Driver Spotlight: Olivia Thayer

Olivia Thayer

Olivia Thayer is 9 years old. She currently races karts. She was age waivered to Jr. Sportsman 2 Champ and finished 2^nd in points. Towards the end of the season she started running a flat kart in Jr. Sportsman 2 as well. This was only her 2^nd 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

Creating a Free Racing Website

 

Creating a Free Racing Website

 

 

I originally used the GoDaddy website you can purchase that was supposed to be easy and inexpensive. I didn't find it easy or convenient and of course there was a cost involved. When our subscription for the year was up I did some research on creating a free website. Let's face it the sport of racing is expensive enough I don't need added costs that I can avoid. I'm sure most of you are in the same boat. I came across another racer's website that was created by Weebly. I decided to check out what this system had to offer. To my surprise it was extremely easy and best of all FREE!!

 

I signed up for the free website. It offered 5 pages and allows you to customize your pictures, text, layouts, etc. Check out our website www.opaticracing.weebly.com I still have my original domain name www.opaticracing.com through GoDaddy which I will now point to the Weebly site (still working on this aspect.) Weebly can also help you register your own domain name. I am so impressed that I wanted to share this info.

 

Try it today and let me know what you think!!   

Driver Spotlight: Carissa June

Carissa June

Carissa June loved driving quads at her family home. Her neighbor noticed her passion for speed and sold a kart to Carissa’s grandfather. After some discussion with her parents, that following weekend they were off to the kart track for her first race. Carissa is in her 5th year of racing, the 2nd year racing her slingshot.

The proudest moment that Carissa has had in her racing career is when she won a race for her brother. After her brother was sent off to military boot camp she told him she’d win a race for him when he came back home; and that’s just what she did. Carissa said, “When he came back home, he came to my races and I took first place.”

Everyone has challenges in their career. Carissa has faced the same challenge that many racers do; raising funds to compete in the sport. She is doing her best to obtain sponsors. Another issue she’s had to face is when she tells people that she’s a racer they say it’s all “left turns.” Carissa’s response to this is, “There will always be people who won't see something like you do but if you know that it's more than just left turns then let it be. All that matters is your opinion and if you love what you do.”

Carissa has a few people in the sport of racing she looks up to. One of these drivers is Trevor Bayne. The other is not a household name but has had an impact on Carissa. His name is Steven Reynolds. He is a family friend and after she went to one of his races she fell in love with the sport.

Carissa’s goal for the season is to get at least 1-3 first place finishes at Accord Speedway. She hopes that one day she’ll be able to make it to ARCA and then be able to take it all the way to NASCAR.

To follow Carissa and her career “like” her Facebook Page June Motorsports.