Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Ground Pounders & Trailblazers: Women of Trans Am Racing Reflect, Inspire, and Drive Forward

Transcript

Ground Pounders & Trailblazers: Women of Trans Am Racing Reflect, Inspire, and Drive Forward · 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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  Get ready for an electrifying discussion as we bring together
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  four of the most accomplished women in Trans Am and road racing.
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  Cindy Lux, Michelle Abadie, Amy Reumann, and special guest Erin Vogel
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  for an exclusive panel diving into the highs, the challenges, the lows, and
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  the evolution of women in motorsports.
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  From the adrenaline filled battles to the precision of road racing, they'll share
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  their first hand experiences and their insights on what it takes to compete.
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  at the highest levels.
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  Normally, an episode of Break Fix will feature a deep dive into the
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  personal history of our guest, but we're shaking things up this March.
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  In honor of Women's History Month, we're setting our sights
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  on the future of women in racing.
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  Whether you're a diehard racing fan or just love hearing inspiring stories
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  from trailblazers, this month will feature panels of some of the fiercest
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  talent from all areas of motorsport.
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  Some names are already familiar to our listeners.
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  Welcome back, Cindy Lux, but every one of our panelists today has an open
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  invitation to return for an in depth conversation about her road to success.
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  And with that, I'm Crew Chief Eric from the Motoring Podcast Network, along with
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  Lauren Goodman from the REVS Institute.
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  Welcoming everyone to the International Motor Racing Research Center's
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  Virtual Center Conversation.
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  Cindy, Michelle, Amy, and Aaron, welcome to the show.
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  Thank you.
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  Bye.
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  Thanks.
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  Thank you.
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  Hi.
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  For many of our listeners, you know, depending on what decade
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  you tuned into Trans Am for the first time, you might recall maybe
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  three distinct eras in its history.
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  Early days with superstars like Mark Donohue and the rise of Roger Penske, or
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  the golden era of the 80s with Lynn St.
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  James, Willie T. Ribbs, Hurley Haywood, and so many others, or
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  maybe you're part of the next generation of Trans Am that kicked
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  off with drivers like Tommy Kendall.
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  But what we'd like to do, since Erin isn't originally from Trans Am, but is
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  part of road racing, let's start with her impressions from the outside looking in.
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  And maybe by the end of the conversation, we might convince
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  her to jump in a Trans Am car.
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  So, we'll kick off with you, Aaron.
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  As we mentioned, you're no stranger to road racing and even race at some of the
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  same venues as the rest of our panelists.
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  But, rather than the 700 plus horsepower Trans Am cars, you're
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  piloting vehicles like the GT4, GT3 classes in the SRO World Challenge.
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  Can you talk a little bit about why you chose road racing and your
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  impressions of what Trans Am is like?
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  I chose road racing sort of by default just because I started out as a track
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  day enthusiast in Audis and BMWs.
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  So the natural progression, I guess, at that time for me seemed like continuing
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  with those cars that looked familiar.
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  But I became aware of Trans Am through following Michelle Abate, who also started
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  in a, either a BRZ or an FRS, a GR86.
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  platform car, which was what I had started out in, and then
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  she took the move into Trans Am.
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  And so I've been able to be at some of her races live and watch some of them on TV.
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  And from the outside, it's a very exciting series.
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  You know, the noise alone that the cars make is thrilling.
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  And it must be, you know, something that fans just are drawn to.
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  We were out here testing a Button Willow today, and there was a Trans
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  Am car testing on the other track, and the sound is just fantastic.
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  Cindy, Amy, Michelle, why Trans Am rather than some other form of racing?
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  Was it family involvement?
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  Was it opportunity?
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  What drew you into this variant of road racing?
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  As Aaron mentioned, I kind of started in club racing with SCCA.
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  Actually, I started in autocross, worked my way up.
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  But along my journey in club racing, I, I made a connection with a friend
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  of mine who was running a GT one car.
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  His name's Tim Adelson.
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  He actually was just walking through the pits and my husband and I were
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  changing a fuel pump on my Scion cause we were having issues and we began
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  to chat and he invited us into his garage and I was looking at his car
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  and I'm like, Oh, it's like a NASCAR.
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  Like I knew nothing about it.
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  I really wrote it off.
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  I was just like, Oh, whatever.
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  Like that's not a production car.
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  So I'm not really interested.
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  You know, I didn't know anything about the cars.
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  Long story short, he basically wanted to get me into a GT one car.
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  And along that he put me in a late model.
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  So I was driving a late model and circle track at Irwindale
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  for the NASCAR wheeling series.
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  He's like, you could drive it.
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  I'm like, I, well, I've never done circle track, so I don't know if
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  I'm going to be any good at this.
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  You know, and he had all this confidence in me after watching me for a few years.
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  And with that, he built a GT one car for me to campaign at the SCCA
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  national runoffs at Sonoma in 2018.
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  Along that journey, I just completely fell in love with the two chassis V8 platform.
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  Like I just was like, that is a race car.
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  Like I sold everything I owned to buy my TA2 car at the end of 2018.
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  Cause I was just like, I don't want to do anything but drive
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  these V8 two chassis cars.
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  I just was obsessed.
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  Jokingly, I told him that he infected me.
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  Like I am now diseased because I don't want to drive anything else.
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  And so in December of 2018, I purchased my TA2 car, which was very old.
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  It was a 2013 TA2 car.
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  I was just going to club race with it.
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  We had to go to Texas to buy it.
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  And so we had a very long drive home.
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  My husband and I decided, let's just go do West Coast Trans Am.
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  We've got the car.
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  It's legal.
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  You know, it's going to cost us a little bit more money, but I felt.
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  So excited about the program.
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  And I had also crewed for Tim Adelson for a few Trans Am events.
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  So I was familiar with the paddock and I was a little intimidated by the TA2 class
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  because there's so many competitors and they're so like just aggressive out there.
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  You know what I mean?
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  And it was, am I really going to go do this type thing?
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  But I just absolutely love TA2.
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  It just makes my heart beat.
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  I just love Trans Am so much.
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  You know, I raced a variety of other series before I kind of dipped
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  my toe in Trans Am back in 2015.
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  There was just a lot of uniqueness with that series at that time.
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  And what really drew me was it was they're driving state of the art racetracks.
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  But more importantly, I just love the 100 mile or 90 minutes or 80
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  minutes, whatever it may be, distance.
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  Because there's a lot more strategy than people kind of realize.
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  Trying to figure out more car setup for the long term, etc.
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  But there's a little bit different aspects about the Trans Am.
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  But it's also the community, you know, and I'm sure Michelle and
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  Amy, you know, will attest to this.
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  Aaron, you probably see it in the SRO as well.
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  The paddock, it really is family, you know, somebody has a problem or something
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  happens, everybody truly rallies.
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  But there was something special about the Trans Am where, I don't want to say
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  it was blue collar type environment, but it was definitely more family,
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  a little bit more hardcore racing, but they welcomed me with open arms.
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  Plus it was a great way because of the multi class aspect, which is
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  a separate discussion in itself.
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  It allowed us to basically run some Dodge Vipers for some clients and
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  some folks and so forth, kind of travel around the country as well.
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  So I think it's very unique.
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  There's definitely some very unique aspects with Trans Am,
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  much different from others.
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  That's kind of what keyed me on at first.
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  So Amy, for you, it was family.
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  Yes.
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  My experience is a little different because I grew up going
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  to the track, watching my father race in the Trans Am series.
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  He started in the late 90s, early 2000s, basically as a privateer team
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  against factory teams back then when we had Ford and Chevy and all of them
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  and Tommy Kendall and Paul Giannullosi and Greg Pickett and, and all those
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  guys that my dad got to run against.
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  So I grew up going there.
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  Witnessing all of that greatness all the time.
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  And I was like, I'm doing this for sure.
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  I just have to get my dad to sidestep and get a chance to get in there.
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  And so my circumstance was a little different.
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  You know, I grew up around racing.
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  You know, we started off as just Corvette autocrossers and then.
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  One day my dad wanted to buy a GT1 car and got into SCCA.
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  And then from then on it was Trans Am, Trans Am, Trans Am for us.
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  And like Cindy, I drove a lot of different things before I got into Trans Am and GT1.
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  And I second almost pretty much everything she said.
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  It's a family community.
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  We're an accessible paddock.
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  We love fans.
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  We love the people.
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  We're at the premier tracks in America.
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  It's the longest running road racing series in America.
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  With all of that combined, I mean, to me, I drive a ground
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  pounder, fast, loud, hot car.
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  So, I mean, I just love it.
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  First, you and Cindy, what made you guys stay with Trans Am?
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  Were you ever tempted to leave and go do maybe a different variant of road
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  racing or a different discipline?
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  I always said if the opportunity presented itself, I wasn't going to say no, but
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  it had to be the right fit for me.
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  I talked to some Xfinity NASCAR style at the time after I won my championships,
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  but it's usually comes down to money, getting together that money and getting
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  that to be the right package for me.
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  I think for me as a female aspect, I just don't want to run any car because
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  if it's not the right team or it's not the right crew, not the right fit.
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  We're under the microscope.
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  So next thing, you know, Oh, she's terrible.
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  Like she can run this, but she can't run that.
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  And like, I feel like sometimes we're a little bit more held
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  to a different standard.
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  And so for me, it had to be the right fit.
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  None of that really ever came together.
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  Plus I just really liked doing it with my family.
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  I mean, we're a family based team.
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  There's no one else I'd rather do it with.
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  Personally, and without their support, I would not be where I am today.
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  That's for sure.
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  I got to race NASCAR truck series race, and it was more of an experience than
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  something that I was striving for.
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  I just really wanted to do it.
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  And people are always like, Oh, are you going to go to NASCAR next?
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  And it's like, no, I really just want to race in Trans Am.
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  You know what I mean?
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  And.
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  So I think it's easy to get pushed in directions where people are trying to
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  assume where you're going to go next.
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  Even I had to ground myself and be like, you know what?
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  I don't have to go do NASCAR.
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  I can still just race Trans Am.
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  You know what I mean?
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  It's kind of parallel, but somewhat different.
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  My father raised, my two brothers raised way back when, but
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  never in the Trans Am series.
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  I kind of did the deal where I just wanted to try everything.
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  I mean, I've done from circle track stuff to dirt to drag racing snowmobiles in
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  the summer on alfalfa, it's crazy fields.
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  Anyway, I mean, just everything just to learn the different aspects.
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  And I think that variety helped me in my career a little bit, but let
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  me just tell you, I mean, as we.
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  Chatted a long time ago and Amy and I have known each other since, gosh,
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  1999, if not sooner when we actually raced in another series together.
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  You could have said a sundial by me.
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  I was so bad the first couple of years.
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  I mean, I think I was laughed on, like laughed too when I first started off
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  and I just made a commitment at that time to where, and it wasn't really
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  a male female thing, but it's just truly, this is really a cool art.
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  And the race car and the track and that's it.
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  And I just need to figure out what it's going to take to start hauling ass per se.
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  And it was good for me because I grew up in a family, basically on a ranch.
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  And so I was very much hands on in life and just there's no excuses, but
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  I kind of took a little bit different path, you know, with my family,
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  much different from Amy and Amy.
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  I laugh about this when we talk about this.
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  My family was very much.
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  Very supportive off the racetrack, but never really encouraged me to go racing.
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  Um, it wasn't until I kind of stole my dad's razor to one of his cars off his
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  dealership thoughts and kind of took it to a driving school and got in trouble.
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  But anyway, but it was kind of a calling.
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  I kind of did a zigzag, you know, versus maybe Amy was more straightforward a
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  little bit, you know, as long as we end up there, that's the main thing.
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  And Michelle, if you could help me and the audience understand a little
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  bit about the way Trans Am currently operates, because there's a split between.
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  The national series and the West series, it means a lot of
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  travel from what I understand.
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  So could you talk a little bit about the differences there and why there's a split?
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  I believe the West coast was kind of brought on.
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  So it was a little more attainable.
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  You know what I mean?
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  There's a lot of West coast racers that are doing great things, but they
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  can't afford the national series.
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  And I was one of those.
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  So the West coast series allowed me to dip my toe into the series
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  that allowed me to compete against 15 cars instead of 50 cars.
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  And just to clarify, TA2 does run separately.
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  So.
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  We have our own race, whereas like Amy and Cindy would be racing together
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  on the track at the same time.
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  Yeah, so the West Coast was like, I thought of it as a feeder
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  series to the national series.
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  I just feel that the equipment isn't really as competitive, I guess, in a way.
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  The talent is obviously not as high, but it's a great place to start and
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  to get a feel for where you stack up and how you would do in a TA2 class.
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  And what's really cool with that is there's a couple of crossover events
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  where the West guys And girls will run with the National Tour and although
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  you're scored separately, you do get to see where you stack up in the full field.
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  So that was really cool too for the first couple years I got to kind of
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  have these two races in my season where I got to see where I was at with the
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  National Series, you know what I mean?
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  And so, whereas the National Tour is You've got to have so much funding
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  to run the National Tour and it's so much more to take on, especially if
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  you want to go for the full season.
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  If I can give you numbers, it's probably a quarter of the cost to run West
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  Coast as it is to run National Tour.
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  So it's significantly more affordable and that's super appealing and I
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  think it's great for the sport.
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  And alongside with that, National Series, as of last year, introduced
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  a couple other championships within TA2 to help make it more attainable
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  for Running national series.
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  So they have like a pick six and then there's also a program category.
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  If you meet the requirements, you can run in program, which I
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  got to do that last year, which put me on the podium a few times.
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  So that's something really cool with Trans Am.
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  I kind of take both sides because I really loved the giant fields of
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  TA2, like running with 40, 50 cars.
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  But at the same time, I'm admittedly a mid pack driver in the full field.
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  So the pro am category allowed me to have the opportunity to earn a podium
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  position, which is great for sponsors and media and things like that.
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  So I guess if I was a faster driver, I'd say, man, that's stupid.
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  They have that class, but really with where I'm at with my talent, it's such a
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  great opportunity to showcase my talent within a pro am class and then have the
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  opportunity to be on the podium, which I did a few times, which was pretty cool.
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  So Aaron, back to you, let's talk a little bit more about comparing and contrasting
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  SRO world challenge to Trans Am in a way, because both have their feeder series
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  as everybody sort of alluded to either come from SCCA or maybe you come from
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  NASA or one of the other organizations that builds up drivers for club racing,
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  and then you go to the next rung, right?
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  And that could be SRO.
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  And then from SRO, maybe you feed into IMSA or something like Trans Am with SRO.
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  Where do you set your sights?
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  Are you thinking a different discipline?
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  Is there long term there for you?
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  For a lot of people, the goal from SRO would be, you know, kind of this next
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  step would be IMSA, and then probably the step after that would be WEC,
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  the World Endurance Challenge, you know, over in Europe, and eventually
• 14:34
  setting your sights on Le Mans.
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  And sort of a lateral step that's really fun, I think, that a lot of people
• 14:39
  are doing these days is another one in Europe that's doing, like, the Dubai
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  24 Hours and those 24 hours of snow.
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  Spa and I'm blanking on the name of the series, but running some really great
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  racing over there in, in GT four and GT three cars, but yes, another place
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  to get to SRO from, which is where I'm actually running a team last year.
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  And this year is at WRL where we're doing a lot of driver
• 14:57
  development for the listeners.
• 14:59
  That are maybe thinking about this and Googling Trans Am right now and
• 15:03
  try to figure out what have I been missing and how do I get into this?
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  And how do I learn more about it?
• 15:07
  And we're talking about feeder series.
• 15:09
  So if all of us had to start over again today, what's the best path to Trans Am?
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  Is it through or is it through NASA and their programs?
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  Because they do have their Thunder class and a bunch of other stuff.
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  That sort of leads up to the big horsepower cars.
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  I used both NASA and SCCA.
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  I never drove an American muscle car in either of those though.
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  So like that wasn't the foray.
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  I mean, you can also look at how NASCAR is now doing a lot more
• 15:35
  road racing than they used to.
• 15:36
  So you'll probably get appeal from the local circle track
• 15:40
  guys that are maybe looking to.
• 15:42
  Move to Xfinity or trying to make, move into Arca and they want to
• 15:47
  get some road racing experience.
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  You'll see them come to Trans Am.
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  So, I mean, I can only speak from my experience and I did come from
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  NASA and SCCA, but then I had that circle track experience getting
• 15:56
  me into the two chassis car.
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  So I really feel like you can come from anywhere.
• 15:59
  I don't, I don't think there's a specific ladder.
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  And I think that's, what's kind of cool about Trans Am is you've got
• 16:05
  kind of all types of drivers that make their way into the series.
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  Yeah, I mean, I would really agree with Michelle, you know,
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  but the thing is, is experience.
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  They just got to get some seat time in other series, whether it's
• 16:13
  endurance, whether it's sprint.
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  I think it's a pretty tough series to come up from a HPDE program or whatever
• 16:20
  may be directly into this thing.
• 16:21
  So there's so many avenues out there now to get experience, you know, and just get
• 16:25
  some seat time and just get some valuable coaching and just valuable experience.
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  You know, there's, there's no bad track time.
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  You learn something, whether it's good, bad or in the different.
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  So.
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  Really no certain best path, per se, to get to the Trans Am.
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  It really is.
• 16:37
  There's a variety, but seat time is seat time.
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  And that's, that's the key thing is getting some seat time, but don't
• 16:43
  come in as a rookie driver, relatively limited racing experience and everything.
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  Cause you'll kind of get eaten up and not have fun and not enjoying yourself.
• 16:50
  You mentioned the importance of seat time, that nothing can replace seat time
• 16:54
  when it comes to being a real competitor.
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  You've had a lot of storied career in Trans Am.
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  Do you think?
• 16:59
  Drivers today are facing the same challenges you were facing getting seat
• 17:03
  time as when you were starting, or do you think they're actually new challenges?
• 17:06
  I think the world has changed and motorsports has changed,
• 17:08
  you know what I mean?
• 17:09
  And when I kind of started getting into it, it wasn't the world of
• 17:11
  Sims, you know, and Sims are great to a certain extent, but it's not.
• 17:15
  Reality, you know, it's not consequences for stuff in the
• 17:19
  wall or whatever it may be.
• 17:20
  But sims do help not only from engineering, not only for driver
• 17:23
  development, none of that has definitely changed a little bit recently.
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  I say recently, probably in the last 10 to 12 years, but they still face
• 17:30
  the exact same thing that I faced, you know, I mean, when I started off.
• 17:32
  About my first race car.
• 17:34
  I slept in the tow rig.
• 17:35
  I was digging tires out of the garbage can when Hoosier or Goodyear was
• 17:38
  doing their tire changes at the track.
• 17:40
  I was going through there in the middle of the night trying to dig out tires.
• 17:42
  I couldn't afford anything.
• 17:44
  You know, I mean, everybody has to start off someplace, you know, yes, it's
• 17:47
  expensive, but it's relative because it was expensive back then as well.
• 17:50
  And so.
• 17:51
  I think, you know, many facets, the industry has changed a little bit, but
• 17:55
  the bottom line is you got to have a desire, you got to have a passion, you
• 17:58
  know, and you just got to just keep swinging the bat, as I like to say, and
• 18:01
  just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and, you know, there's days where some,
• 18:04
  and I tell people this, and again, I'm sure everybody, especially, you know,
• 18:07
  Aaron and Amy and Michelle, the most relaxing time for me is when I put my
• 18:11
  helmet on and get inside the race car.
• 18:12
  I can get away from just for a minute of the business side or the team side,
• 18:15
  even though I love them, don't get me wrong, but it's just, it's something
• 18:18
  where you work so hard to get your, yourself seated in that race car
• 18:22
  for that race weekend, and you just kind of take a deep breath and relax
• 18:25
  and go out and do a job and stuff.
• 18:26
  And so the world has changed a little bit, but the challenge is still faced with.
• 18:30
  They're just a little bit different, but I just cannot impress upon
• 18:33
  it enough is just flat out.
• 18:35
  Um, seat time is the key for anything, whether it's dry rain,
• 18:40
  dirt, endurance, sprint, everything.
• 18:42
  You learn something, um, all the time.
• 18:44
  I just love it.
• 18:45
  So with world challenge, you're still driving production based cars, but it's
• 18:49
  more like things you would identify with off, let's say the dealership
• 18:54
  lot or off the showroom floor.
• 18:56
  We're talking Porsches, we're talking BMWs, and in some
• 18:58
  cases, exotics like Ferraris.
• 18:59
  And occasionally you do see, you know, Corvettes and so on as
• 19:02
  the rules allow for those cars.
• 19:04
  How do you feel?
• 19:05
  In a mixed car environment that GT4 works for you.
• 19:11
  Let's talk about balance of performance a little bit.
• 19:13
  I find it fun.
• 19:14
  I enjoy racing against cars that have some differences.
• 19:17
  I've done some spec racing as well.
• 19:19
  I find it interesting to the strategy that I guess is involved in racing a car who's.
• 19:24
  platform behaves differently and whose torque and horsepower is different is
• 19:28
  always a fun challenge to figure out where is my car maybe a little stronger either
• 19:32
  in the chassis or the power delivery and where are they at an advantage
• 19:35
  and how do I work that to my advantage where you know where I was there trying
• 19:38
  to work it to their advantage as well.
• 19:39
  So I find that fun and always a moving target.
• 19:42
  I think the balance of performance because of how different all the cars can be.
• 19:45
  I think it makes it fun.
• 19:47
  You know, they're trying to make it even like Spec racing.
• 19:49
  So it should come down to the driver.
• 19:50
  It doesn't always, but I think it adds a really fun element for me.
• 19:54
  Pose the question to Aaron about balance of performance, which actually sets
• 19:58
  us up for a deeper conversation about the more specifics about Trans Am.
• 20:02
  As we go along here, Trans Am is really interesting because if we
• 20:05
  look at Michelle's car, right, two frame T two livery and all that,
• 20:10
  and then Cindy's got the Viper and Amy, you were running Corvettes.
• 20:13
  You're all running together.
• 20:15
  What was the balance of performance?
• 20:17
  Or is it like in Trans Am?
• 20:19
  How did this all get figured out?
• 20:21
  Don't take that.
• 20:24
  Well, at first we were all together as you know, Trans Am had a tick of a lull
• 20:29
  there for a minute and they brought the resurrected the series back and then they
• 20:33
  invented the TA2 and the other classes.
• 20:36
  So originally it was just the TA classes, what I drive, and then
• 20:40
  they added those other classes.
• 20:42
  It was TA2 and three and all that.
• 20:44
  And then they recategorize them as.
• 20:46
  XGT and GT and the draw, the TA2 was so large that they split off to their own
• 20:53
  race group and then paired us in a multi class format, um, similar to like, you
• 20:59
  know, an IMSA style and things like that.
• 21:01
  So the speed differences are very intense, could be intense at time
• 21:06
  for all of the parties involved.
• 21:08
  There's got a lot to be a lot of paying attention going on because
• 21:11
  there's a lot of speed difference.
• 21:12
  Sidney, you got the biggest displacement motor.
• 21:15
  On track, hands down, how does the Viper still fit into this mix?
• 21:19
  Yeah, but we got the biggest restrictor.
• 21:23
  You know, it is kind of what Amy was talking about.
• 21:26
  You know, every class has a different what I call BOP, but it's really not.
• 21:30
  I mean, it's just like with Michelle's and Amy's classes, it's not a spec, but
• 21:34
  they really do control it with different manufacturers and different nuances.
• 21:37
  But ours is a little bit more like errands.
• 21:39
  We got so many different manufacturers, so many different models, so many different.
• 21:42
  I mean, aspects and so forth.
• 21:44
  So it really just comes down to the data, what it really shows on acceleration
• 21:48
  traces or longevity or, you know, durability or fall off rate or whatever.
• 21:51
  So there's a little bit of trying to work with the officials and they've
• 21:54
  been really good about it long term, but the, one of the biggest aspects
• 21:58
  for the BOP for Trans Am, it's just not outright speed on one lap.
• 22:02
  It really is figuring out the speed over the duration of the a hundred miles.
• 22:06
  That's to me is the creative part and that's the challenging part.
• 22:09
  That's the aspect that I truly love is to have a race car there towards the end.
• 22:13
  To me, I love multi class racing.
• 22:15
  You know, I might be a minority on that, but to me, it just adds
• 22:18
  to the challenge and it adds to the complexity of the racing.
• 22:21
  I did a few ALMS races way back when, and I love the multi aspect because you
• 22:26
  can almost use it to your advantage and in some cases disadvantage, but to me,
• 22:29
  it's just another level of, of challenge.
• 22:31
  That's all.
• 22:32
  Aaron, you mentioned the goal.
• 22:34
  If you stay on your track is Lamar and for Trans Am, you know, there's
• 22:38
  other places that everybody can go and people that are coming from.
• 22:40
  It's a very interesting kind of collection of folks.
• 22:42
  And I'm wondering if there's been a bridge here in the last couple of years.
• 22:46
  Let's go back to 2023 with the garage 56 car.
• 22:50
  This demonstration of not only just power and, you know, American ingenuity and all
• 22:54
  these kinds of things, but it's a GT three Camaro, a car that they stopped producing
• 22:58
  that they never really made to begin with.
• 23:00
  It's that 7th generation NASCAR car.
• 23:02
  It can compete in road racing.
• 23:04
  It can compete on the oval.
• 23:05
  Could it compete in Trans Am?
• 23:07
  Is it a draw for people to come in to this discipline?
• 23:10
  I think so.
• 23:10
  I mean, I think with the likes of different people that we have involved
• 23:14
  in Trans Am, you know, we have Justin Marks, who's really almost handpicking
• 23:19
  like all these different drivers and bringing them into NASCAR or different
• 23:23
  series, he runs in the TA class with us.
• 23:26
  Sometimes you have a lot of these guys that are up and coming younger drivers
• 23:32
  that You have some people sticking them in to TA2 to get road racing experience
• 23:38
  so they can drive in NASCAR road races.
• 23:42
  And it's almost like everyone's kind of moving around and trying to get
• 23:46
  experience where they can, see time.
• 23:49
  Our format, like Cindy says, is a unique format because we're just 100
• 23:53
  miles, it's sprint race, that's it.
• 23:55
  You gotta get what you gotta get done now, there's no pit stops.
• 23:58
  If you have a problem, then you're probably most likely out of it.
• 24:02
  And that's the end of it.
• 24:03
  So it takes all that other element out.
• 24:05
  And it basically boils down to the driver and the setup and the time.
• 24:11
  And so I think a lot of people are really noticing that in the
• 24:15
  competition level is really tough.
• 24:18
  And I think you have a mix of newbies.
• 24:21
  You have a mix of champions.
• 24:22
  You have people coming back that were involved in the past and now they're back.
• 24:26
  So I think it's almost a rebirth in the last couple years of just this
• 24:32
  remaking it, but having to change with the times and involving XGTs
• 24:37
  and TA2s and TA and then collectively bringing all these other people.
• 24:44
  Amy, I'm just going to jump on that, correct me if I'm wrong, but
• 24:47
  you're twice champion 2015 and 2016.
• 24:51
  Correct.
• 24:52
  Yes.
• 24:52
  And you were the first woman to win eight out of 12 races in a year.
• 24:55
  Yes.
• 24:56
  I was the first woman to win a Trans Am race in the history of the series.
• 25:00
  Well, that's pretty incredible.
• 25:02
  I imagine it's pretty meaningful to have that distinction,
• 25:04
  you know, wherever you speak.
• 25:06
  When you're talking about the different levels of competition, but you also
• 25:08
  spoke a little bit about the extra pressure you felt for performance
• 25:12
  if you really screwed it up.
• 25:14
  And one of the things you worried about moving to a different series,
• 25:16
  if it wasn't a good fit for you is they wouldn't just say it about.
• 25:19
  You as a driver, they might say it about all women as drivers, and I'm
• 25:23
  wondering if it's something you still feel or notice that other drivers also
• 25:27
  take on themselves and feel coming up, you know, I was younger than, and
• 25:32
  I think there's so many more doors open now for females and diversity
• 25:37
  and a lot of different programs, and I think people have more respect for it.
• 25:42
  I felt, you know, I just, I just wanted to prove myself that I belong there.
• 25:46
  Take care.
• 25:46
  And I just wanted to learn from pretty much everybody who, whoever was around me.
• 25:50
  I just tried to learn.
• 25:51
  I don't focus on the female aspect of it as much as the outer world does.
• 25:57
  I'm very proud of that.
• 25:58
  Don't get me wrong, but also it's not my main focus.
• 26:01
  Like I'm just there to do a job.
• 26:02
  I'm there to drive just like everyone else.
• 26:05
  And I just happened to be a female.
• 26:07
  To me, you know, my accomplishments, I'm very proud of those.
• 26:10
  There's a lot of firsts in my career.
• 26:11
  So I'm definitely super proud to be carrying that banner, if you will.
• 26:16
  But at the end of the day, like I'm just there, like everyone else trying to win,
• 26:21
  trying to get my name out there and have success for my team and my sponsors.
• 26:26
  So again, I don't focus on that.
• 26:28
  But it does, you know, loom around you because we have to
• 26:31
  pay attention to those things.
• 26:32
  Otherwise, sometimes I think we are under the microscope a little bit more than
• 26:36
  others that had a bad day or a bad race.
• 26:39
  It's just not always there, but sometimes it is.
• 26:42
  But for the most part, I had a pretty good experience with people respecting me.
• 26:46
  I mean, sometimes you get a little off color and like a little
• 26:49
  couple comments here and there.
• 26:50
  But for the most part, Trans Am community has always seemed to respect me and I
• 26:55
  can't say anything really bad about that.
• 26:57
  Did we address the fact that it was announced this week that Amy
• 27:00
  Ruman has been inducted in the inaugural hall of fame for Trans
• 27:03
  Am, the first group of 18 drivers.
• 27:05
  That's pretty huge.
• 27:06
  So I just want to say congratulations to my friend.
• 27:09
  Super proud of you, you know, and it's well deserved.
• 27:11
  But I think there's going to be a big ceremony coming up at Sebring
• 27:14
  and it's something where we need to really support her, but all the people.
• 27:17
  And yeah, it's a great group of 18 people, not necessarily drivers, but
• 27:21
  everything, but I just want to say since Amy's on this show tonight,
• 27:23
  just congratulations, my friend.
• 27:25
  I'm proud of you.
• 27:25
  Thank you so much.
• 27:26
  I appreciate it.
• 27:27
  I was.
• 27:28
  Super humbled when I got the news on that and just so grateful for my
• 27:32
  experiences over the last decade.
• 27:35
  And it just, you know, I, I just think, uh, you know, I have no words
• 27:39
  in a way to be standing up there with Roger Penske and Jack Roush and Paul
• 27:45
  Giannullosi and all the others, just.
• 27:48
  To be included with the names of people like that is just mind blowing to me,
• 27:53
  but I'm super grateful and humbled.
• 27:55
  Thanks, Cindy.
• 27:56
  I mean, I've known her so long.
• 27:58
  We raced together so long ago, and it's just been cool that our friendship has
• 28:02
  stayed over time, and I appreciate it.
• 28:04
  Just one thing to remember, there's a reason why you're standing up there on
• 28:06
  the stage when it comes time at Sebring.
• 28:08
  I'm just saying, there's a hardcore reason you're there, so just remember that.
• 28:12
  Thank you.
• 28:13
  As racing drivers, if there were one aspect of your job Of your work that
• 28:18
  right now you could get rid of, you could offload it on somebody else.
• 28:22
  You could hire somebody else to do it.
• 28:24
  What would it be?
• 28:24
  I bet you all of us are going to say the exact same thing.
• 28:27
  Say at the same time.
• 28:29
  I'm kind of go out on a limb and saying that it is truly just the hunt for money.
• 28:33
  It's just the sponsorship.
• 28:34
  It's working, you know, it's, it's not only maintaining your relationship with
• 28:37
  your current sponsors, but it's putting the feelers out, you know, for the next
• 28:40
  couple of years to see what's going on.
• 28:41
  And, you know, it's part of the sport too, which we get.
• 28:45
  But sometimes it gets difficult to pick up the phone sometimes
• 28:47
  and do those cold calls or to do whatever, and just trying to do that.
• 28:51
  So, for me, that would be my, if I could delegate to somebody and
• 28:55
  give them that wonderful task.
• 28:57
  That would be my personal 1 agreed.
• 29:00
  I second that, but I'm going to say social media.
• 29:02
  I'm going to hire Michelle to do my social media, bro.
• 29:05
  It is a whole time like I done spent I take pictures and video upload song.
• 29:13
  I can't I'm gonna hire her for my social.
• 29:17
  I'm done.
• 29:18
  Yeah, and I'm with Amy on that social media.
• 29:20
  I'll farm that out right away.
• 29:22
  So time consuming for me sometimes.
• 29:25
  Okay.
• 29:25
  And it's almost embarrassing.
• 29:27
  You don't want to say I mean, it's not like the the time sucker.
• 29:30
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 29:32
  I know.
• 29:33
  It's Cindy's got some pretty funny posts though, I enjoy them.
• 29:36
  Yeah, well, I'm not going to say I take credit for that, but I don't know.
• 29:40
  I do the bloopers, you know, there's one thing I've, I have plenty of
• 29:43
  blooper reels on my deal and you know, but whatever it is what it is.
• 29:47
  Amy, I'm happy to help anytime.
• 29:50
  Well, you're not busy doing your own thing.
• 29:52
  Sure.
• 29:53
  I'm glad you guys opened the door for our third segment here, where
• 29:56
  we're going to talk a little bit more about the business of racing itself.
• 29:59
  And so this is for all of you, but let's start with Erin again, because
• 30:03
  she's been quietly kind of absorbing all this Trans Am data and taking it in and
• 30:07
  hopefully being influenced by you guys.
• 30:09
  When you were starting out, because everybody's got to start somewhere.
• 30:13
  And in this case, this conversation is centered around female drivers
• 30:17
  and Trans Am, like I've noticed in sprint racing has a lot of female
• 30:21
  drivers in it, which is commendable.
• 30:22
  It's absolutely amazing.
• 30:23
  I'm like, wow, wish more disciplines would get with the program.
• 30:27
  But when you guys were coming up, who was your inspiration?
• 30:30
  Who did you look up to male or female drivers and who was your role model?
• 30:34
  What kept you going and what brought you in outside of, you know, the things
• 30:37
  that we talked about earlier, family and opportunity and stuff like that.
• 30:40
  Well, I have an interesting one that is not actually, she
• 30:43
  was not a sports car racer.
• 30:45
  She was a racer though.
• 30:46
  My dad did some offshore powerboat racing in his youth.
• 30:49
  He was a navigator for a number of different teams.
• 30:51
  And for two seasons, he raced with Betty Cook, who won national championships.
• 30:56
  And they called her the grandmother of offshore powerboat racing.
• 31:00
  And, you know, there was always this talk about like, Oh,
• 31:02
  what is she doing out here?
• 31:03
  And, and everything.
• 31:04
  So I kind of grew up around with this idea of like, Yeah, there
• 31:07
  aren't very many of us out there, but that doesn't mean you can't do it.
• 31:10
  And my dad always had that belief that, you know, that we were equally capable.
• 31:14
  And so I guess that's kind of family, but not really.
• 31:18
  But she was kind of my idol as far as growing up and understanding that
• 31:21
  I could be that if I wanted to be.
• 31:23
  Mine is my mom and my dad.
• 31:26
  Mine is just family.
• 31:27
  Cause I watched my mom, she was autocrossing and, and back then
• 31:32
  they, they had separate classes.
• 31:33
  So you had female class and male, but they would post everyone's time.
• 31:37
  So you'd look, but you'd look over in the females, half the females were beaten all
• 31:41
  the males times, the group of people that I were around was, you know, everybody and
• 31:46
  their wives and coming out and they would.
• 31:48
  Go out and do one lap at a time in Tire Town Corvette Club and just watching those
• 31:54
  different Corvette clubs meet and race like that was basically my mom and dad.
• 31:59
  And she would put down fastest time of the day all the time,
• 32:02
  sometimes overall, sometimes.
• 32:04
  So I'd have to go with my parents.
• 32:06
  And then of course, you know, I watched racing growing up, you know, the
• 32:09
  Indianapolis 500 and all those things and you know, all the big names and stuff,
• 32:13
  but I would definitely go with my parents.
• 32:15
  Cindy, what do you think?
• 32:16
  Yeah, you know, I'm kind of the same with my family, even though, you
• 32:20
  know, they're not able to come up to the track as much anymore and stuff.
• 32:23
  Um, my dad is 94.
• 32:24
  He'll be coming to a couple of our races this year.
• 32:26
  And, but I think they just really instilled the can do attitude.
• 32:30
  You know, if you want it bad enough, you'll figure it out, you know?
• 32:32
  And if it takes.
• 32:33
  Figuring out from the business side, I came from a family
• 32:35
  of automotive dealerships.
• 32:37
  Let's just say when I first started racing and I raced to the same
• 32:40
  manufacturer that was one of our dealers.
• 32:41
  And so I thought, you know, just because my name hadn't be the same on the, the
• 32:45
  wall of the dealership that I can get free parts on my parts bill account.
• 32:49
  Well, the end of the year, um, I got a call from the creditors and
• 32:52
  my dad turned me into collections because my bill was so high.
• 32:55
  And at the time I was mortified, I was ticked, I was mad.
• 32:58
  I'm like, dad, you just turned me into collections.
• 33:00
  But I'm just telling you, that was the biggest gift that he gave me.
• 33:02
  Don't take anything for granted.
• 33:03
  You got to figure it out, like business, um, and so forth.
• 33:06
  And so, yeah, I just say, you know, my, my family and still the ethics, but you
• 33:09
  know, the one day that I did pick up the phone and, and actually did reach
• 33:12
  out to somebody that actually was Janet Guthrie and I was relatively new when
• 33:16
  she was so accommodating and so helpful.
• 33:18
  Again, she didn't know me from Adam, you know, I mean, I could have been, you
• 33:20
  know, trying to sell Avon or something on the phone to her or something.
• 33:23
  I mean, it was just.
• 33:24
  But she took the time and bottom line, she just flat out flat out said, you got
• 33:28
  to win and you got to produce and you got to win races to move on in your career.
• 33:32
  Now, how do you get there?
• 33:33
  That's up to you to figure out whether it's business,
• 33:35
  the right cars and so forth.
• 33:37
  But she says, you just, you need to go win races.
• 33:40
  You need to work on yourself in the cars to go out there and be successful.
• 33:44
  And I just kind of took that to heart.
• 33:45
  And so, you know, time to put my big girl panties on and go figure it out.
• 33:49
  Michelle, how about you?
• 33:50
  Yeah, that's an easy and a hard one for me.
• 33:52
  I got into racing because of my older brother.
• 33:54
  He was a go karter and I always wanted to be just like my brother.
• 33:58
  And his name is on my shirt.
• 34:00
  Unfortunately, he was killed by a drunk driver in 2023.
• 34:03
  And so.
• 34:04
  I've lost that, you know, and a man, I, he was my idol.
• 34:07
  I loved everything he did.
• 34:08
  And he was so fast.
• 34:10
  He was in the first Red Bull F1 driver search when he was 15 years old.
• 34:13
  He was the youngest driver in that one, multiple championships that go karting
• 34:17
  worldwide was the first driver to be sponsored by rel, which is a very well
• 34:21
  known chassis in the go kart world.
• 34:23
  And so yeah, my brother, and although he didn't directly support my racing,
• 34:26
  he didn't really like me racing.
• 34:28
  Cause he felt like I took it away from him and my dad.
• 34:31
  So it was a struggle when he was here because all I wanted to do was
• 34:35
  race with my brother, my whole life.
• 34:36
  I did get to do it two months before he was killed.
• 34:38
  And that was really, really cool.
• 34:40
  And so, yeah, he's always has been my inspiration and what's really kind of
• 34:44
  neat is I recently bought a Mazda Miata that he was racing and I'm now campaigning
• 34:50
  that car locally at my local racetrack.
• 34:52
  And so it was one of his favorite cars.
• 34:54
  That's really special to me.
• 34:56
  And it's kind of neat because I can still chase his lap times to
• 34:58
  this day in a car that he raced.
• 35:00
  And so.
• 35:01
  I love my brother and I miss him very much.
• 35:03
  Do you guys ever think about this from the other side of the coin?
• 35:06
  And what I mean by that is being conscious of the fact that you are in a position
• 35:11
  of being somebody's role model right now.
• 35:14
  My 10 year old daughter's looking at Amy and Cindy and Michelle and
• 35:17
  Aaron and going, how do I become a race car driver like them?
• 35:20
  This is super cool.
• 35:21
  I'm going to paraphrase something that Lynn always says from WMNA, which
• 35:24
  is if you can see it, you can be it.
• 35:26
  And so you guys are.
• 35:28
  The see it right now.
• 35:29
  Let's say my daughter walked up to you and said, why race?
• 35:34
  Why do this?
• 35:35
  Why should I become part of this family?
• 35:37
  What would you say to her?
• 35:38
  Ask her, do you like play basketball or do you play tennis or do you play?
• 35:42
  What sports do you like?
• 35:43
  In essence, motor sports is a sport.
• 35:45
  You know, it's not necessarily a stick and ball sport, but it's a sport.
• 35:49
  It's a team sport.
• 35:50
  And so.
• 35:51
  I try to equate it a little bit to that and just kind of say everything is doable.
• 35:55
  But I think the biggest thing, you know, Eric, when I've gotten to the point
• 35:58
  lately, probably in the last probably five or six years of my career is,
• 36:01
  and I know Aaron and Amy and Michelle are the exact same way, is that you
• 36:05
  just have to stop and take the time.
• 36:07
  You see someone over there shy, you know, but they're looking at your car
• 36:10
  or they're watching you get out of the car or they're just holding their mom's
• 36:13
  hand or dad's hand, you know, but you can tell their eyes are just take the time.
• 36:17
  Stop what you're doing and just go over and just chat, you
• 36:20
  know, and I just tell people.
• 36:21
  And again, if I can do this sport, trust me, and it truly is, anybody can do this.
• 36:26
  It just depends on how bad they want it.
• 36:28
  But it's no different from sticking ball.
• 36:31
  It's no different than any other sport that these kids are playing at, you
• 36:34
  know, seven or eight years old now.
• 36:35
  Yeah.
• 36:35
  Takes a lot of hard work and dedication.
• 36:38
  And, you know, I try to take the time with the fans at the track.
• 36:41
  And I've known some of these kids, I've been in it so long now.
• 36:45
  I hate to say that I've seen them grow up, that they've been my fans.
• 36:48
  And then, you know, they're giving me a beanie baby.
• 36:50
  I still have a beanie baby strapped in my car, the little green lucky bear that this
• 36:56
  kid gave me and still in my car today.
• 36:58
  And the kids like.
• 36:59
  15 or 18 years old.
• 37:01
  Now he still comes to the track.
• 37:02
  Sometimes you have to take the time and appreciate that people are taking
• 37:07
  the time out to watch you pay attention to you and, you know, enjoy it.
• 37:11
  And also I just totally, not everybody has to be the driver either.
• 37:15
  There's so many opportunities.
• 37:17
  Now, on several aspects of the whole team, from engineering to social
• 37:23
  media now, and, and data, and truck driving, and mechanics, I mean, a lot
• 37:28
  of girls are involved with that now.
• 37:30
  I think the opportunities over time have increased for the females to get involved.
• 37:36
  So I tell them, if you don't want to be a driver, you know, there's a lot of
• 37:38
  other things you can do in motorsports.
• 37:40
  There's a lot of opportunities out there.
• 37:42
  Just like Amy said, I always even take it a step further, where I just
• 37:46
  I really think that a lot of times, when I was being raised, no one
• 37:51
  wanted me to be a race car driver.
• 37:53
  That was not a viable thing.
• 37:54
  It was like, be a lawyer, be a doctor, go to school, make a lot of
• 37:57
  money, and then be a race car driver.
• 37:58
  And so, I always take a step back and I kind of try to tell people,
• 38:01
  like, no matter what your passion is, like, that's what you should do.
• 38:04
  Whatever you love doing, that's what you should commit all your time to do.
• 38:08
  I just feel like that's so important.
• 38:09
  And sometimes that message can be lost because of the people surrounding
• 38:13
  you telling you, you should be doing something else, or maybe what
• 38:15
  you're doing is a waste of time.
• 38:17
  I can count on my fingers, how many people that I loved and were
• 38:20
  friends of mine that told me like.
• 38:23
  I could never race in Trans Am, like I was crazy.
• 38:25
  There's no way I could do it.
• 38:26
  And so surrounding yourself with people that believe in you, even
• 38:30
  maybe when you don't believe in yourself is super important.
• 38:32
  And I think that's usually the message that I try to share with young fans
• 38:35
  or people that are trying to do something, whether motorsport or
• 38:39
  not, when they need that extra push, it's like, I feel like if you have a
• 38:42
  passion for something and you really want to do it, why do something else?
• 38:45
  It's an honor to always be considered a role model for boys or girls or whomever,
• 38:49
  but I just wish people would continue to follow the things they love because I
• 38:53
  think a lot of times they stray from that.
• 38:55
  And I think we'd have so much more success in the world if people just
• 38:58
  followed what they were drawn to, you know, and, and I'm just so grateful.
• 39:00
  I've been able to kind of chase my dream for so long and be in Trans Am.
• 39:04
  And I, I think being a role model is just something that.
• 39:06
  All of us don't really acknowledge all the time, but we definitely all are.
• 39:10
  Amy was a huge one for me.
• 39:12
  I, I have followed Amy for a really long time.
• 39:14
  And when I got to like meet her the first time, I was so stoked.
• 39:16
  And so Trans Am's just like a great paddock for that too.
• 39:19
  Do you think that's one of the reasons this access that the fans have and are
• 39:23
  able to talk to you and see you and get encouragement is one of the reasons why
• 39:27
  that it's doing such a great job with.
• 39:29
  rates of women's participation?
• 39:31
  Maybe.
• 39:32
  I always like the girl dads, too, because the girl dads take
• 39:35
  their daughters and they come to the races, you know what I mean?
• 39:37
  So I think that it's just a culmination of things.
• 39:40
  Being able to see a woman in every category of the Trans Am races
• 39:44
  is really great, but you see that as well in other sports, too.
• 39:47
  I mean, you can look at ARCA, you can look at NASCAR, you can
• 39:49
  look at the SRO that Erin does.
• 39:51
  There's a ton of women in that, too.
• 39:53
  So I think it's just a Things are slowly changing, and it's, it's great to see.
• 39:57
  And Erin, talking about what series are doing right, what is SRO doing right?
• 40:01
  I think they're making a lot of the same efforts I've heard Ladies and Trans Am
• 40:04
  talk about in terms of drawing fans in, all fans, but they've certainly, you know,
• 40:09
  always made an effort to come interview the women on Pit Lane, especially if we're
• 40:12
  doing well, to really highlight that.
• 40:13
  You know, I think the outreach is definitely there.
• 40:16
  Personally, that's been very important.
• 40:18
  You know, everybody was talking about mentorship, and it's something I've
• 40:20
  been incredibly Cognizant of from the very beginning, because I do
• 40:23
  think that there were very few role models for those of us on this call
• 40:28
  getting started that were women.
• 40:30
  And there was a lot of varying levels of different kinds of talk like, Oh, that's
• 40:33
  cute that you want to go racing, you know?
• 40:35
  And it's like, well, I don't know why I can't be taken seriously just
• 40:38
  because I have long hair and some other things that are different.
• 40:41
  But I think it's been very important for me to make sure that everyone
• 40:45
  knows that this is their space, whether they're male or female, old or young.
• 40:49
  You know, a lot of times at the track, we would do garage tours and the little
• 40:53
  boys would come up and touch the car, jump in the car and look in the car,
• 40:56
  and the girls would hang back in the corner of the garage or the corner
• 40:59
  of the tent until I came up to them and said, Hi, I drive this race car.
• 41:03
  Do you want to come sit in it?
• 41:05
  You could tell they didn't feel like it was their space
• 41:07
  until someone invited them in.
• 41:09
  And so that's always been incredibly important to me to make sure I'm doing
• 41:13
  my part to invite other women in because I don't want them to have that voice
• 41:17
  in their head that, oh, it's just cute that you think you can do that.
• 41:20
  Because it's so much more than that.
• 41:22
  We're so capable.
• 41:23
  We're looking at four women here, which fortunately right
• 41:25
  now is only a drop in the ocean.
• 41:27
  And the number of women has increased exponentially, I think, in the last
• 41:29
  couple of years that are in racing across all kinds of disciplines of racing.
• 41:32
  So, you know, to see four of them here, I think just getting that message
• 41:36
  out is so incredibly important and social media, as much as I deplore
• 41:40
  it, really helps with that too.
• 41:42
  So I've met some of you, uh, women with Drive Summit, and I know
• 41:45
  some of you work a lot with WMNA.
• 41:48
  I want to talk generally about if you could offer what your role is in the
• 41:51
  organization, those of you who work with the group, just to clarify for
• 41:54
  everybody, but also why increasing participation for women is actually
• 41:58
  important for motorsport overall.
• 42:00
  Why is it important for growth for everybody?
• 42:03
  Well, I think it's a super important fan base.
• 42:05
  that hasn't been tapped entirely yet.
• 42:08
  There are a lot of followers that, when they see someone that looks like them, are
• 42:12
  a lot maybe more likely to follow along.
• 42:14
  I've had many people comment on my social media that they weren't interested
• 42:17
  in racing until they saw me doing it.
• 42:19
  And then they thought, Oh, well, maybe there is something here for me.
• 42:23
  Maybe this is something that's relevant for me and that I should pay more
• 42:26
  attention to and maybe even will enjoy.
• 42:28
  Yeah, I think from that perspective, it's incredibly important.
• 42:30
  Yeah, the women organization, the Women in Motorsports North America,
• 42:34
  you know, is a good organization.
• 42:36
  I've actually been fortunate enough to be one of the founding board of
• 42:39
  directors for that organization.
• 42:41
  And when we first came together and we started talking about this,
• 42:43
  you know, we were kind of like, well, it's not just for drivers.
• 42:46
  That was my biggest thing is I want to make sure this is across the board.
• 42:50
  So basically, honestly, it's just, you know, it's a group of community
• 42:53
  of professionals that we're just trying to open up opportunities
• 42:56
  for everybody to learn about.
• 42:57
  And it's just a matter of education.
• 42:59
  It's a matter of just connecting people.
• 43:01
  It's a matter of just, it's such a variety and such a safe environment.
• 43:04
  This organization has absolutely exploded over the last two and a half years.
• 43:09
  But it's due to a lot of hard work behind the scenes and it's
• 43:12
  only going to get stronger.
• 43:13
  But the part that I really like about it is not just focusing on drivers.
• 43:16
  It's it's kind of everything that has to do from series to racetracks
• 43:20
  to TV broadcasting everything.
• 43:23
  And it's not just for females.
• 43:24
  It's all inclusive for men as well.
• 43:26
  And This year at the summit, right before the PRI, our fourth summit, we had over
• 43:30
  600 people attend, and it's huge over the growth over the last couple of years.
• 43:34
  And the cool thing about it was the increase in men that's attending
• 43:38
  promoters, managers, uh, some, some folks that come from Europe that
• 43:42
  were there, you know, and so it was something to where I'm very proud of.
• 43:45
  At first, I was a little bit, I don't want to say leery, you know,
• 43:47
  but I was just kind of like, you know, what is this really going to?
• 43:50
  But the people behind the scenes and the people we have running it right
• 43:53
  now are really taking it to a different level and really opening it up to, and
• 43:58
  I mean, even Aaron sees it, you know, because women is very heavily involved
• 44:01
  with the SRO very heavily with a lot of other racing organizations as well
• 44:05
  as Trans Am or SBRA, but they're now connecting with the universities and
• 44:09
  racetracks and broadcasting teams.
• 44:11
  And so.
• 44:12
  I've learned a lot about my business, you know, not only from the motorsports
• 44:15
  side, but I've had doors open up for me now and other aspects of
• 44:18
  motorsports that wouldn't have happened.
• 44:20
  And so anyway, that's kind of how my involvement with
• 44:23
  it and it's pretty special.
• 44:24
  It really is.
• 44:25
  I attended the summit in 23 for the first time when it was at Phoenix and.
• 44:30
  Yeah, it was a, it was a great networking event.
• 44:33
  You know, there was a lot of people involved and a lot of seminars to join.
• 44:36
  And so they were spreading a lot of information that was really cool.
• 44:38
  I made some good connections there, but I think it's great to have
• 44:41
  several organizations that help bring awareness to women in motor
• 44:44
  sport and try to help raise funding.
• 44:46
  Erin and I are part of shift up now, and it's an amazing organization
• 44:50
  that has directly impacted my ability to race in the most competitive
• 44:54
  equipment that I can get into.
• 44:55
  So there's a lot of things changing in our sport, which is.
• 44:59
  For the better, I feel.
• 45:00
  And yeah, it's, I'm honored to be a part of it on every aspect that I can.
• 45:04
  Cindy, you brought up something that we call here the autosphere, right?
• 45:08
  All the different jobs and careers and people that it takes
• 45:11
  to keep this whole circus going.
• 45:13
  My next question, Actually dovetails off of a question from our crowd.
• 45:17
  So Joe Schill writes, how would you encourage more young women to
• 45:21
  get involved with motor sports?
• 45:23
  And what are the career paths for those various jobs?
• 45:26
  And we talk a lot about women in STEM and we do expand that now to steam, right?
• 45:31
  Science, technology, engineering.
• 45:32
  Arts and math because art plays a big part in the auto sphere as well.
• 45:36
  We talked about the newbies of driving age or racing age that want to get into
• 45:40
  Trans Am and SRO and things like that.
• 45:43
  But what about the young ladies or young men out there that want
• 45:46
  to get into the auto sphere?
• 45:48
  Again, there's a million jobs, but what's a good path to get into motorsport?
• 45:53
  To be honest with you, it's you can have such a. Varied background to
• 45:56
  come into motorsports from engineering to communication to financial
• 46:00
  CPAs to, you know, everything.
• 46:02
  And so there's really not a clear, that's the whole thing that's happened
• 46:05
  lately is that it's not just driving.
• 46:07
  It's not just maybe the working on the cars, it's, it's blossomed into
• 46:11
  this whole industry that's out there.
• 46:13
  And I don't wanna say it's behind the curtain per se, but
• 46:16
  it's something to where if.
• 46:18
  Honestly, I've seen people come in and for attorneys coming in and helping out
• 46:21
  with contracts with teams or sponsors or, you know, legal issues and stuff.
• 46:25
  And so there's really no path per se, you know, is defined and so,
• 46:29
  but that's what makes it so cool.
• 46:31
  It's so open.
• 46:32
  It really is.
• 46:33
  You know, the world of broadcasting right now is fascinating me what's happening,
• 46:37
  you know, in that regard, especially live streaming versus on television
• 46:40
  and this and that and the contracts and certain tire manufacturers have certain
• 46:44
  blimps flying over at the wrong time.
• 46:46
  And, and, you know, it's just, it's a conflict of interest on
• 46:48
  certain, you know, just everything.
• 46:50
  And so I think that if there's just an interest and you have a good general
• 46:53
  business background, you know, or, or just any type of passion, there's,
• 46:56
  there's a role in motorsports for you.
• 46:58
  I promise you that.
• 46:59
  Okay.
• 47:00
  So let's re.
• 47:00
  factored this question a little bit, then it is very wide in terms
• 47:04
  of depth and breadth, taking social media management off the table.
• 47:08
  Sorry, Amy, you can't use that answer again.
• 47:10
  Let's just say you needed somebody today to help you on your race team
• 47:14
  to be successful in the 2025 season.
• 47:17
  What kind of backgrounds skills or previous careers are you looking for
• 47:22
  that would be beneficial to help manage your team and make it successful?
• 47:26
  Mine would be a sports agent.
• 47:28
  I need someone to help me raise money.
• 47:30
  Facts.
• 47:32
  That's true.
• 47:33
  I mean, if you're talking team specific, obviously you check all the boxes with
• 47:37
  engineering, data, marketing, mechanic, truck driver, tire engineer, and then you
• 47:44
  go into the other aspects of, you know, you have accounting, legal, sponsorship.
• 47:50
  So, I mean, there's so many.
• 47:51
  Boxes to check.
• 47:53
  I mean, it really just takes a whole team and we have the easy part.
• 47:56
  I get to drive the race car.
• 47:58
  That's the easiest job there is over there compared to some of these other ones.
• 48:02
  I mean, if I get into an altercation, the guys are the ones sitting there
• 48:05
  fixing it all night or we have a motor problem, the engine guy is fixing it.
• 48:10
  So, it's so all encompassing as an industry from the
• 48:15
  team perspective, an owner's perspective, a driver's perspective.
• 48:18
  Everybody has roles.
• 48:20
  So you, if you know your role, if you're good at math, if you're good
• 48:23
  at engineering, if you're good at arts and you want to be a graphic artist and
• 48:27
  design race suits, you could do that.
• 48:29
  I mean, there's so many possibilities.
• 48:31
  And if you just like a little bit of racing, I'm sure like
• 48:34
  Cindy said, there is definitely a spot for you in this industry.
• 48:38
  Yeah, I mean, to me, I would love to work with a retired CEO, you know, or
• 48:42
  a retired person that thinks outside of the box that maybe is not even in
• 48:46
  sports possibly, because you're looking for that advantage of being different.
• 48:50
  You're looking for that advantage of trying to help not only be a good
• 48:53
  leader, but to give people the tools in your business to do their jobs.
• 48:56
  And so I live about 4 miles away from Nike headquarters here in Portland, Oregon.
• 49:01
  And I've worked with a lot of the different folks there.
• 49:03
  And one of the coolest things about it, when I was starting in motor sports,
• 49:06
  as I tried to use a lot of their methodology and a lot of their ideas
• 49:10
  from other sports over there, and I incorporated that into my motor sports.
• 49:13
  So I would love to work with someone that had almost no racing experience,
• 49:17
  but general business experience on how to develop relationships
• 49:20
  or how to run a company or how to do the financial or whatever.
• 49:23
  I'm just craving to learn new stuff and to try new ideas to
• 49:27
  stand out and to make our business.
• 49:29
  Looking at the future and the future of a sport being for everybody and for
• 49:34
  growing, we're talking men, women, people from lots of different backgrounds.
• 49:39
  And from your perspective, currently in the sport, is there
• 49:41
  something crucial or overlooking about widening the talent pool?
• 49:45
  So that way there are more people coming in at the ground level
• 49:48
  and coming up through the ranks.
• 49:49
  I think the talent pool is getting wider for sure.
• 49:52
  I mean, younger, younger, younger, younger, if you ask me,
• 49:55
  like everyone's coming in is.
• 49:57
  I mean, Trans Am had a couple, they were like, one kid was like
• 50:01
  13 years old wanting to drive.
• 50:02
  So I had to put some stops on it and try to go for more 15, 16.
• 50:07
  But I think the talent pool is just wide open now.
• 50:11
  And I think it's just across Europe, across.
• 50:14
  The United States.
• 50:15
  You have karting.
• 50:16
  I mean, you got circle track.
• 50:18
  I talked to so many people, they're like, Oh, I got my grandson.
• 50:21
  He's right.
• 50:21
  You know, circle track.
• 50:23
  We got him a little quarter midget or whatever, you know, I
• 50:25
  don't know all these, but there's so many series throughout that.
• 50:29
  I just think everyone's coming from everywhere.
• 50:32
  You can find racing just about everywhere now.
• 50:34
  After 60 years of Trans Am, coming from the early days of Mark Donohue and Roger
• 50:40
  Penske, like we were talking about up until now and all of its evolution.
• 50:43
  What are you guys hearing about the future of Trans Am?
• 50:46
  How is it evolving?
• 50:47
  Is it growing?
• 50:48
  You know, are they going to do like NASCAR did and do a Trans Am event
• 50:52
  in the UK or somewhere in Europe?
• 50:53
  What's going on with Trans Am?
• 50:55
  I definitely think it's growing.
• 50:57
  I mean.
• 50:57
  TA2 has taken off for sure.
• 51:00
  They're also trying to grow the TA class again.
• 51:03
  And a lot of the XGT and GT series are allowing different cars.
• 51:07
  There's so many different cars now to come in.
• 51:10
  We've had new ownership and Tony Perella and Motorsports Holdings, and
• 51:14
  he's done such a great job with SVRA.
• 51:17
  And then when he bought Trans Am and just really giving us a social platform to be
• 51:22
  on live stream and be on TV, on MAV TV.
• 51:26
  The exposure is so much higher than it used to be.
• 51:29
  We have promotion at the track.
• 51:31
  We have ticket sales you can buy online now.
• 51:33
  They promote us.
• 51:34
  The direction, we have a, we have a new president at Andy Lally that
• 51:38
  just signed with us this year.
• 51:40
  I'm interested to see how that's going to go.
• 51:42
  He's a great race car driver.
• 51:44
  I've been friends with him.
• 51:45
  We grew up going through the ranks together and going our separate ways,
• 51:48
  but we've always remained friends.
• 51:50
  I'm super excited.
• 51:52
  I think from a driver's perspective as the president of Trans Am, I think he
• 51:57
  could bring a lot of insight to that.
• 51:58
  So I'm, I'm super excited to see if they do a lot of different things with that.
• 52:04
  I know Tony has a new ownership group on board, so I think we may get some
• 52:08
  more exposure yet as far as hopefully sponsorship for the series goes.
• 52:13
  There's a lot of levels in different directions we're going.
• 52:15
  I think 2025 is shaping up to be super interesting.
• 52:19
  I mean, Amy just pretty much just summed it up.
• 52:21
  I mean, honestly, it's only going up.
• 52:23
  You just got to ride the wave and you just got to be a part of it and so forth.
• 52:26
  But I think there's some good people behind the scenes and I think there's
• 52:29
  some good people promoting it.
• 52:30
  There's some good people in the technical side.
• 52:32
  I feel more encouraged.
• 52:34
  I think there's a lot more positivity on it and so forth,
• 52:36
  and so I think it's really cool.
• 52:38
  Well, since we're speaking of futures, let's talk about personal
• 52:41
  futures, starting with Michelle.
• 52:43
  So, what's next?
• 52:44
  Yeah, that's a tough one for me.
• 52:45
  I do not have enough funding to race in Trans Am.
• 52:48
  Still.
• 52:49
  Really working on it.
• 52:50
  Unfortunately, my title sponsor got bought out by Dr. Pepper.
• 52:54
  And so with the acquisition happening over the off season, my program is in the air.
• 52:58
  Unfortunately, Lucas Oil is no longer supporting me and they
• 53:00
  were a big part of my program.
• 53:02
  And I've had a few other of my partners that have been
• 53:05
  with me for 10 years pull out.
• 53:07
  So I don't know what the future is for me.
• 53:09
  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to commit to a team this year and I am on the
• 53:15
  hunt for money and I've been on the hunt since August of last year in a
• 53:19
  full time way and it's just for some reason not coming together for me.
• 53:23
  And not to end on a, a bummer note on my program, there'll be some news
• 53:26
  that will be announced in the next few weeks that I'm excited about, and
• 53:30
  it has to do with Dirt Fish Rally.
• 53:32
  So that's kind of exciting, kind of a new thing for me, but I'm also heading
• 53:36
  to Wisconsin to do some ice driving in a couple weeks, so that'll be fun.
• 53:40
  Cindy, you're coming off a recovery after a surgery.
• 53:43
  You're back in the car this year.
• 53:45
  What else is lined up for you?
• 53:46
  Yeah, it's kind of, you know, maybe Michelle, I kind of went through
• 53:49
  something last year that maybe what, but it wasn't, you know, sponsor related,
• 53:52
  but it was mentally the same thing being out of it, but now we're back at it.
• 53:55
  We're just hustling right now.
• 53:57
  We're trying to go testing here in a couple of weeks up here in the Pacific
• 53:59
  Northwest, which we're trying to deal with weather, but anyway, so we're
• 54:02
  pretty excited among that regard.
• 54:04
  So yeah, we're going to get back in the seat this year and start rallying up.
• 54:07
  We're not, I don't know if it's going to be a one, two
• 54:08
  or three car program just yet.
• 54:10
  So we're trying to figure that out, but in many ways, I'm more excited just
• 54:13
  again, not only from the competition and the level and so forth, but the
• 54:16
  social aspect of this scene, everybody I haven't seen for a little bit.
• 54:19
  Yeah.
• 54:19
  I just crave being in the race seat.
• 54:21
  I just can't stand it.
• 54:22
  You know, it's my happy place.
• 54:23
  Amy, what about you?
• 54:24
  What's next?
• 54:24
  2025 is going to look a little similar to what I've been doing.
• 54:28
  You know, my long time sponsor, McNichols company will be with us again.
• 54:32
  Valley Automotive Group out of Ohio, so we're excited about that.
• 54:36
  We'll be running, uh, the McNichols 23 Valley Chevrolet Corvette again.
• 54:41
  Made a lot of aero changes.
• 54:42
  We've been lacking in grip, so hopefully we'll be able to keep up
• 54:45
  with the Mustangs and the Camaros.
• 54:47
  So, I think a lot of our aero changes, we got to do the test in January and C
• 54:52
  bring and had some good results with that.
• 54:54
  So we're going to try to do the national program again, try to do
• 54:57
  one more shot for that title and see if we can get it going again, but
• 55:01
  yeah, I'll be mainly in Trans Am.
• 55:02
  So Aaron, after listening to all of these wonderful stories about Trans Am and
• 55:07
  what it's like to be there, is something like Trans Am attractive for you?
• 55:10
  Does it require you to reboot yourself in order to go from one
• 55:15
  sanctioning body to the other?
• 55:16
  I think it would take a reboot.
• 55:18
  It seems to me, especially if I was to go to TA2 with the tube chassis car, I would
• 55:22
  imagine that it's, you know, it's like learning a whole new beast if there's so
• 55:25
  much lighter, so much more horsepower.
• 55:27
  I think it would be super fun.
• 55:28
  And I would love to drive one.
• 55:29
  I definitely wouldn't say no if someone asked, but I think it would
• 55:32
  be a learning experience for sure.
• 55:33
  Do you think Trans Am's intimidating?
• 55:35
  It's filled with almost 60 years of history where like we talked about
• 55:39
  in the intro, you know, these fire breathing dragons, all this noise and
• 55:43
  kind of insane, a little bit Wild West.
• 55:45
  Do you think that attracts more people to it?
• 55:47
  Maybe deters people from it going like, I don't know if I want to play in their
• 55:50
  sandbox, you know, depending on where you're racing in the grassroots world
• 55:54
  and what you're racing, I think it would have seemed intimidating to me at
• 55:57
  the time, the step that Michelle took would have seemed very intimidating.
• 56:00
  And I think I would have needed a push, like what she had to try it out.
• 56:03
  I think now it would seem less intimidating for me having
• 56:06
  driven some much faster cars than what I drove at that time.
• 56:09
  I would imagine it.
• 56:10
  I think that's what draws the fans in because again, like you talk about,
• 56:13
  I mean, NASCAR, everybody loves it because it's this American tradition.
• 56:16
  And I think TA2 and Trans Am are, you know, whether it's the Corvettes and,
• 56:20
  you know, that still look like a sports car, whether it's the tube chassis.
• 56:23
  I think that that good old American muscle and the Viper and all of
• 56:27
  those cars that have a lot of.
• 56:29
  fan appeal, I think, and have a lot of history of fan appeal.
• 56:32
  Like I said, just the noise that they make is so, to anyone who likes
• 56:36
  that kind of adrenaline rush that you get, is so attractive because,
• 56:39
  unfortunately, a lot of our modern sports cars are going turbocharged
• 56:43
  and losing a lot of that sound.
• 56:44
  So, I mean, we go to the racetrack now and we're like,
• 56:46
  oh, it's not that loud out here.
• 56:48
  And I think that's a lot of the appeal, personally.
• 56:51
  So, yeah, I think that Trans Am is, is I love that it still has that
• 56:56
  tradition, and I think that's attractive.
• 56:58
  Alright ladies, we've reached that part of the episode where we'd like
• 57:01
  to invite our guests to share any shoutouts, promotions, or anything
• 57:04
  else we haven't covered thus far.
• 57:05
  So Michelle, go ahead, take us home.
• 57:07
  I'm just very thankful for you guys, thanks for having us on and letting
• 57:10
  us chat a bit about Trans Am and kind of our places in the sport.
• 57:14
  Congrats to Amy again, and Cindy, good luck to you this year, I'm
• 57:18
  very excited to watch you guys.
• 57:19
  And hopefully I'll be out there, but we'll have to wait and
• 57:22
  see, so thank you guys so much.
• 57:23
  If your audience hasn't had a chance to check out Trans
• 57:26
  Am, definitely check it out.
• 57:28
  They're on the Facebook, Instagram.
• 57:31
  They just announced a new live streaming this year with a different company.
• 57:36
  I think we'll be on Mav as well.
• 57:37
  And just take the time, check us out.
• 57:39
  You can visit my webpage, roomandracing.
• 57:42
  com.
• 57:42
  All the social media platforms, same thing, roomandracing.
• 57:46
  com.
• 57:46
  Check out our sponsors, McNichols Company and Valley Automotive Group.
• 57:50
  Watch out for all the Hall of Fame festivities starting in a couple
• 57:53
  weeks at Sebring, the Trans Am opener.
• 57:56
  They're going to have all of that, so we're excited to do that, and I appreciate
• 58:00
  everybody's support, and thank you for having us on and giving us this platform.
• 58:05
  These podcast interviews, whatever we're calling it these days, they're
• 58:08
  always fun when you kind of start talking about certain things.
• 58:11
  You can kind of share a few stories, but the most important
• 58:14
  thing is we're accessible.
• 58:15
  If anybody has any questions they want to send us, there's so many ways
• 58:18
  of hooking up with us these days.
• 58:19
  We're here to help.
• 58:20
  We've been in those shoes as people starting off or, or better yet, just
• 58:24
  inquiring about certain things, but here to help, we're here to help each other.
• 58:27
  It's a crazy time in the world and most common thing in this motor sports.
• 58:31
  This is one of the best sports ever, you know, and it's truly a team sport.
• 58:34
  Before I turn it over to our title sponsor, and we have several
• 58:37
  sponsors for this new series.
• 58:39
  our virtual center conversations.
• 58:40
  I wanted to turn the microphone quickly over to one of our ACO
• 58:44
  representatives who is also a first in the world of female motorsports.
• 58:48
  That's Margie Smith Haas, the first American woman to
• 58:51
  run the 24 hours of Le Mans.
• 58:53
  Thank you guys so much.
• 58:54
  And for the recognition, you know, as, as I mentioned, I didn't find
• 58:58
  out about being the first woman to drive the 24 hours of Le Mans.
• 59:02
  Till 29 years after I did it because I didn't do it to be the first.
• 59:06
  I did it because I just love to race and congratulations, Amy.
• 59:11
  I've watched you guys as I've been racing and I won my championship in
• 59:16
  the American city racing lane, as you probably know, race there at Portland and
• 59:20
  you know, Cindy, I remember seeing you up in the Portland area and PPG stuff.
• 59:24
  I'd always come over and say hi to you, but you know, I just want you
• 59:28
  all to know how much I am so proud.
• 59:31
  So proud of what you've done and how you strive for your future goals and
• 59:36
  how you encourage and are a inspiration for the young ones coming up because
• 59:42
  we were there looking up at some of the people and, you know, what they had
• 59:46
  to say to us and encourage us again, it's just, I would have never ever
• 59:50
  as a school teacher thought that I'd end up being the first woman in North
• 59:53
  America to win a professional road racing championship that happened in 94.
• 59:58
  I was 44 years old.
• 59:59
  And so.
• 1:00:00
  Yeah.
• 1:00:00
  Wasn't a good time to try to get into higher levels of racing right then.
• 1:00:04
  But again, I wish you guys the best and how you encourage all these new drivers.
• 1:00:10
  You're just amazing role models.
• 1:00:12
  And I was looking up all your wins and podiums and stuff.
• 1:00:15
  And I'm like, Oh my God, you guys are great.
• 1:00:18
  I'm so proud to be.
• 1:00:20
  Part of a group such as yours.
• 1:00:22
  Thank you.
• 1:00:24
  With that a word from our title sponsor, the International
• 1:00:27
  Motor Racing Research Center.
• 1:00:28
  I just want to take a couple of minutes and thank all of you for
• 1:00:32
  taking the time out of your very busy schedules to be part of this.
• 1:00:35
  I have found the last hour enlightening, fascinating, interesting, and
• 1:00:39
  I hope our viewers did as well.
• 1:00:41
  Amy, again, congratulations on induction into the Hall of Fame, which the Trans
• 1:00:45
  Am Hall of Fame is ultimately going to be located in the International Motor
• 1:00:49
  Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen.
• 1:00:51
  So if any of your listeners or viewers are in Watkins Glen at any
• 1:00:54
  time this current season, please stop in and say hi on behalf of all
• 1:00:58
  of us and also our partners at SAH.
• 1:01:01
  We thank you very much for taking the time to do this.
• 1:01:03
  I think this has been a wonderful kickoff to what we anticipate are going to be
• 1:01:07
  three more presentations dealing with different disciplines of the sport.
• 1:01:10
  Thank you very much.
• 1:01:11
  We're indebted to you.
• 1:01:12
  Thank you.
• 1:01:13
  Thank you.
• 1:01:14
  And on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you, ladies.
• 1:01:21
  What an incredible conversation with four of the most
• 1:01:23
  inspiring women in motorsports.
• 1:01:25
  These powerhouses prove that speed has no gender.
• 1:01:29
  Their stories remind us that the road to success isn't always easy, but
• 1:01:32
  with perseverance and love, real love for the sport, anything is possible.
• 1:01:37
  So a huge thank you to you for participating.
• 1:01:39
  It was a privilege for me to meet you and y'all inspire the next generations.
• 1:01:44
  And we thank you for that, too.
• 1:01:45
  We hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more Center
• 1:01:48
  Conversations throughout the season.
• 1:01:50
  Be sure to follow, subscribe, and stay with us for more incredible discussions
• 1:01:54
  from the world of motorsports.
• 1:01:56
  And until next time, keep the wheels turning and the throttle wide open.
• 1:02:07
  Women in Motorsports North America is a not for profit
• 1:02:10
  organization that began in 2022.
• 1:02:12
  Known as WMNA, it is a community that focuses on advancing,
• 1:02:16
  connecting, and enabling with its many partners, including industry
• 1:02:19
  executives, drivers, team members, OEM sponsors, racetracks, and more.
• 1:02:24
  WMNA welcomes all who share their passion for motorsports.
• 1:02:27
  The Women in Drive Summit continues its mission to bring together
• 1:02:30
  motorsports professionals.
• 1:02:32
  This unique event offers new pathways for individuals to explore
• 1:02:35
  career opportunities, discuss current industry challenges, and
• 1:02:39
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• 1:02:42
  If you'd like to stay informed about WMNA and the Women in Drive
• 1:02:45
  Summit, be sure to log on to www.
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• 1:02:48
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• 1:02:52
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• 1:02:56
  This episode is brought to you in part by the international
• 1:03:00
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• 1:03:02
  Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history
• 1:03:06
  of motor sports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.
• 1:03:12
  The Center's collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie
• 1:03:16
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