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American Woman Motorscene
A QUEEN BEATS THE KINGS
by Kay Presto
Chico, California-Silver Dollar
Speedway: Sprint car owner and
crew chief Dick Wilskey was
tense. In the 30-lap Golden State
Challenge-the Northern Auto
Racing Club-sanctioned series
opener-his driver was on the
pole, up against the toughest of
California's sprint car drivers,
including defending champion Brent
Kaeding and Chuck Gurney.
Strapped into the Gaerte-powered,
Stoffel & Wright-sponsored #56jr.
Gambler, that driver was eager to
start. Leaning into the cockpit,
Wilskey offered last-minute words of
advice. "You ran great in your heat,"
he encouraged, "your car's running
fine, and you can beat these guys."
There was a nod of assurance from
inside the car. This race was a key
one for them, including the $2500
payout for the win.
At the green, Wilskey's
750-horsepowered winged sprint car
and driver charged away flawlessly,
maintaining the lead around the
high-banked, quarter-mile clay oval.
Lap after lap, through four caution
flags and two red flags for incidents,
the #56jr. proved untouchable.
Then, on a restart, Eric Rossi
closed the gap, pulling up close to
Wilskey's lead sprinter, but falling
behind again as it charged away. In
the remaining laps, the #56jr.
machine, with a 10-length lead, sliced
expertly through traffic, crossed the
finish line, and took the checkered
flag! Wilskey was jubilant. In Victory
Circle, when he proudly planted a
victory kiss on the winner's cheek,
his driver broke into a smile, for it
was none other than his 22-year-old
daughter, Shawna Wilskey-the first
woman ever to capture a
NARC-sanctioned sprint car event in
the club's 36-year history of the
sport.
Ironic that a woman would win the
series opener in the "King of
California" sprint car championship?
Not to Wilskey. A former sprint car
driver himself who had raced
successfully for years throughout
the Northwest, he first observed
Shawna's natural talent when she
was two. "We'd given her a little red
fire engine," he recalled, "and I'd tell
her to ride it through the door of our
rec room." Pushing her off, he'd
deliberately give the fire engine a
little shove to slide it sideways, but
she always made it through that
door. "That's when I knew she had
the seat-of-the-pants talent to race,"
he noted.
It would be years later before
Shawna ever buckled up in a race car.
A natural athlete, she gravitated
toward premier soccer, then
fast-pitch softball on a tournament
team, excelling in both. "I can't
remember a sport that I haven't tried,"
she says; "I love anything to do with
competing, physically challenging
myself. And from the time I was little,
I always wanted to race cars."
At 15, fate opened that door.
While she and her dad were
attending. a race at Washington's
Skagit Speedway, a driver pulled in
with a mini-sprint for sale. A quick
discussion between father and
daughter ensued, and the car was
theirs. After two hours' practice in a
farmer's dirt field, Shawna entered her
first mini-sprint event-and won.
"You don't run on the outside of the
track in the marbles (pebbly surface)
at Deming," says Wilskey, "but
Shawna didn't know that, she ran up
high there, and still won."
The next four to five races were
her learning curve; according to her
father, she hit everything in sight but
still finished 10th in points. She
dominated in her second season,
winning the mini-sprint
championship at Deming. The next
year, she moved smaller-motored
into a sprint car powered by a
360-cubic-inch engine, a smaller-
motored version of the World of
Outlaws (WoO) machines. She not
only finished ninth in points, but
won a Nanaimo Island Cup title at
Cassidy Speedway in British
Columbia.
Still driving the 360 the following
season, she and Dick went on the
road, winning one event in a two
night show in Billings, Montana.
Piloting her under-powered 360
mount against
410-cubic-inch-powered sprinters,
she also claimed victory in a race. At
Cassidy Speedway, she'd won
practically everything for two years,
including her second Island Cup
Classic in 1993.
"The following year she
campaigned both the 360- and a
410-cubic-inch-engined car." says
Wilskey. "First she'd race in the 360,
then step into her 410 sprinter and
compete." In the Dirt Cup, the
second biggest sprint car
competition in the Northwest, she
finished second to World of
Outlaws' Joe Gaerte-quite a feat. In
another heat race, she bested the
best in the sport-Sammy Swindell
and Steve Kinser.
The following year, aiming toward
the World of Outlaws circuit, Shawna
drove only her 410. With her car's
right front end suspension badly
damaged from an earlier-heat race,
she not only went up against 170 of
the strongest WoO drivers at the
Knoxville Nationals, but it was her
first competition on a half-mile track.
Holding her own as the first woman
ever to run in that event, she finished
in the top 60, and later captured the
Canadian Cassidy Cup in B.C. for the
third time.
And then came that outstanding
victory at Silver Dollar. "When I
found out I was on the pole, it was
intense pressure," she says, "being
on that pole with the fastest drivers
on the west coast. And I had to stay
ahead of them for 30 laps. But then I
told myself, 'Hey, I can beat these
guys; I'm just as fast as they are.'"
"I literally had it in the bag two
laps from the end," she added, "but I
had to go around that track two more
time. I kept telling myself, "Don't
screw this up!" But my car was running
so well that I knew I'd have no
problem keeping that pace, and then I
won." Right after she crossed the finish
line, Ron Cox, Shawna's crew
member and her best friend, ran over
and shouted, "You don't realize the
magnitude of what you've just done!"
"That was incredible," she says. "I
didn't realize until then that I'd made
racing history. I just knew that I had
won a really tough race, and at that
moment, that was the best I'd ever
felt in my whole life. There are more
of those moments to come."
Bill Albini, who crews for six-time
Golden State winner Kaeding, said
to Wilskey, "I had changed everything
on Brent's car but the number, but
we still couldn't catch her." Without
exception, every driver she'd
beaten in that race came over and congratulated her.
"They all respect her and treat her as an equal," says her dad.
Shawna says that one of the best
things about her history-making win
is that it was a family deal. "When I
saw my dad and my crew jumping up
and down in pit lane, that was worth
it all right there, because of the great
work they had done and all the
money and effort that my dad has put
into my team. My parents have
always supported my racing, and I've
always tried to model myself after my
father-his driving skills, his success;
he's been my mentor in everything
I've ever done. We've had more time
together and more wonderful long
talks on our road trips than most
fathers and daughters have ever
thought of having. Our relationship is special."
To support her racing, Shawna
works as a head waitress at the Red
Robin Restaurant in Lynnwood,
Wash. "My goal is to race full-time
professionally on the World of Outlaws'
circuit next year," she states, "so
I'm currently talking to sponsors."
Here advice to others who want to
excel in racing? "Whether it's a man
or a woman," she responded, "you
have to have that desire deep down
inside and put 110 percent into everything
you do, including your racing,
or you won't succeed.
In her racing efforts, it's clear that
Shawna Wilskey puts in 110 percent, and more.
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