Olivia Thayer
Olivia Thayer is 9 years old. She currently races karts. She
was age waivered to Jr. Sportsman 2 Champ and finished 2nd in points.
Towards the end of the season she started running a flat kart in Jr. Sportsman
2 as well. This was only her 2nd year racing at Hunterstown Speedway
in PA. Next season she hopes to further her racing career by experiencing some
new tracks.
Olivia has grown up in a family with a strong love for
racing. She would attend sprint car races at our local track, she was taken to
watch the karts at Hunterstown, watched every NASCAR race and begged to go to a
NASCAR race for her fifth birthday. She attended Richmond and sat watching and
glued to the track for the entire race, witnessing Denny Hamlin take the win.
After watching the karts run at Hunterstown she said, "I wanna race.”
Olivia's proudest moment in her racing career was receiving
the Rookie of the Year award at Hunterstown Speedway last year. Her goal for
this season was to win one or more races. That has been accomplished so however
the rest of the season plays out, she's still happy to have met her goal! What
she loves most about racing- "being behind the wheel, the speed, and
learning everything I can."
This young girl has many heroes in the sport of racing
"Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Brian Monteith, Logan Schuchart,
Jacob Allen, Johnny Eckard, Travis Keiser, Cody Oliver, the Harshmans and many
more!" One of the biggest challenges she has faced in her career so far is
people close to her NOT believing in her. She didn’t let this get to her. She
just simply goes out every race and gives it her all. She says, “You will never
please everyone!”
This young girl has been through a lot. According to her
mom, “she is much stronger than people realize and has a heart made fully of
gold.” When she was only 4 years old she watched in fright as her 1 year old
brother seized in her mother’s arms followed by many more seizures in the years
after. This is why Olivia chose the color purple. Purple represents the color
of Epilepsy awareness. With all of the focus on her brother and his health you
would think that racing would be her “thing” and the focus would be on her but
she chose to include him in it as well. The first way was by choosing purple as
her racing color. The second way was to have her helmet painted with a picture
of her holding her baby brother’s purple hand.
To learn more about this selfless little girl and her racing
career visit and like her Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/thayerracing11
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