Driver Spotlight: Selina English

 Selina English

Selina English races a VS Commodore in Production Sedans which is a national sedan racing division. She has been involved in Speedway since 1996; She started as a passenger in a race car, then became a lap scorer in 2002; club secretary 2003 - 2006 and 2009 - current) for the Gympie Saloon Car Club. Her partner’s children race and with a spare race car in the shed she said, “I thought I would give it a go.” She started racing in 2010 in a standard state class but with the introduction of Production Sedans to Queensland she moved to that division in 2012.

Selina’s proudest moment so far is her 10th place in the 2012/13 Production Sedan Victorian State Title, especially as it was their first season to travel interstate with this division. Her continuing goal is to improve my racing ability; with a National Title at her home track she has the opportunity to compete against many other interstate drivers. She is passionate about her racing division and her goal is to continue to promote this division and have success in her travels interstate. Selina’s role model is Super Sedan driver, Darren Kane; she also enjoys watching Nascar and Danica Patrick's rookie racing.

According to Selina the challenges she has faced are, “Learning to race as an adult (not in Junior competition) and becoming comfortable with the race car to know what changes need to be made for handling.” She said she has dealt with these challenges by, “listening to experienced drivers in similar divisions has helped me with this knowledge.”

 My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/selina.english

Girls Race 2 Stickers

 

2" x 6" vinyl sticker, $2.50 each free shipping in the U.S. All proceeds go to my 2 little girls' racing fund.

 

Click here to order yours today: http://shoppingcart-27831.safestorefront.com/Merchant/

 

Thank you Colville Printing for sponsoring this fund raiser!!

 

 

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.

Driver Spotlight: Madison Campeau

Madison Campeau

Maddie is a 9 year old girl with a passion for racing. Her father raced grand prix road race motor cycles at their local track. There was a kart track adjacent to the track he raced. He asked Maddie if she’d like to try karting. She said yes and according to her mom, “the rest is history.”

Maddie is finishing her 4^th season racing karts. This season she began racing in Yamaha Rookie Sportsman and half way through the season she moved up to Cadet and Yamaha Sportsman. Her home track is Pitt Race Karting in Pittsburgh, PA. She also enjoys traveling to compete on a national level. She has had podium national finishes in both the Great Lakes Sprint Series and Mancup in the Yamaha Rookie Sportsman class. After moving up to the Cadet and Yamaha Sportsman classes, she’s had four top ten finishes.

This talented young lady is first in points in the Yamaha Sportsman class and will earn second in Cadet at Pitt Race Karting. There is only one race left and she is locked into both finishes. She also aspires to finish well in the Mancup series.

Maddie’s favorite thing about racing is winning. Her dream is to one day race IndyCar. She admires the late IndyCar driver, Dan Weldon. She had the privilege of meeting him at her first Mancup race at New Castle in Indiana.

Visit Maddie’s website at: www.GoMaddie.com

Driver Spotlight: Stephanie Clew

 

Stephanie Clew

 

Stephanie has been racing since she was 12 in 2006. She is currently 19, will be 20 next month. She has raced, 4-Cylinders every year and even a Open Wheel Modified one year. Currently she races in the U-Car 4Cylinder Division at Friendship Motor Speedway and Rolling Thunder Raceway. She has 26 career wins, 5 of them being from this year at both tracks listed above. She is currently your points leader at Friendship with 2 point races to go, and sitting 5th at Rolling Thunder. 

Stephanie's dad Richard got her into racing in 2006. He has been racing since he was 19 years old and has multiple Champtionships and wins. She loves racing. She was brought up into it and will choose dirt track racing over any other sport. 

Stephanie's goal is to become a better race car driver. There's always room for improvement. She hasn't finished out of the top 5 all season long much less the top 3. She is driving a Chevy Cavalier this season. Stephanie will be attending the nationals this year at Cherokee Speedway.

Stephanie Clew Racing is her Facebook Page.