Anything Boys Can Do...

The following article was written by my good friend and former World of Outlaws PR guy, Richard Day. Richard is a gifted author who currently handles PR for Woodward Racing, Redi-Green Motorsports, Dirt, Inc. and Kathryne Minter. It's a great piece about women in racing that I think most of us can really appreciate. Thanks for sharing, Richard!

Richard Petty has never believed women should compete in auto racing. He reiterated that two days before the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600.

“I just don’t think it’s a sport for women,” Petty said, “and, so far, it’s proved out. It’s good for them to come in. It gives us a lot of publicity. It gives them publicity. But, as far as being a real true racer, making a living out of it, it's kind of tough.”

It was a thrill for me to meet “The King” at the 1994 Knoxville Nationals when Petty attended sprint car racing’s most prestigious event as then-fellow-STP-sponsored racer Andy Hillenburg’s special guest. I have tremendous respect for the man who won 200 NASCAR Nextel Cup races and has been a tireless ambassador for auto racing for many years, but I’m thinking he should have kept those comments under his signature cowboy hat.

I thought 2005 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Danica Patrick’s reply to Petty’s statements were classic when she said racing isn’t for all women, but it works for some. Two top-eight finishes in auto racing’s greatest spectacle prove she’s definitely competitive in the male-dominated sport.

There are other ladies proving they can compete with men at the track, too: Erin Crocker, Nicole Addison and Melanie Troxel.

Crocker, the only lady to win a World of Outlaws feature race, is progressing as a NASCAR Craftsman Truck driver for Ray Evernham. Evernham’s former Nextel Cup driver, Jeff Gordon, never won an Outlaws race. Nor has his current Cup driver, Kasey Kahne. Two-time Indy 500 champion Al Unser, Jr., whose crew installed phone books in his sprint car’s seat to allow him to see over the steering wheel, never won a “greatest show on dirt” feature either.

Crocker, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Management Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is the first woman to join the Evernham Motorsports driver development program. She has also competed in some USAC Silver Crown races for Kasey Kahne Motorsports.

Crocker won the 2006 Race Babe poll on http://www.OpenWheeler.blogspot.com, receiving 31% of the votes. Patrick received 7%.

“The guys don't seem to mind having a woman around the garage,” Erin wrote in a recent installment of her “On The Road With Erin Crocker” column on NASCAR.com. “I've always spent a lot of time around guys, playing street hockey and running quarter-midgets. There were some girls, but mostly there were guys.

“I've always been able to be one of the guys. It's a fine line. Sometimes people will say, ‘You're like one of the guys.’ I'll say, ‘But I don't really want to be one of the guys.’ Let's just say I'm not the average girl. I'm still feminine. I love shopping. I love buying shoes. I also love driving racecars. I love to be in the garage. I love to understand racecars and think about them.

“There are other women involved with the team, but not directly involved with the truck. There's not many involved that way in the entire sport. I know there are women engineers and there's a tire changer on one of the teams, but they're few and far between.”

Addison, the rear tire changer for Jack Sprague when he won the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chex 400K race at Texas Motor Speedway last June, is that tire changer. In fact, she’s the only woman to work on the winner’s pit crew in NASCAR’s top three series.

“That’s probably the most memorable moment of my life,” Addison said recently. “I can’t wait to do it again.”

Addison, the only female over-the-wall pit crew worker in NASCAR, will get her chance again in this weekend’s Sam’s Town 400 at “The Great American Speedway” as a tire changer on the #10 Power Stroke Diesel Ford Terry Cook drives for ppc Racing.

“Now I know we’re going to win,” Cook said when he learned that Addison was a member of the pit crew on last year’s winning team at TMS. “Nicole’s our good-luck charm. Without a doubt, she’s proven she can handle the pressure.”

Addison participates in NASCAR’s Driver for Diversity program that attracts women and minorities to the sport.

“It’s a good thing – and NASCAR is pushing it – but it’s not why we hired Nicole,” Cook says. “We hired her because she was the best. We tried out five people. She was the only female, but she just flat whipped those guys. Being a tire changer isn’t just about speed. It’s also about being consistent and not having lug nuts come loose. Nicole had zero mistakes.”

Shawna Robinson, who ran seven Nextel Cup races in 2002, employed an all-female pit crew for a NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway the following year.

Troxel, one of eight women in NHRA history to win a pro elimination race, has led the Top Fuel point standings from the beginning of the 2006 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series.

“I read a headline on an article that said something like we women in racing are following in Danica's footsteps,” Troxel said after winning a Top Fuel national event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in April. “Maybe the rest of the world hasn't been taking notice, but there have been women competing – and winning – in the NHRA for years. I think it's great for her and for promoting women in motor sports. She's done a lot of good things to draw attention to women, which is somewhat necessary when you're looking for the funding to run these teams.

“No matter how much you tell people that women can go out and be just as competitive (as men), it's an entirely different thing to go out and win and show them this isn't about the novelty of having a female in the car. I think we're definitely making progress in that side of it. I've really enjoyed having the bigger story be about our performance.”

NASCAR believes it will have a woman racing with the Nextel Cup series soon.

“I think there is a woman driver out there who will break through,” Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Hunter said before the Coca-Cola 600. “There will be the emergence of a contending woman driver. When? I have no idea. But I do know there are a lot of women drivers in the pipeline today, running sprint cars or whatever, who want to make it to this level.”

Kyle Petty, who runs the two-car operation built by his grandfather (Lee) and father (Richard), says he would never rule out having a woman driver, saying that Petty Enterprises was one of the first teams in the garage to employ female engineers and mechanics.

He also said his father will never budge on his belief that women don’t belong behind the wheel, even if Kyle’s daughter decides she wants to be a racer some day.

“His position is not going to change because that is who he is, that is part of who he is,” Kyle said. “That's just a fact of life. That's how he was raised, when he was raised, the era he was raised in. And that's just the way it is.”

I believe everybody deserves the opportunity to give racing a try. I gained a whole new perspective – and respect – for sprint car racing when Charles “Smiley” Sitton gave me the opportunity to attend his Outlaw Driving School in 1996. Sitton, the first to drive a Top Fuel racecar 200 M.P.H., owned the car Norman Martin drove to victory in the World of Outlaws’ first preliminary feature race in March of 1978.Tom Motter, who co-owned the #71M EcoWater Systems Maxim with his brother Dan, and EcoWater marketing representative Jerry Johnson joined four other “wanna-be” racers and me at Boyd Raceway for my first taste of what driving a sprint car is all about. I also attended the driving school with several members of the sprint car media a few years later at 85 Speedway in Ennis, TX. The Outlaw Driving School now calls Grand Prairie Speedway – “a ¼-mile, medium-banked track formed from the best Texas cleachy” – home. I encourage every sprint car racing fan to attend the Outlaw Driving School (http://www.outlawdrivingschool). It’s awesome!

To Our Friends at Pike County Speedway

We have had several emails about the photos that were taken at Pike County Speedway, and I wanted to make sure that we let everyone know what is going on.

First, Spring and I both apologize for the delay. Usually we try to get photos up on our site within a week of any event. Unfortunately, we have been unable to do that this time because we ran into some unforeseen problems.

Without going into too many details, Spring was in a car accident about a year ago, and has had some issues ever since. In the past couple of months, things have gotten worse, and she has a pinched nerve in her neck that is causing terrible pain in her neck, shoulder and arm. She was actually in quite a bit of pain the night she took the pictures, but she’s a trooper, and since we had committed to doing this, and she loves to take pictures, she wasn’t about to stay home.

This past week has been very hard on her, and she has actually been restricted by her doctor from doing almost anything, including working on the computer. Because she took so many photos, and she wants to get as many of them online as possible, she planned to do this using her photography site instead of our Girls Gone Racin’ site. She is the only one who can get all of those hundreds of photos edited and loaded onto that site, so it’s something I can’t even help her with or I certainly would.

Please rest assured that as soon as she is physically capable, Spring will get the pictures up. Once she does, there will be a link on the Girls Gone Racin’ site that will allow you to access them, and order any that you choose to purchase.

We sincerely regret the delay, but there are some things that just can’t be helped. I know that Spring would really appreciate your prayers as she endures this painful time. We both enjoyed meeting so many nice people up at Pike and told our families all about the great time we had. We would love to come back again some time.

Thank you for you patience.

Blessings,
Val

Paintin' up our Lips Like an Angel, Kickin' up our Red High Heels, Thinkin' 'bout Tim McGraw & Checking for Ticks

Tickets won in a "Buy it Now or Make offer" bid on eBay: Below face Value
Parking: Free
Two ridiculously overpriced beers in plastic bottles: $14
Getting one of your Red High Heels signed by Kelli Pickler: Priceless

For weeks now Spring and I have bee talking about how much fun it would be to go to another concert. We're both big Brad Paisley fans, so that one was high on our list. Unfortunately, we missed the beginning of ticket sales, and figured we wouldn't be able to get anything as close as we would like.

Then the other night I decided to check out tickets on eBay, just on a whim. I bid on one set, but lost by five cents, which was really frustrating. I figured there wouldn't be too many others on there worth taking my chances on, but with Spring on the phone and my fingers on the keyboard, we came across another one that we figured was worth a shot. It was a "Buy it Now or Make Offer" deal, which I had never done before. We discussed it, agreed on the offer we would make, and the deed was done. A few hours later, we had our answer when the seller agreed to take our offer, and we were thrilled. Right side seats, ten rows back from the stage. It just doesn't get much better than that!

The biggest dilemma after that was whether or not we would be allowed to bring our cameras in. Unable to find a concrete answer anywhere, we figured it was worth a shot (pun intended) and the worst that could happen was that security would stop us at the gate. After loading up our gear, and trekking across what seemed like miles of parking lot, the moment of truth arrived. The security guard checked my bag, verified that I wasn't bringing in a video camera and let me through. Whew! Spring was next, and passed through just as easily. With only 15 minutes to spare, we were at the rain-soaked venue and ready to rock.

Our seats were spectacular, and after Spring made some adjustments to my camera for me (yes, I'm going to learn how to do it myself some day, really!) we were ready to enjoy the show and take lots of pictures.

Before Brad Paisley could take the stage, we were entertained by Jack Ingram, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift, all of whom are very talented. I enjoyed all three of them, and found out that I knew more of their songs than I thought I did. Spring tried really hard to get a picture of Kelli's shoes, but just never could get it done. She did, however, get Kelli to sign the red high heels Spring wore to the show after the concert was over!

Brad Paisley burst onto the stage and was simply wonderful. The set-up was really cool with light up signs that had words scrolling across at some times, and bugs, mud and beer steins for various songs. A big screen behind the band showed close ups of the concert, and even a Speed Racer-type video during the instrumental set.

We sat by several really fun people who had back stage passes and told us all about getting to meet everyone and how nice they all were. Of course, we were jealous that they got to go back stage but we enjoyed hearing about it. We did ask them to give Brad one of our business cards with a note on the back. Spring really wants to shoot an cd cover one of these days, and we figure any chance we have to get that information into the hands of performers, we will take.

It really was a fun night, even though Spring was feeling pretty rough before it was over. We have a race to cover tomorrow night in Pittsfield, IL so I hope she's feeling better very soon.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. There are three pages on here, and lots more we didn't use. Spring still has some on her little camera that I know she still wants to get on the site too. We'll get there eventually, so please keep checking back.

The Grassroots Gospel: Eldora Speedway

The Grassroots Gospel is a Girls Gone Racin’ series celebrating the drivers, promoters, fans and others who contribute to the preservation of the grassroots Motorsports effort and its traditions. It is intended as a tribute to the people who believe in the importance of maintaining the foundation of American auto racing.

Eldora Speedway. The mere mention of the name sends shivers down the spines of dirt track fans all over America. It is the Mecca of the Midwest, this half-mile oval carved out of what was once a corn field.

This was the place I had wanted to see for many years. Every fan I know had been there at least once, most, numerous times. It is one of those places that is as famous for its storied history as it is for its racing. Having never been, I felt as if I were being excluded from some exclusive club, so when the opportunity finally came, there was no way I was going to pass it up.

We left the interstate and rolled along country roads that wound past farms and through small towns as we journeyed to our final destination. The closer we got, the more like I felt like a kid again, and I could barely contain those words every parent hears on any trip they take with their children: “Are we there yet?” Finally, we emerged from Rossburg, drove just a little further and at last, we arrived.

At first glance, my heart and mind went back to the first time I saw the entrance to Walt Disney World. All those months and miles of anticipation culminated in one exciting moment of high pitched adrenaline rush. In every photograph or television image I have ever seen of Eldora, the pits were packed, the grandstands and surrounding seating areas were filled to capacity, so the first thing that struck me was how empty it was. We arrived so early that the pit gates were not yet open, so it was like being the first ones at a party.

Haulers were lining up and waiting for the gates to open, and a few fans and crew members wandered around inside. We walked in where the seating area overlooks turns three and four, and stared the way a vacationing family might gawk at the majesty of the Grand Canyon. The track looks huge for a half-mile, and the banking is definitely high. It’s like a gigantic bowl carved out of the earth, big enough to turn out a huge batch of action, using centrifugal force to throw cars against the sides like cake batter in my Kitchen Aid mixer.

Along the front stretch is a covered grandstand filled with wooden bleachers and backed by restrooms and concessions, with the press box right in the middle. If you walk through, and out the other side, you find all of the souvenir trailers, filled with your favorite t-shirts, hats, diecast and the like. On this particular night, there was even an IndyCar simulator for those who wanted to get a taste of speed without the risk of accident or injury.

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed taking the grand tour of Eldora, pausing every now and then to look out over the place, take it all in, and simply sigh with the satisfaction of knowing we were there.

The pit gates opened, and one-by-one we watched the haulers do their dance in the infield, jockeying for position, rolling into just the right spot, then opening up those rear doors to reveal their amazing cargo. Watching those beautiful wingless Sprint Cars being released from captivity is a little like viewing fireworks on the fourth of July. One wants to gasp and shout with delight as each beautiful paint job is revealed.

We made our way around the track and through the tunnel so we could get up close to the cars and drivers that make up our favorite sport. There were 35 Sprint Cars on hand, each one being tweaked and race-readied by able-bodied crews and drivers. Fans and photographers wandered the pits, keeping an eye on the preparations, taking pictures and chatting with old friends and making new acquaintances.

It struck us how friendly everyone was, from the pit shack, to the concession stand, souvenir trailers to the back gate, every person we met was just as nice and welcoming as could be. Some of our time was spent chatting with drivers Jerry Coons, Jr. and Brady Bacon, who were great about answering our questions. It was interesting to listen to them talk about why they do what they do, how they got started, and the kind of support they get from their families. It would be impossible to be in this business alone, and the support of family and good friends is extremely important.

Moving down the front stretch and on into the first turn, we stopped and looked at the cars, talked with other photographers and checked out an autographed car that was sitting in the infield. Scoping out a spot to shoot was a little tough because there are some pretty high fences around the infield. To me, it just makes sense to do this, because you just never know when a car is going to become airborne and bounce into places it shouldn’t. The fences should prevent that. We worked a corner down by the safety crew, who were a lot of fun to visit with before things got underway. These guys take their jobs very seriously, and enter the track any time a car gets upside down. We enjoyed talking to them about their jobs and find it comforting to know that safety is at the top of the priority list at Eldora.

Hotlaps, followed by qualifying got underway, and we went back to work snapping away and working to get the best possible shots. As an amateur with the camera, I tend to keep hitting the button until I get something good. Sometimes that works pretty well, but I definitely end up with a lot of extra shots that I have to delete later. All I know is that it is a good thing I’ve gone digital because I would spend a fortune on film and developing.

We wrapped up our time in the pits and headed over to grab a late bite to eat and watch the rest of the action from the grandstands. Just as we sat down with our burgers and fries, the skies opened up for a brief shower. While people dashed in out of the rain, we wondered if this would be the end of what had started out to be a great evening. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, and racing got back underway in short order.

It was nice to just sit and watch the racing after having been on our feet all day and evening long. The track was rough from the rain, and a lot of cars got pretty torn up, but the racing was still very close. It was exciting, as Wingless Sprint Car racing usually is, and I would not have missed this trip for anything.

To Earl Baltes for building it, to Tony Stewart for buying it, keeping things going, and making improvements, and to everyone who makes events at Eldora Speedway more than just races, we salute you. It is through the efforts of people with vision and determination that grassroots racing survives and thrives in America. If not for them, fans like us would miss out on the experience of racing at its finest, and the big sanctioning bodies would have no “farm teams” from which to recruit drivers. Most importantly, the drivers who have a passion for driving on dirt would have no where to do it.

Eldora Speedway is definitely the image of what grassroots racing is all about. We can’t wait to visit again!

www.girlsgoneracin.com