I
have always loved going fast.
And I have always loved cars. I
got my love of cars from my dad.
He would take me to car shows,
buy me Hot Wheel cars, and we
would work on his cars together.
I didn’t come from a racing fam-
ily nor a wealthy family. I came
from a Middle-Class Latino fami-
ly. My parents came to this coun-
try to obtain a better life. My mom
is from Colombia and my dad is
from Ecuador. We are a family of
dreamers. My parents sacrificed a
lot working two jobs, nights jobs,
jobs no one likes to do. They did
this to make sure my sister and I
had food on the table, a roof over
our heads, and a good education.
Because we were not a racing
family I didn’t know you could get
into karting at a very young age. I
also didn’t know that I could race
just about any car.
But that changed when I got my
2009 Subaru Impreza WRX. I have
seen these cars used in Stage Ral-
ly and thought that would be cool
to get into. But talking to one of my
friend’s friend who was in Rally
he advised against it because he
knew how I like to take care of my
cars. He suggested autocross, it’s
easy on the car, and shouldn’t be
losing car parts, lol! If you haven’t
heard of Autocross (Sometimes
called Solo) I’ll explain. It’s a timed
course usually in a parking lot. The
course is made of a sea of cones.
The way cones are positioned de-
termine which way you go around
them. Courses are set up the day
of, they are always different. You
get about 30 mins to walk the
course to make a game plan. The
courses are small the most you
might go is 60 mph.
Utah Region. After I was awarded
the championship I was yearn-
ing to go faster. I remember there
were several times where I would
be Autocrossing at Miller Motor-
sports (now called Utah Motor-
sports Campus) there was a group
racing on the track. I found out it
was called NASA (National Auto
Sport Association). NASA has a
four-level program called HPDE
(High Performance Driver’s Edu-
cation). After one graduates you
get a Time Trial Racing License.
I went through the program in
about a season and half. I was
getting bored of UMC and want-
ed to challenge myself. I heard of
a racing series called Global Time
Attack that raced at different race
tracks. In 2017 I joined the series
and got 3 podium wins 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd place. During my journey I
noticed that there were few wom-
en in Autocross and even fewer on
the Race Track.
It’s no secret that there are not
many women in racing, especially
women of color. I quickly under-
stood that visibility was very im-
portant. I understood that if more
and more girls and women saw me
in my race car it could spark inspi-
ration. I truly honestly believe that
more women seeing other women
in places that are male dominated
that it could start a domino effect.
We’ll soon start seeing more and
more women in places that some
feel like they “didn’t belong”. When
the truth is gender does not de-
fine your capabilities. Just because
you are a woman doesn’t mean
you can’t handle a race car just
like a man. Only you define what
you can and can’t do, no one else
can. Don’t let them take that pow-
er from you. Don’t even give them
permission to try.
I came up with the idea to start a
blog and start writing about my
experiences in racing. The reason
for this was I wanted to share my
story with those that have a pas-
sion for racing but didn’t see peo-
ple look like them represented in
Motorsports. I wanted to show
ladies how much fun and liberat-
ing it really can be. For me racing is
my ultimate express of who I really
am, and I want to inspire other la-
dies to do the same.
There are four life lessons I learned
on the race track. I encourage ev-
eryone to be the race car driver for
their life track.
I was in Autocross for a few years,
in 2014 I was DS Champion in the
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