Aaron and Allison?
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  Same for y'all?
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  Yeah, for me, it was really similar.
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  I feel like in quarter midgets, it was a family sport.
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  A lot of girls did it.
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  And then maybe you come middle school, high school.
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  I don't know if it was necessarily because they didn't see anyone ahead of
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  them doing it, or if it was because the family influence, like I always give
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  my parents a lot of credit because they never told me I couldn't do anything.
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  I played ice hockey with the boys.
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  They never said that you're a woman.
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  You can't be a race car driver.
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  Moving out of quarter midgets and moving up the ranks.
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  It was fewer and fewer women around me.
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  And thankfully there were women like Lynn St. James who helped provide even back
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  then, 25 years ago, I'm aging myself, but she had her driver development program.
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  So we started to see a nice path or people that had already broken barriers for us.
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  I'm pretty much in the same boat with Taylor and Aaron.
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  Quarter midgets was a very family oriented, so I didn't see too many,
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  but I definitely saw more than when I went into three quarter midgets.
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  And then eventually Isma super modified and Oswego super modified.
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  After I left quarter midgets, I was the only woman to race
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  in the rest of those series.
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  Well, some of that also, because you're taking a step up, not just in
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  competition and the commitment and the time it takes, but also the funding.
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  Is that really when sponsorship comes into play when you're taking that step?
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  Yeah, I think once you get out of the quarter midgets and like the family
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  oriented sport, and you want to move up in any type of racing, it's
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  definitely comes down to financial decisions that need to be made.
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  And I was very fortunate that my family supported me throughout my three
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  quarter midget career and the early stages of my supermodel bike career.
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  But the last three to five years kind of turned into, I need to find money and need
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  to find sponsorship in order to continue.
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  Alison, you brought up a really important point is when you made that transition
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  away from the midgets into the bigger cars, you were alone as a woman, amongst
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  all these other drivers did that.
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  In some way, incentivize you, motivate you, was that
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  something you had to overcome?
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  Would you say that was maybe one of the biggest challenges moving up the ranks?
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  So I wouldn't necessarily consider it a challenge.
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  I definitely looked at it more as an opportunity to kind of just prove
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  myself, you know, getting out on the track the first time in an Oswego
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  Supermodified and all these guys that have been racing there for, 25, 30 years.
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  You know, I'm looking at somebody like Joe Gosek who's run there the last
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  42 years and I ended up beating him in my first race out on the track.
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  You know, it was more like a challenge for myself.
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  I didn't really look at it as something to prove.
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  You know, nobody likes getting beat by a girl.
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  Not the guys at Oswego, I can tell you that.
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  I kind of used it as like a fun little joke with all those guys.
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  Now they're great.
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  Get out there, prove yourself.
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  And they can ask questions.
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  So Erin and Taylor, when you left the kids table and moved up, what
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  was it like being the only woman?
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  Similar to Allison, even 20, 25 years ago, there were
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  opportunities because I was a woman.
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  There's always been some desire to have a woman be successful.
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  So some doors opened for me, but obviously there's a lot of scrutiny.
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  Once you got through those doors, the magnifying glass was on you.
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  But I sometimes took it as a little bit of motivation.
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  One of the first years I was racing a sprint car in upstate New York,
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  We had a motorsports expo, like before the season started, where
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  everyone brings out their new cars and the tracks promote everything.
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  Another car owner in our series pulled the guy I was driving for at the time over
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  and said, Hey, like, what are you doing?
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  Putting her in a second car?
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  Like you're going to wreck all our stuff this year.
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  And like it started right away and you know, those things obviously bother
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  you, but they really motivated me.
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  And I credit that to having four older siblings who always tease me.
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  And to this day are still we bicker.
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  So I always had thick skin and I always kind of get motivated.
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  So right away you start dealing with, all right, we're in a different world.
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  Porter Midgets was family.
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  Now this is getting real.
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  And there are plenty of people that don't want to see you succeed.
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  And thankfully there's a good amount that want to see you succeed, but
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  the tides definitely turn when you step up to the next level.
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  As you're moving up the ranks, the seriousness and the
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  commitment level increases.
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  Like Erin, also being young, like when I first started racing full size
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  midgets and then full size sprint cars at 13, 14 years old, it's like,
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  I'll echo the sentiment to where.
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  When you do start succeeding, I mean, I won my first full 410 sprint
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  car race in my first ever start.
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  And right after that, it was at first people were like, okay, first off,
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  you're putting this young racer in a car, but not only that she's a girl.
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  And so I think everybody was kind of giving, you know, the eyes with that.
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  And then when I went out there and won, then in the driver's meetings thereafter,
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  it was, people would have an issue with the line I was running or this or that.
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  And it's like all these different nuances come up and it's like.
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  No offense, but I just kicked your butt in my first ever sprint car race.
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  And now you're trying to bring up reasons why I shouldn't even be racing.
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  You have to just have a thick skin, like a tough mentality
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  and just keep pushing through.
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  And I was so young that it's kind of like I didn't even pay attention to it.
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  It was almost like I didn't even recognize those patterns until I
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  was older and going through college and taking gender economics classes.
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  Which I wanted to ask, since I have three fierce competitors here.
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  to talk about the winning mindset because motorsport requires physical toughness,
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  but also a lot of mental toughness.
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  So once you get in the car, is that even on your mind or do you
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  have a totally different process where you have to clear all of that
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  out of your mind in order to win?
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  I think you just got to be focused on the task.
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  When we all show up at the racetrack, to me, I would never think to
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  myself mentally, Oh, I'm a girl.
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  And then second guess my talents or my abilities.
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  You know, I, I always thought of myself as one of the guys.
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  I mean, I'd even show up younger.
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  I was super casual laid back.
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  I don't show up with makeup or my hair done, you know, t shirt jeans,
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  hair up in a bun or back in a hat, and I'm just one of the guys.
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  Don't even want to differentiate myself even based on my looks
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  or my gender in that regard.
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  So, you know, you get in the seat, you put your helmet on, you
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  strap in, like, I want to win the race just as bad as anybody else.
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  You know, it's just that mentality you have to have.
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  Yeah, I would 100 percent agree to me.
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  Once the engine fires, I think I was able to block all of that out.
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  You deal with that out of the car, but once you get in the car, whether that's
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  the winning mentality or whatever that might be, it's easy to shut everything
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  else off and just focus on your one job.
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  Yeah, I'd have to agree as well.
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  The track is one of my happy places, so getting there is nice,
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  and getting checked into the track and walking in and unloading the
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  car is kind of where it all starts.
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  You meet with your crew chief, meet with your team, set up a game plan
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  for the day, and you're not really thinking about all this outside
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  noise, whether it's from social media or people at the track or fans.
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  You're really just focused on the task at hand and making sure
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  you're getting the job done.
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  Unfortunately, a lot of drivers fall victim to the red mist.
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  We like to call it as coaches.
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  So I'm wondering if that plays in it, you know, you strap in, you got your
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  helmet on, you're out there to win.
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  Short track is probably one of the most intense disciplines of competition
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  when it comes to motorsports.
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  So I wanted to talk about maybe some of the more memorable on track
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  battles, standout moments, or where you were just overcome by the red mist.
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  I don't know about the redness, but I have a good story where I
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  actually met my current teammate.
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  I was racing ISMA wing supermodifieds at Oswego and got in one of those
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  situations where I'm running out front.
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  I had car issues.
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  I had actually a fuel pickup issue and at the time we didn't quite know what it was.
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  I just knew that I wasn't gonna pull in running first.
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  So Otto, my teammate, was actually running second behind me.
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  I had never met him.
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  I had never spoken to him.
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  Knew a little bit about him, but the record didn't intimidate me.
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  I just knew that I had to stay in front of him.
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  And on every restart, my fuel pickup was not functioning properly.
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  And it would take me like a lap to kind of get going.
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  And once I got going, I could stay out in front of him.
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  I did not beat him.
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  He beat me, which was the problem because everybody thought like, Oh my gosh,
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  you couldn't just cut her some slack.
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  She's a girl.
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  She was going to win her first supermodified race.
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  I was like, absolutely not.
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  I don't want anybody to cut me slack.
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  And they actually ended up giving him more of a hard time because he beat me.
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  And that was.
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  Potentially going to be one of my first wins.
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  So that was like one of those situations where it was kind of a little bit
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  backwards where people were wishing that he didn't actually race me
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  the way that I wanted to be raced.
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  I appreciate him for teaching me that lesson.
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  And I told the fans, like, I don't want anybody to ever
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  cut me slack on the racetrack.
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  Really memorable moment for me.
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  And something that still gets brought up is when I was 15, I was
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  racing up midget at Kokomo Speedway.
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  And I was racing Dave Darlin of all people.
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  So, you know, if you know, short track racing, midget sprint cars,
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  Dave Darlin is one of the best.
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  I was 15 at the time and we were racing for the lead.
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  It was with one to go.
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  And I remember the whole crowd was on their feet standing
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  and Kokomo will pack them in.
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  Something that happened with my motor.
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  And so then I was like riding the cushion and I ended up almost like missing the
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  cushion because what was, I was down a cylinder and I ended up spinning out.
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  Lost the race in that regard.
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  It was not very memorable, but after the race, you would have thought I won
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  the race with all the fans and everybody that was in the pits and lining up.
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  And then Dave came down and even though we didn't actually win, it
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  was still a memorable moment for me and people still talk about it.
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  I mean, I have a few memorable moments.
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  And I was in Australia racing a sprint car for a whole season and went over there at
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  21 years old, knew nobody, just flew over there, met this family, met this team, I
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  flew over actually on Christmas Eve and landed and couldn't even get McDonald's,
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  but regardless, we kind of struggled.
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  Wasn't the most well funded team.
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  And at the very end was the grand annual sprint car classic.
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  It's like the biggest sprint car race they have in Australia.
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  And I was running second in the B main one lap to go to qualify for the A main.
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  No woman has ever done it before.
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  And a fellow American took me out.
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  This completely cleared me out.
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  So in Australia, they make calls.
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  They disqualified him because he was aggressive driving.
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  Well, he wouldn't get off the track.
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  They're giving him a black flag.
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  He won't get off the track.
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  So finally they just throw the check.
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  So then you have to go back a lap.
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  Technically the lap before I was in second.
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  So it was, it was a crazy story, but it was probably 15, 000 people.
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  I don't remember the exact number, but they pack them in in Australia.
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  And they were all chanting my name.
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  And it was the neatest moment because it was like, everyone was actually
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  cheering for the girl crazy story.
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  Cause it was a fellow American who I still kind of have a grudge with to
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  this day because of that incident.
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  But it was a really neat moment in my career, but it was a really
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  special moment where I felt like the entire crowd was rooting for me.
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  So to add to that, for those listening at home, the other
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  thing that you have on your CV.
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  Is that yours to this date, the first and only woman to
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  win a world of outlaws feature.
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  Is that right?
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  That is right.
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  It is over 20 years ago, which again, makes me feel old.
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  You know, I'm really proud of that, but I'm also not proud that there
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  hasn't been another woman that we're not supporting more women.
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  You know, it's cool to have that record and people ask what
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  I'll feel like when it's broken.
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  And I'm like, I'll be happy.
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  It stood for a long time, but it's made to be broken.
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  I want to see another woman be very successful in a sprint car.
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  Specifically when it comes to short track in your own career, Erin, have
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  you seen the opportunities expand?
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  Is there kind of like a plateau?
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  Where do you see it historically?
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  And where do you see the trajectory going?
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  It's hard for me to say, because honestly, I still am involved in
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  racing media, but I haven't driven in goodness, 10 or so years.
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  So we're still involved in motor sports, but I'm not in the day to
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  day thick of the short track stuff.
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  You know, I see other women that are racing sprint cars
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  now, but there's not a lot.
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  There's not a lot of the top levels.
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  I see them racing at ARCA and there's some, some of them are well funded.
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  To be honest, you know, sometimes I feel like we haven't changed nearly
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  as much as I would have liked.
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  There's been push for diversity.
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  There's been programs.
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  I love what Lynn and Cindy Sisson are doing with women
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  in motorsports North America.
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  There's all this backing, but we're still not getting the results I'd love to see.
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  That's really interesting.
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  And I'll throw this question out to Taylor and Allison too, because we've been
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  talking to drivers from other disciplines that are having, I think, more success
• 17:22
  in getting women in the driver's seat and also women engineers, women in the booth.
• 17:27
  What are they doing that you think?
• 17:29
  Maybe we could import into short track.
• 17:31
  NHRA is doing such a great job with diversity.
• 17:34
  Also, late model racing, I feel like is thriving as in comparison to
• 17:40
  short track racing, open wheel short track racing, if you will, to where
• 17:43
  like Aaron's right, like sprint car racing from when I started racing
• 17:48
  midget sprint cars when I was 13, 14.
• 17:50
  And then if you want to do 10 years later, or Now 15 years later, instead
• 17:55
  of me just being the only girl at the track, now there may be two.
• 17:58
  But I still show up to a pavement sprint car race no different than when I was
• 18:00
  15, now I'm 29, I'm still the only girl for a pavement sprint car race.
• 18:04
  Almost the same thing when I was racing winged dirt 360 410 sprint cars.
• 18:08
  And it's like silver crown racing, okay I started doing that when
• 18:11
  I was 16, now we have two girls.
• 18:14
  It's like, so we doubled, but there's still 20, 30 car fields.
• 18:18
  So Aaron's right to where the progress is really not there.
• 18:21
  And I feel like a lot of it comes back to, I don't know if short track open
• 18:25
  wheel racing is just really daunting.
• 18:27
  And obviously there's not a lot of girls now, so it's not really a
• 18:31
  selling point to the younger girls.
• 18:33
  Obviously I think there's this perception that open wheel short
• 18:37
  track racing is really dangerous.
• 18:39
  And parents feel safer by putting their daughter or their kid in
• 18:43
  a late model or a stock car.
• 18:45
  And then I also feel like Open Wheel Short Track Racing, they don't highlight
• 18:49
  the females that they have now.
• 18:50
  Which I think is a really important thing to do.
• 18:52
  You know, you'll look and see other series really pinpoint the girls that they have.
• 18:57
  And make sure that they're posting that on social media and highlighting that.
• 19:00
  And I also feel like there's a little bit of a lapse.
• 19:03
  With what we're doing as well, at least in my areas, southeastern
• 19:07
  Pennsylvania, I'm in the dirt track world and I don't do any of it.
• 19:11
  I am an asphalt girl through and through.
• 19:13
  I think it's just the opportunity is also a little bit smaller, especially
• 19:17
  doing the kind of the track that I did.
• 19:19
  So quarter measures three quarter mentioned then super modified.
• 19:21
  So there's not a whole lot of feeder series.
• 19:24
  If you're not doing dirt and you're not doing sprint cars and you're not
• 19:27
  doing 270s and all that kind of stuff.
• 19:30
  It's very specific and I don't think tracks and promoters aren't really
• 19:35
  going out and looking for women.
• 19:37
  It's really maybe lack of interest on our end.
• 19:40
  I do know that up in New York where Oswego Supermodifieds are It, there's
• 19:45
  plenty of little girls running around the racetrack, you know, saying, I
• 19:48
  want to be a race car driver someday.
• 19:49
  But then again, there's not a lot of feeder programs that get people
• 19:53
  into three quarter midget asphalt racing and then super modified.
• 19:57
  So that may be where we're missing.
• 19:59
  Where would you say it branches off though?
• 20:01
  Like if you found your way into those disciplines, like you did.
• 20:05
  Where would your next logical step be?
• 20:07
  Let's say, yeah, I've done what I need to do here.
• 20:09
  Where would you recommend people go after?
• 20:11
  I don't know, because I don't really have any interest in going
• 20:15
  anywhere other than super modified.
• 20:17
  So I really think it's just personal preference.
• 20:21
  Like I said, I'm an asphalt girl through and through.
• 20:23
  And if somebody threw a dirt car ride at me, I'd have to think twice about it.
• 20:28
  So it's just, it's a preference.
• 20:30
  Would you ever consider a different discipline?
• 20:33
  Let's just say going to Trans Am where the types of cars have similar
• 20:37
  layouts and things like that?
• 20:39
  Yeah, of course.
• 20:40
  I would definitely consider it.
• 20:41
  But like, my heart is super, super set on those Oswego Super Modifieds.
• 20:46
  There's just something about them that, uh, I can't fathom wrapping
• 20:50
  my head around anything else.
• 20:52
  I grew up on quarter midgets going like, this is what I want to do someday.
• 20:55
  And then I watched people like Lou Ciccone and Joe Gosick run, kind of fell in love.
• 21:00
  So that's my passion.
• 21:01
  So Aaron, to Allison's point, there's no feeder system into this.
• 21:05
  Talked about family.
• 21:06
  It's a big Family discipline and motorsport Taylor to you're
• 21:09
  kind of getting back into it.
• 21:11
  Where would you set your sights after you've cut your teeth in
• 21:14
  these disciplines of racing?
• 21:15
  Kind of had the opportunity to do it.
• 21:17
  And I raced an ARCA and I raised the NASCAR truck series.
• 21:20
  I ran some Xfinity series.
• 21:21
  It was the Bush series at the time.
• 21:23
  I really wanted to be an IndyCar driver though.
• 21:25
  The open wheel to me.
• 21:26
  My first love in racing and to this day, my passion is sprint cars.
• 21:30
  I do a podcast every single week about World of Outlaws and wing sprint cars.
• 21:34
  In my younger years, I wanted to be the best.
• 21:36
  And you know, the best went to Indy, the best went to NASCAR.
• 21:39
  I just wanted to be the best.
• 21:40
  And I loved Indy cars.
• 21:41
  I have an engineering degree, so I'm fascinated with open wheel cars like that.
• 21:45
  And when I finally won a World of Outlaw race and started to get opportunities.
• 21:49
  Met an agent and he said, well, we're going NASCAR racing.
• 21:52
  And I said, well, I don't want to go NASCAR racing.
• 21:54
  I want to go IndyCar racing.
• 21:55
  And he said, well, you don't have any money.
• 21:57
  There's opportunity in NASCAR.
• 21:58
  At the time there was a start for the big diversity push in NASCAR.
• 22:01
  I went that way because it was opportunity.
• 22:03
  Racing is extremely expensive and I didn't have any money or funding behind me.
• 22:07
  I didn't have any main sponsors and it was a wonderful experience.
• 22:10
  I, you know, I was able to race in an ARCA for a while.
• 22:13
  I ended up, like I said, trucks.
• 22:15
  Xfinity, and then when that kind of all started to fall apart,
• 22:17
  I went back to sprint cars.
• 22:19
  Cause that's to me, which we all have our personal preference,
• 22:21
  but I love a wing sprint car.
• 22:23
  There's just so much horsepower, so much downforce, they weigh nothing
• 22:26
  and they are just really fun to drive.
• 22:28
  So, I mean, it's really a matter of like Alison said, it's a preference.
• 22:32
  You know, really my preference, like her passion is a super
• 22:34
  modify and mine is a sprint cars.
• 22:36
  But when I was younger, I wanted to be the best.
• 22:38
  And I did want to get to the top level of the sport and see if I
• 22:41
  could compete against the best.
• 22:43
  I honestly feel a lot like how Aaron does.
• 22:46
  You know, like I'd grit my teeth sprint car racing, that's what I love to do.
• 22:49
  But obviously it's hard to make a living doing that.
• 22:52
  Tried going the stock car route, late model route when I was 16.
• 22:56
  I did some ARCA when I was 17.
• 22:58
  And the plan for me was assuming funding allowed me to do full time
• 23:02
  ARCA when I was 18 and kind of continue on that stock car path.
• 23:05
  I come from a stock car background.
• 23:07
  My family's completely obsessed with NASCAR.
• 23:09
  But I always, at the end of the day, just wanted to race.
• 23:12
  Cause that's what I love to do and be the best at it.
• 23:14
  Like how Aaron said.
• 23:15
  And so when the whole stock car scene didn't work out, that's when I ended
• 23:19
  up going back wing sprint car racing.
• 23:21
  Cause that's what I really loved.
• 23:23
  The path there from like the open wheel short track racing that
• 23:26
  we do, there really isn't one.
• 23:27
  It's kind of like you make your own like the past 20 years.
• 23:30
  You'd probably see more.
• 23:32
  So people going from sprint cars.
• 23:34
  To NASCAR because it's more, I feel like an easier jump.
• 23:38
  There's more opportunity.
• 23:39
  It's easier to get money for NASCAR because NASCAR is more marketable.
• 23:44
  Whereas I did have the opportunity.
• 23:46
  I tried to do some Indynex racing last summer.
• 23:50
  Some of the oval races because I had funding for it.
• 23:54
  But I had funding for the races.
• 23:55
  I didn't have the funding to necessarily accurately prepare me for those races.
• 24:00
  I knew it was going to be a big jump, but it was a bigger jump than what I
• 24:03
  had even anticipated and planned for.
• 24:05
  And so it takes a lot more money than what you even expect on pen and paper
• 24:11
  when they show you, Oh, it's going to cost you this much to do this.
• 24:13
  You got to factor in another four or five hundred thousand dollars for all
• 24:17
  the other testing and experiences that you need before you actually get there.
• 24:20
  Because.
• 24:21
  The path to doing that from sprint car racing isn't really the same
• 24:26
  as what it was 20, 30 years ago.
• 24:29
  Can I ask about money?
• 24:30
  Brass tacks, the differences when you're making jumps to
• 24:33
  levels, is it a factor of 10?
• 24:36
  You're going from, say, 30, 000 to do a season to 300, 000.
• 24:41
  Is this the kind of numbers we're talking about?
• 24:42
  I think it depends, again, on the series that you're in.
• 24:45
  Obviously, if you're going from quarter midgets to three quarter
• 24:47
  midgets to super modified, it's not quite by 10, but it also depends
• 24:51
  on, you know, your team and your regiment and your maintenance program.
• 24:54
  And you know, what you show up to the track with, whether it's one car
• 24:57
  or two cars, you have a backup car, you have a team, that whole thing.
• 25:01
  So, I mean, I raced with just my dad and I, and.
• 25:04
  In Super Modifieds when we first got into wing supers, and I had no
• 25:07
  team, I had no backup car, and we had very little spare parts, and if
• 25:11
  we broke, we broke, and that was it.
• 25:13
  But then, racing with John Ocotra and Otto Ciderly, they had two or three cars, and
• 25:18
  we had ten guys, and we had two trailers.
• 25:20
  So I think it's very specific to your sport and it's very specific to how
• 25:25
  you like to prepare your car and you know, a maintenance program that your
• 25:29
  team has and how much money you spend.
• 25:31
  I feel like I'm a little out of the loop, you know, I haven't been in
• 25:34
  those situations in years, but it's certainly when you climb the ladder
• 25:37
  from quarter midgets to say micros, if that's the route that I kind of went
• 25:42
  to sprint cars, it is exponential.
• 25:44
  I mean, it goes from family funded operation to, Oh goodness.
• 25:48
  Like if you want to win and you want to run for championships, you
• 25:51
  need spare motors, you need spare cars, especially in, in on the
• 25:54
  dirt, you heard a few chassis each year, there's no way around it.
• 25:58
  So yeah, I think to do things right, it goes exponential for sure.
• 26:01
  I mean, you could probably, for what I'm running now, if I was just to run
• 26:05
  all the payments, front car races, and then the entire USEC silver crown
• 26:08
  schedule, I could easily go through 300, 400, 000, just doing that.
• 26:13
  If I want to run a full season of world of outlaws nowadays, it's.
• 26:16
  It's easily a million dollars.
• 26:18
  Like what had Aaron mentioned, all the chassis you need, all the
• 26:20
  motors, all the travel accommodation, the crew guys that you need.
• 26:25
  I mean, you could easily go through money like it's water.
• 26:29
  And then also if you want to jump and go NASCAR racing, or if you want to go
• 26:33
  IndyCar racing, that's another big jump.
• 26:36
  And also the structure of the organization and the team personally,
• 26:40
  the NASCAR structure and the way they do their kits now, as they call them.
• 26:45
  is more efficient, just my opinion, than the way IndyCar does it.
• 26:48
  It's almost like with IndyCar or IndyNex, when you're presented with an
• 26:52
  agreement, the number that they put down is basically your stake, if you will.
• 26:56
  But then there's a bunch of like, a la carte items, like
• 26:59
  everything else is extra.
• 27:00
  So yeah, on pen and paper, your season might be 1.
• 27:03
  2 million, but if you want to do this extra testing, or if you want to wrap
• 27:07
  on your car, or if you want to do this or that, you could easily spend another
• 27:11
  200, 000, or then if you crash, then that doesn't include crash flaws, and some
• 27:16
  driver last year had 400, 000 or 500, 000 in crash damage, like, it's just crazy.
• 27:22
  So, you could easily spend that money in Indynext, you could
• 27:25
  paid for a whole season in NASCAR trucks and everything's included.
• 27:29
  So it's kind of pick and choose your battles.
• 27:32
  Taylor, I'm glad you took us there because this gives us an opportunity to talk about
• 27:36
  the good, the bad, and the indifferent of racing, the business side of everything.
• 27:41
  Lauren mentioned earlier about sponsorship and visibility,
• 27:44
  how huge they are in racing.
• 27:46
  What I'm curious about is how sponsorship works in the sprint car, super modified
• 27:51
  dirt track world, because we see how big companies, tech firms rally
• 27:57
  behind the NASCARs and the IndyCars and the world endurance championships.
• 28:01
  And you see all these names of consumer goods that we all buy all the time, but
• 28:04
  that's not the case in your guy's world.
• 28:06
  So how does sponsorship work and what are the challenges to getting a business
• 28:10
  to sponsor you in the sprint car world?
• 28:12
  I think that the sprint car world, again, I'm not in it every day now, so I can't
• 28:16
  totally speak for it, but my time in the years after it's a niche audience, right?
• 28:21
  It's a small audience, but there are people that are really
• 28:24
  passionate about sprint cars.
• 28:25
  So I feel like in the sprint car world, a lot of it is you get an opportunity to
• 28:30
  drive for somebody and they either have funding or they have the sponsorship.
• 28:34
  As a team getting sponsored is kind of up to you too.
• 28:37
  It's different than when I went to NASCAR.
• 28:39
  And like you said, it's more corporate involved in world of outlaws.
• 28:42
  Sprint cars has gotten way more corporate.
• 28:44
  You go to a race.
• 28:44
  Now there's hospitality suites.
• 28:45
  None of that existed when I was racing with the world of outlaws.
• 28:48
  But my first big break, big sponsor was my university.
• 28:51
  I went to school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and I was getting my engineering
• 28:55
  degree and one of my professors.
• 28:57
  actually approached me and said, have you ever talked to the
• 28:58
  school about sponsoring you?
• 29:00
  Because, you know, you're in a male dominated school.
• 29:02
  Why, you know, I think it's a great fit.
• 29:04
  So I actually had the Dean of admissions.
• 29:07
  I put this giant proposal together.
• 29:09
  I was a sophomore in college and thought I had written probably a
• 29:12
  hundred proposals and never heard from anyone, but I was putting this together.
• 29:15
  I went to meet with her.
• 29:16
  And she said, okay, well, how much do you need for next year?
• 29:18
  And I actually was like, uh, I kind of got stunned because I
• 29:21
  could tell she was kind of serious.
• 29:22
  So I threw out a number.
• 29:24
  And by the time I walked back to my sorority house, cause yes, I was in a
• 29:27
  sorority, there was an email that the school would sponsor me and they actually
• 29:30
  went on to sponsor me for about three years and they helped me pay for travel.
• 29:34
  So I can finish getting my degree, which was obviously really important.
• 29:37
  My mom never really understood this.
• 29:39
  Cause she was like, wait a second, I'm paying tuition and your race.
• 29:42
  They're paying you to race.
• 29:43
  Like this doesn't make sense, but I feel like it's a much more individualized
• 29:47
  experience when you're a short track racer to get your sponsors or the
• 29:51
  team, or as people, you know, it's not like you said, the major corporations.
• 29:54
  I think from a super modified standpoint, like I said, it's very niche market.
• 29:58
  Like Aaron had mentioned, it's in upstate New York.
• 30:01
  So I'm a Pennsylvania girl.
• 30:03
  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to ask businesses down in Pennsylvania
• 30:07
  to advertise on my race car in New York.
• 30:10
  So that was definitely an added challenge for me.
• 30:13
  I honestly have thought that like securing sponsorship dollars is
• 30:17
  probably the hardest part of racing and has been the biggest, I don't
• 30:21
  want to say headache, but you have to put a lot of time and effort into it.
• 30:25
  And if you don't, you're not going to get the results.
• 30:27
  And I had a friend actually tell me in the last year, I was like, man,
• 30:31
  I just feel terrible walking up to people and asking them for money.
• 30:34
  And he said.
• 30:35
  If you don't ask, you won't know.
• 30:37
  And when I put that in the back of my mind, and every time I met somebody new,
• 30:41
  every time I went to a new business, whether it was in Pennsylvania, New
• 30:44
  Jersey, wherever it was, it's just like, hey, I run a super modified.
• 30:47
  This is what I do.
• 30:48
  This is when I do it.
• 30:49
  Here's my packet.
• 30:50
  And I actually ended up getting more sponsorship over the last two years
• 30:54
  that I ran than I did ever before.
• 30:56
  So if there's any advice I can give, just ask.
• 30:58
  Because you never know what you're saying resonates with the previous panel.
• 31:02
  We had the ladies from train, Sam said something very similar in the
• 31:06
  sense that you won't know unless you ask, you have to ask, you just got to
• 31:09
  kind of get over that anxiety that it causes to ask people to help you out.
• 31:13
  But one of the things that's really never been explained, and maybe one of
• 31:17
  you guys can shed some light for all of us that are fans of racing, there's the
• 31:20
  challenge of getting the sponsorship.
• 31:22
  But what are the commitments?
• 31:23
  Like what's the return on investment for the business?
• 31:26
  What do you have to do to fulfill that sponsorship?
• 31:28
  Just from racing standpoint in New York, I got off really, really easy.
• 31:32
  People were just like, look, this is your passion.
• 31:35
  You love it.
• 31:35
  You do well at it.
• 31:37
  It's really cool on Friday night or Saturday night.
• 31:39
  If I can look at flow and I can see my name on the side of the
• 31:42
  car in victory lane, I'll take it.
• 31:44
  I didn't really have to do any kind of bring the car here, show it here.
• 31:47
  I did do a couple of speaking engagements.
• 31:50
  But other than that, I've gotten off pretty easy.
• 31:52
  So my sponsors have been very fortunate to have the people that have supported
• 31:56
  me and not ask for much in return.
• 31:59
  And I know that that's not very common.
• 32:01
  So Taylor, you had the law firm you were working for on the side of your car.
• 32:04
  How did that deal work out?
• 32:06
  When I started working there, I wasn't racing at all.
• 32:08
  And then in the midst of my tenure there, I started racing,
• 32:12
  got the racing bug again.
• 32:14
  Completely obsessed.
• 32:15
  And, you know, my law firm is pretty well known in the state of Michigan
• 32:20
  being a personal injury firm.
• 32:21
  And so I had figured our consumer, I feel like in motorsports is very
• 32:26
  similar to their clientele base.
• 32:28
  I just thought for me, it was an easy sell, you know, I worked there, raced
• 32:32
  in Michigan a little bit, and they had seen the whole Netflix drive to
• 32:37
  survive, and so then they were trying to get into racing a little bit.
• 32:40
  So I literally just asked, and you know, it's kind of like what
• 32:44
  Allison said, if you don't ask, you'll never know the answer.
• 32:46
  And so then it snowballed from there and then we did a commercial
• 32:49
  or shot a couple commercials.
• 32:51
  And then that's really kind of what got me back into the thick of things.
• 32:54
  And then I got connected with other sponsors and now I'm mobile one
• 32:57
  and Bradford Allen and, you know, it just kind of grew from there.
• 33:01
  Yeah, definitely been very fortunate, but it's one thing to get the sponsor
• 33:04
  and then another thing to keep them.
• 33:05
  So Aaron, to you on that one, because as you Moved up.
• 33:09
  Did it get harder and harder to fulfill the commitments and
• 33:12
  what were the commitments like?
• 33:13
  Certainly did.
• 33:14
  When my school sponsored me, there was like really no commitments.
• 33:18
  It was, I think we brought the car to campus one time.
• 33:21
  They didn't really have any expectations of activation or
• 33:25
  what their return was going to be.
• 33:27
  And it was actually really nice.
• 33:28
  When I first signed to race in NASCAR, I remember Ray Everham, who
• 33:33
  I was driving for the time and is now my husband, telling me that he's
• 33:36
  like, this next year is going to be the hardest year of your career.
• 33:38
  And I was like, I ran 102 races with the world of outlaws.
• 33:42
  Like nothing's going to be harder.
• 33:43
  That's like living in truck and trailer, nasty hotels, truck stops.
• 33:47
  I thought what's harder than that.
• 33:49
  He was right because suddenly all these.
• 33:51
  Sponsor commitments come and it's kind of hard when you're racing a sprint car.
• 33:55
  You're going from one track to another.
• 33:56
  All your focus is on your car.
• 33:58
  You've got a small team.
• 34:00
  It's where are we racing next?
• 34:01
  What track are we running?
• 34:02
  Suddenly it was like, okay, well now you have to fly here because
• 34:05
  you have an appearance here.
• 34:06
  And at the racetrack, the morning of the race, you need to go to this suite.
• 34:09
  You need to go to this suite.
• 34:10
  It is a wonderful opportunity.
• 34:11
  Don't get me wrong, but it was a stark change from what I was used to.
• 34:15
  I almost don't feel like looking back.
• 34:17
  I did a great job of.
• 34:18
  Managing that because I was so used to not having to worry about anything
• 34:22
  but my car and what was going on on the track that suddenly now I
• 34:25
  had to worry about public speaking.
• 34:27
  I had to worry about media relations, but they were sending to me to media training.
• 34:31
  Betty Crocker and General Mills Cheerios sponsored me and I spent
• 34:34
  weeks in Minneapolis doing media training and it was It was wonderful.
• 34:38
  It was a great experience, but it was just very different.
• 34:40
  It was, you know, you go from focusing completely on a race car to now you,
• 34:44
  you're a business person and you're promoting yourself and you're also
• 34:48
  representing these huge brands.
• 34:49
  It was definitely, it was hard.
• 34:51
  You know, I, I am by nature shy growing up.
• 34:55
  I've kind of outgrown that as I've gotten older, but it was hard for me.
• 34:58
  Like some of that public speaking was.
• 35:00
  In a way, you look back and think, I wish I managed that better and I didn't
• 35:03
  let it be a distraction, but you're trying to be good at everything, right?
• 35:06
  You want the sponsor to love you, you want to be the best in the
• 35:08
  race car, and it's kind of hard.
• 35:09
  My brain is, like, very all or nothing, so, like, I like to just
• 35:13
  be all in the car and the fun stuff, but suddenly I had to focus on
• 35:17
  stuff that wasn't really fun for me.
• 35:18
  That sounds very tiring.
• 35:20
  It was tiring, but I'm so thankful.
• 35:22
  Like I cannot look back at that and think nothing but appreciation for the
• 35:25
  opportunities I had, but it was different.
• 35:27
  Ray was right.
• 35:28
  It was a bigger step than I realized.
• 35:29
  I thought, shoot, I ran with these tough guys and lived in a truck and trailer.
• 35:33
  I've got this.
• 35:34
  And then I was like, Oh, all right.
• 35:35
  And you have to be on all the time.
• 35:37
  Like you have to be when you go to all these events and then suddenly
• 35:41
  you're going to these charity events and you just have to be on.
• 35:43
  And for someone who can be a total introvert, that's.
• 35:46
  It's a lot.
• 35:46
  It's almost like you're becoming one of the commodities.
• 35:49
  Yeah.
• 35:50
  You thought, I'm delivering wins.
• 35:51
  The wins are what you want, right?
• 35:53
  But they're like, no, we want you as well.
• 35:55
  We want this whole package.
• 35:57
  We want all of it.
• 35:59
  Yeah.
• 35:59
  Yeah.
• 36:00
  I would find that very overwhelming.
• 36:01
  And you were how old when this was happening?
• 36:03
  23, 24. I was an idiot when I was 24.
• 36:06
  I don't even understand how I could have.
• 36:09
  Well, obviously I didn't do it too well because I'm not racing anymore, but no,
• 36:13
  it was honestly wonderful opportunities.
• 36:15
  I'll never forget that one race said to me, it's gonna be the
• 36:18
  hardest year of your career.
• 36:19
  And I thought, All right.
• 36:20
  I've raced against the roughest and toughest sprint car drivers.
• 36:23
  And then I realized what he meant.
• 36:24
  There's a lot of commitments and they pull you in different directions.
• 36:27
  Some of y'all are involved in WMNA and I've actually met you at WMNA
• 36:31
  events, Women in Motorsport North America, either through organizations
• 36:34
  like that, or through relationship with somebody amazing like Lynn St.
• 36:38
  James.
• 36:38
  What kind of role does that play in helping prepare drivers and other
• 36:42
  women in the sport for their futures?
• 36:44
  I've known Lynn since I was about 12 or 13 years old, so 15, 16 years now.
• 36:50
  Her program that she had her women in the Winter Circle Academy was super
• 36:54
  impactful on me, with the way you'd spend the weekend in Phoenix, and you
• 36:59
  know, you kind of go through physical training, mental training, your
• 37:03
  nutrition, and then there was also an on track segment, and teaching those.
• 37:09
  instrumental like characteristics and the certain mentality that you had to
• 37:13
  have at such a young age really gave me a really great foundation as I evolved
• 37:18
  and matured over time and so hope the same for what they're doing with WMNA.
• 37:22
  I think they're trying to institute some of those kind of
• 37:25
  clinics or workshops or whatnot.
• 37:27
  But then also just by having such a large networking event once a year, that's
• 37:32
  how I really learned to talk to people.
• 37:34
  I mean, I am innately a shy person.
• 37:37
  And I actually think this is the first time I met Erin.
• 37:39
  She was having a big event down in Daytona, maybe in like 2009.
• 37:44
  Lynn basically just threw me in a room and was like, go talk to all these executives.
• 37:48
  And 13 years old.
• 37:51
  That's when I learned icebreakers and, you know, how to really talk to people.
• 37:54
  And so.
• 37:55
  You don't learn unless you try and do it and you learn by doing and
• 37:58
  so I feel like WMNA is trying to kind of reciprocate some of those
• 38:01
  things that Lynn started so long ago.
• 38:03
  And there are a lot of sponsors in that room.
• 38:05
  I've been at those conferences.
• 38:07
  There are a lot of sponsors milling about there.
• 38:09
  Yeah, I love what they're doing.
• 38:10
  I actually went to Lynn's Women in the Werner Circle driver development
• 38:14
  program like 26 years ago.
• 38:16
  I was one of her first classes and Lynn took me under her wing
• 38:19
  and brought me to the Indy 500.
• 38:21
  And, you know, she kind of did the same thing to me.
• 38:23
  We were on Pitt Road and I think it was Chip Ganassi.
• 38:25
  And she was like, you need to go introduce yourself.
• 38:27
  And I was like, horrified.
• 38:28
  You know, I knew exactly who he was.
• 38:30
  I was 18 or 19 years old.
• 38:32
  She's like, no, you need to.
• 38:33
  And when Lynn tells you to do something, you better do it.
• 38:36
  I went over there and I introduced myself, but I think what they're
• 38:39
  doing now is, is wonderful.
• 38:41
  It's the next level of it.
• 38:42
  They're getting corporate sponsorship.
• 38:43
  I was involved in the beginning of it.
• 38:45
  I stay in touch with Lynn and Cindy both and I think it's great.
• 38:48
  I love the networking.
• 38:50
  I love the opportunity.
• 38:51
  It's providing.
• 38:52
  I love the mentorship.
• 38:53
  It can provide for younger kids coming up and.
• 38:55
  Just the example, like they can see whether it's an engineer or it's
• 38:59
  marketing or it's broadcasting, whatever, they can see another
• 39:02
  woman doing those things day to day.
• 39:04
  I'm not in any of these programs out here in the East Coast.
• 39:07
  So it would have been a really good thing maybe to have that growing up,
• 39:11
  being the only woman in the series that I've run, that would have been a really
• 39:15
  nice touch to have those mentors and to have that relationship with people
• 39:19
  that have been there and have done that.
• 39:20
  That's really great that they're doing something like that now.
• 39:23
  And they offer that to drivers working their way through the ranks.
• 39:26
  I see some questions from the people.
• 39:28
  Yeah.
• 39:29
  I want to know what the people are saying.
• 39:30
  Well, we do have a question from the audience and actually dovetails right into
• 39:34
  the next question we sort of had in mind, Margie Smith Haas writes, what types of
• 39:38
  things have you ladies done to encourage other young women to get into auto racing,
• 39:43
  any particular stories you'd like to share, and I'll add to that any advice.
• 39:48
  You'd like to give young ladies who dream of getting behind the wheel and maybe are
• 39:52
  hesitant to enter racing I've tried to stay involved with lynn's program, even
• 39:56
  though i'm not directly in motorsports day to day right now in my life I have
• 40:00
  a daughter who obviously grew up with a mother and father who are complete racers
• 40:05
  and she likes different horsepower.
• 40:06
  She rides horses, so she's got me a little distracted from the racing
• 40:10
  world, but I still stay involved.
• 40:12
  I've always tell Lynn and Cindy if there's any opportunity, whether it's a panel to
• 40:15
  speak on or an event, I'm happy to do it.
• 40:18
  I've gone back numerous times to quarter midget track that I grew
• 40:21
  up in and spoke at their banquet.
• 40:23
  I've helped even Kaylee Bryson, a mutual friend had asked if I would
• 40:27
  help like anytime someone gives me the opportunity or says that
• 40:31
  someone is looking for some help.
• 40:32
  I don't know how much help I can be.
• 40:34
  I offer whatever I can because I would love to see more women
• 40:37
  doing more in the sport, winning more races, breaking more records.
• 40:41
  Yeah, I definitely always make it a priority at the racetrack specifically,
• 40:45
  the girls come to the front of line first.
• 40:47
  And if there's a line of people and dads and their daughters, I'm definitely
• 40:51
  pulling them out of the crowd and saying, yeah, you want to get in the car.
• 40:54
  You want to sit in it.
• 40:55
  It might be a little sweaty, but get in there and see what it feels like.
• 40:59
  I actually had a fan at the time she raced the quarter midgets at a local racetrack.
• 41:04
  Her name is also Allison.
• 41:05
  She ended up painting her race car to match my race car.
• 41:10
  And her dad did this big reveal at the last race of the year and presented her
• 41:15
  with her quarter midget, which matched mine, which was super, super cool.
• 41:18
  The only thing that I have.
• 41:20
  Incoming is four year old niece, and we're really hoping that she's
• 41:24
  going to get into quarter midgets.
• 41:25
  And, you know, my brother and I are going to get to do our childhood all
• 41:28
  over again and get the family back into quarter midget racing and go
• 41:32
  travel the United States and do it like we did it when we were kids.
• 41:35
  You know, I mentioned earlier how impact.
• 41:37
  Full lens women and the winter circle Academy was for me at such a young age.
• 41:41
  And, you know, I feel like throughout my time in motor sports too,
• 41:43
  I've collected all this knowledge that I would like to pass on.
• 41:47
  And, you know, I'd kind of come in touch with like a handful of younger girls.
• 41:50
  I've been coming through the ranks and late models or sprint cars.
• 41:53
  And I kind of started to mentor them in my free time and would kind of
• 41:57
  compile what I took away from lens programs and put them in presentations.
• 42:01
  And, you know, we'd meet once a month for an hour or things of that nature.
• 42:05
  And then I also recently started a non profit called The Safety Bank,
• 42:09
  which we aim to provide adequate safety equipment to racers in need.
• 42:13
  So not just specific to girls, we're open to both males and females,
• 42:17
  but a lot of our applicant base has been females, and my whole intention
• 42:21
  of this was to target the youth.
• 42:22
  Because I recognized when I was younger and up and coming, especially being
• 42:26
  a female, how much your body changes.
• 42:28
  And so, you know, every year having to get new safety equipment
• 42:31
  and things of that nature.
• 42:32
  And so the donations that we get and how we're just trying to recycle
• 42:35
  and repurpose safety gear, if that can alleviate the families a little
• 42:38
  bit to keep everybody racing.
• 42:40
  I think that's had just a little bit of the impact of what we've
• 42:42
  been doing so far with that.
• 42:44
  But yeah, just always try to be active off the track and just encourage others.
• 42:48
  Cause I think motor sports is such a great.
• 42:51
  Industry and community to be in a lot of other disciplines are
• 42:54
  maybe more complex teams are huge.
• 42:57
  It's not a family It's a big business.
• 42:59
  They kind of operate like the military, you know Everybody knows their swim lane
• 43:03
  and you got the tire guy and the gal that does the data and you know Everybody's
• 43:06
  got their job right but in your guy's world I'm sure you've turned plenty of
• 43:10
  wrenches yourselves because if there's not a person to do it Somebody's got
• 43:14
  to roll up their sleeves and get it done, but that doesn't disqualify the
• 43:17
  importance of what you said earlier, Aaron, which is you come to the table with
• 43:20
  an engineering degree and there's a lot more young women in STEM programs that
• 43:25
  are funneling into motor sports programs.
• 43:28
  So I wanted to touch on that for a second.
• 43:30
  Maybe get your thoughts on the importance of that and how it plays into what we
• 43:34
  call the larger auto sphere, right?
• 43:36
  All these different career opportunities that are.
• 43:38
  Part of motorsport and the automotive world as a whole.
• 43:41
  Well, I do think in general with the creation or not, their STEM has been
• 43:44
  around for a long time, but there's such a push for STEM now, right?
• 43:47
  To me, it's allowing, or it's letting women, young girls know that it's okay
• 43:52
  to be in, when I went to my engineering.
• 43:55
  school, it was a quarter women and three quarters men.
• 43:59
  Now it's almost half and half granted.
• 44:01
  It's been a few years since then, but it just shows as far
• 44:04
  as engineering, nevermind motor sports, but engineering has changed
• 44:07
  to not just be so male dominated.
• 44:08
  And I do think, and this is my perspective, I have no statistics to
• 44:13
  back this up, but when I go to the racetrack, a NASCAR race or an IndyCar
• 44:16
  race, I see more women engineers, more women on crews than I've ever seen.
• 44:21
  I almost.
• 44:22
  In a way, feel like there's a bigger change there than
• 44:25
  there is in the driver's seat.
• 44:26
  I don't see a whole lot of women in, in my side of racing.
• 44:29
  I don't have an engineering degree.
• 44:31
  I come from communications world, social media side of
• 44:35
  things, TV and radio production.
• 44:36
  So yeah, I think I'd have to agree with Erin.
• 44:38
  When you turn on the TV now and you look at these teams, NASCAR teams, IndyCar
• 44:42
  teams, you definitely see a lot more women outside of the seat, which is amazing.
• 44:46
  I think you can visibly see more.
• 44:48
  Although it is ironic, and it's great for the push though, because I think
• 44:52
  it's trying to obviously attract females, maybe outside of motorsports,
• 44:56
  that weren't aware that this was even an opportunity for them before and
• 45:00
  trying to retain them in that way.
• 45:02
  I think it's interesting that when I was actually graduating from college, One of
• 45:06
  my best friend's moms had an engineering degree and when we were watching all
• 45:10
  the engineering degree recipients walk across the stage, she had made the
• 45:14
  comment like, wow, that's so interesting.
• 45:16
  It's about the same amount of girls that are graduating with engineering degrees
• 45:19
  now as it was when she got her degree.
• 45:21
  30, 40 plus years before.
• 45:24
  But I think it's great though that what NASCAR or IndyCar or, you know,
• 45:29
  higher caliber, higher forms of racing is doing to try to retain those females
• 45:33
  because the ratio is so minimal.
• 45:35
  Looking ahead, I'm curious about what's next in your portfolio for the next year
• 45:40
  or the next three to five year plan, whichever seems more clear at this time.
• 45:43
  I have not been racing.
• 45:45
  I've been off for one year and it's about that time of the year where
• 45:48
  we try and figure out I've been very fortunate to have the teammate and the
• 45:53
  team that I've been able to race with in Oswego, and they have decided to
• 45:57
  step back from super modified racing.
• 45:59
  So they've downsized the team, which I can't blame them.
• 46:01
  It's a lot of running around and everybody wants to, you know, enjoy
• 46:04
  their lives outside of racing.
• 46:05
  They've been doing it for a long time.
• 46:07
  I'm not going to say that I'm done.
• 46:09
  I'm going to say that I'm taking a break.
• 46:11
  And if there's an opportunity that presents itself, you know, at the
• 46:14
  track with another team or another type of racing, I'm always open for it.
• 46:18
  I have lots going on right now, not only on the track, but off the track.
• 46:22
  And so this year I do have sponsor obligations.
• 46:25
  So I'm probably going to race a little bit, not as much as I have
• 46:28
  been the past couple of years.
• 46:29
  But I'm going to be studying for the bar here soon.
• 46:32
  You know, I've been working closely with this attorney that I hope to work for.
• 46:35
  Once I pass the bar, he works in motorsports.
• 46:38
  So I plan to stay in racing when I'm almost at the crossroads in this
• 46:43
  transition phase, where I feel like my impact off the track is almost
• 46:46
  as great as it is on the track.
• 46:48
  And so I'm always going to race.
• 46:50
  I love sprint car racing.
• 46:51
  So if I think, Oh, you know, maybe I'll go run this.
• 46:53
  Saturday at Winchester or something, probably go and do that.
• 46:56
  But yeah, I'm just kind of doing a little bit of everything right now.
• 46:59
  Well, I mean, I think I've kind of hung up the helmet.
• 47:02
  I never say for good.
• 47:03
  So there's an occasion that Ray and I will go to a track day at VIR
• 47:07
  or go play around with some cars.
• 47:09
  You know, my goal at this point is to stay involved in sprint car racing and still
• 47:12
  do my podcast weekly and be an ambassador for the sport, but for women in racing.
• 47:16
  And offer that help to Lynn and Cindy.
• 47:18
  We've got some things we are planning in the fall here in Charlotte, and I'm
• 47:22
  still involved with the Charlotte motor speedway, my husband, I do a lot of the
• 47:25
  concourse we're going to be in an Amelia in a few weeks, I've been doing a lot
• 47:28
  of judging at concourse, we were just at the motor car cavalcade in Miami.
• 47:33
  And that's been a really neat experience for me to take some of
• 47:36
  that knowledge I have about cars and sports, but just being a different whole
• 47:40
  segment of motor sports in cars, so.
• 47:42
  Certainly will be involved in the sport.
• 47:44
  We are always tuned in to some sort of race in this house, whether it's
• 47:47
  NASCAR or IndyCar or Dirt Vision watching the World of Outlaws.
• 47:51
  I was still heavily involved, but unfortunately I think my sprint car
• 47:54
  driving days have come and gone.
• 47:56
  Well, with that ladies, we've reached the part of the episode where we
• 47:58
  like to invite you to share any shout outs, promotions, thank yous,
• 48:01
  or anything else you'd like to share that we haven't covered thus far.
• 48:04
  Yeah, I don't have anybody specific, shout outs, like I said, not recent at
• 48:08
  the time, but everybody that's supported me up to this point, my family, my
• 48:11
  husband, my sponsors, it's been fun.
• 48:14
  You know, honestly, thank you guys for having us on.
• 48:16
  I want to thank Lynn and Cindy and people like Janet Guthrie, who
• 48:19
  I've had the chance to meet, who blazed the trail for us years ago.
• 48:23
  And to all the fans that, and the people that have supported me, you know,
• 48:26
  sometimes we focus on the challenges that we face as women in racing, but I also
• 48:30
  had a ton of wonderful supporters, whether that be car owners, fans, sponsors.
• 48:34
  I'm always grateful for the career that I've had in the industry.
• 48:37
  Thanks to you guys.
• 48:39
  Great to have this panel, you know, and learn from Erin and Allison
• 48:42
  and all our different journeys and how they overlap in a lot of ways.
• 48:45
  And, you know, I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for my family.
• 48:48
  First of all, you know, my sponsors, supporters, and, you know,
• 48:51
  we'll see what the future holds.
• 48:53
  And with that, I will pass the mic to our title sponsor, the
• 48:56
  International Motor Racing Research Center for some closing thoughts.
• 48:59
  Ladies, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule
• 49:02
  to spend some time doing this.
• 49:03
  We really appreciate it.
• 49:05
  On behalf of the International Motor Racing Research Center, also our friends
• 49:08
  at the Society of Automotive Historians.
• 49:10
  We're really happy to sponsor this series in terms of
• 49:12
  celebrating Women's History Month.
• 49:13
  Allison, we miss you at Oswego.
• 49:15
  I hope something comes about and we see you back on track there again.
• 49:18
  Good luck to Erin and Taylor and thank you so much for your time.
• 49:21
  Really appreciate it.
• 49:22
  And on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you
• 49:26
  ladies for sharing your story with us.
• 49:28
  A huge thank you to our amazing panel of drivers for sharing their
• 49:31
  stories, passions, and insights into the world of short track racing.
• 49:35
  It's clear that the future of this sport is faster and fiercer than ever,
• 49:39
  thanks to women like these drivers who continue to push the limits
• 49:42
  and inspire the next generation.
• 49:44
  As we celebrate International Women's Month, let's keep supporting and
• 49:47
  amplifying their voices in motorsports.
• 49:50
  Not just today, but every day.
• 49:52
  It's through sponsorships, it's through mentorship, and sometimes it's just
• 49:55
  showing up at the track and being present.
• 49:57
  With the next generation, we can all play a part in driving change.
• 50:00
  We hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more centered
• 50:03
  conversations throughout the season.
• 50:05
  Be sure to follow, subscribe, and stay with us for more incredible
• 50:08
  discussions from the world of motorsport.
• 50:10
  So until next time, keep the wheels turning and the throttle wide open.
• 50:14
  Thank you.
• 50:15
  Thank you.
• 50:16
  Yeah.
• 50:16
  Thank you ladies.
• 50:17
  Thanks Ken.
• 50:24
  Women in Motorsports North America is a not for profit
• 50:27
  organization that began in 2022.
• 50:29
  Known as WMNA, it is a community that focuses on advancing,
• 50:33
  connecting, and enabling with its many partners including industry
• 50:36
  executives, drivers, team members, OEM sponsors, racetracks, and more.
• 50:41
  WMNA welcomes all who share their passion for motorsports.
• 50:45
  The Women in Drives Summit continues its mission to bring
• 50:47
  together motorsports professionals.
• 50:49
  This unique event offers new pathways for individuals to explore
• 50:52
  career opportunities, discuss current industry challenges, and
• 50:56
  provides mentorship and resources for future growth in the industry.
• 50:59
  If you'd like to stay informed about Wi Imna and the Women in
• 51:02
  Drive Summit, be sure to log on to www.womeninmotorsportsna.com or follow
• 51:08
  them on social media at Women in Motorsports, NA on Instagram and Facebook.
• 51:13
  This episode is brought to you in part.
• 51:16
  By the International Motor Racing Research Center.
• 51:19
  Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history
• 51:23
  of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.
• 51:29
  The Center's collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie
• 51:33
  of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.
• 51:38
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• 51:43
  of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls.
• 51:49
  And brought to life through a regular calendar of public
• 51:52
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• 51:55
  To learn more about the Center, visit www.
• 51:58
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• 52:00
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• 52:02
  This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians.
• 52:07
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• 52:12
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• 52:18
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• 52:23
  deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through
• 52:28
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• 52:31
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• 52:37
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• 52:38
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