What You Know About Me?

So now that how I started racing was explained...I guess I should catch you all up on how I got to where I am now!

 

As I mentioned before, I started racing at age 20. At the time I was attending the University of Pittsburgh. I have since graduated from there magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Writing. With that degree I have done...nothing! I am currently taking business classes to pursue a job managing my own small business some day. I feel it is something I was kind of "destined" to do seeing as my dad, brother and future father-in-law all own their own businesses. Hopefully soon I will be blogging about my business plans rather than just racing!

 

But since racing and family is all I have right now...here goes nothing.

 

 

This is my first race car I ran an entire season in:

This is my 1976 Chevy Corvette. It was a project car bought by my dad for me when I was around 16 years old. Since we got it we rebuilt basically every inch of this car, including building it a 383 cubic inch racing engine for it. This was the car that I learned the fundamentals of engine building and racing in. It is 100% street legal and ran 12.20's at around 115 mph in the quarter. I raced it in Street class at Pittsburgh Raceway Park in 2010 and ended up in a sorry ass 20th place. I did end up in a final the last day of points and red lit in the final, so I made a progress, it was just slow. I guess foot braking wasn't exactly my thing.

 

Though the Corvette and I didn't have the greatest racing success together, I still have her. And ironically since I quit foot braking and racing in street, I'm actually pretty decent at hitting the tree now.

 

That winter my dad and I got this:

This is my old 1978 Camaro. It is a chassis car, meaning it is a "bare bones" car: role cage, seat, steering wheel, all fiberglass body to keep it light,etc. It was powered with a 434 smallblock Chevy engine and a 400 turbo transmission. In this car I used a transbrake to leave the line. It holds the car in place until you release the transbrake button, which is how you get your reaction time, versus just hitting the gas pedal in footbrake classes. I raced this car in Modified during the 2011 season, where it ran 9.20's at 145 mph. I did not run points this season as I wanted to adjust to going so much quicker in a car, along with all the other safety precautions that you need to take being in a faster car.

 

During the 2012 season, I raced the same car. That year I chose to run Top class. Top class consists of the quickest cars at the track, and they use electronics to get their reaction times. It is intense, and I love it. And it is where I met Andy. This year I chose to run points, to really see how I stacked up against the competition. I ended up in 8th place, which I felt was a strong finish to my first year out there. I would post a photo of my plaque, but my name was spelled wrong and it was never corrected. Yes...that sounds about right for my life.

 

That winter I spent with Andy, and during that time he asked me to drive his old dragster because he was getting a new one. Since my Camaro was sold, I said yes.

So, this is what I'm in now. The 2006 Undercover dragster. It has the 540 cubic inch Mopar engine I mentioned before, and it runs 7.60's at 175 mph. It is FAST. And so fun. Last season was a big learning curve for me. I had a lot of ups and downs with it. Unfortunately I didn't qualify for the bracket finals team in points, I ended up one place out. I needed to finish in the top 16. On the brighter side, I got to watch Andy race, and I learned so much from him and had such a great time seeing him do well and that made it all worth it to me!

 

So here I am now:

  Photo credit Brittany Lee Photography

 

Ready to get married and venture into a new racing season full of new races, new race tracks, and hopefully some successes along the way. I've been racing for a good while now, and I feel like it's time for me to really step up and make something happen this year. My dad joked that maybe once my last name changes I'll have better luck, but I think he might be right. Because I plan on making my own luck this year.