The Driving Woman

The Driving Woman http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/  1995-2008 Edmunds.com, Inc. The contents of this feed are for non-commercial use only. Mon, 12 May 2008 14:05:33 GMT Web Crossing(r) Unix-v6.0 built May 6 2008 01:30:43 (source:1029 2008-05-05 23:05:11 -0700)/Unix-6.0 (http://webcrossing.com/) http://backend.userland.com/rss Can Tequila Get You Nitro? Alexis DeJoria Pursues her Dream Mon, 12 May 2008 14:05:25 GMT http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/6 http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/6 Sheila Scarborough <see_the_world_now@yahoo.com> Top Alcohol Funny Car NHRA drag racing women in motorsports Alexis DeJoria Sportsman class Patron <img alt="Alexis DeJoria (courtesy Patrón Spirits and Jack O'Bannon Racing)" title="Alexis DeJoria (courtesy Patrón Spirits and Jack O'Bannon Racing)" src="http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea7347/cmd.233/embedded..eea734a" align="middle" height="262" hspace="10" width="350"> "I've always had a need for speed and intense things, ever since I was a little girl....thrill-seeking, with everything. As soon as I could, I got in a car and raced." Alexis DeJoria is focused on her goal of turning professional and driving a nitromethane-fueled Funny Car like <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/advice/womenfamilies/articles/123404/article.html">Ashley Force</a>, but first she must work her way up and pay her drag racing dues in the <a href="http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/.ee8ffd9">Sportsman class</a>; the non-professional teams in the NHRA. Make no mistake, though -- a Sportsman driver like DeJoria leaves nothing on the track when it comes to competitive fire. The 30-year-old Alexis is the daughter of John Paul DeJoria, the very recognizable ponytailed founder of both the Patrón Spirits Company and Paul Mitchell Hair Care Products. "My Dad always had really fast cars, so I grew up around that. At school, I gravitated towards the guys who were building hot rods. I got one of my own when I was 16; I had a 1967 Chevelle SS with a 454 big block." John Paul DeJoria himself stuck his head in during our interview (but it didn't seem like the right time to tell him how much I like his Freeze and Shine hairspray.) He told a road trip story about Alexis driving, er, quite rapidly enroute Las Vegas. She protested, 典hat was him! He said, 'Pass this guy!' so I said, 'Oooo-kaay!' I don't want to glorify it, kids do things that are stupid, but I really wanted to make it [cars] a part of my life, meaning professionally." The senior DeJoria wanted Alexis to approach motorsports the right way, by getting properly licensed to race. "I wasn't quite sure what kind of racing I wanted to do. I was interested in Indy Racing League-type, track racing, so my first school was <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Columns/articleId=117668">Skip Barber痴</a>....it was so much fun; I was the only girl in that class." Fate quickly intervened, however. "Not long after that, I went to a [drag] race locally (I live in California) - the Pomona Winternationals. I saw those nitro cars go down the track for the first time, and it blew my mind. I said, ‘'This is it. I want to do this. Where do I go [to do this?'] So I went to <A href="http://www.frankhawley.com/">Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School</A> at Pomona." Alexis was licensed to race in the Super Gas and Super Comp Sportsman classes. She did very well, going to two final rounds within six months and winning one of them. She then set her sights on the professional Funny Car class, and to prepare for that she began racing in her current Sportsman class, Top Alcohol Funny Car, which burns methanol as fuel instead of more-volatile nitromethane. Top speeds are a little slower than nitro cars, but handling is somewhat similar. "These cars are the best training....if you can do well in Top Alcohol, you can do nitro Funny Cars. I just need to get back to Frank Hawley's and finish up my nitro license. I'm going to keep at this until I'm good and ready for nitro. I want to win at least one Alcohol Funny Car race - you can't learn enough about these cars." Patr Spirits is heavily involved in <A href="http://www.patronspirits.com/racing/racing.html">motorsports sponsorship</A>, including cars in the LeMans and IndyCar series, so John Paul DeJoria agreed to help sponsor Alexis with Patr Tequila. She's now a driver with <A href="http://www.jackobannonracing.com/">Jack O'Bannon Racing</A> and is learning a lot from teammate Sean O'Bannon and her fellow drivers; "My peers make me a better driver because they're so good, and this car is very humbling." At the April 2008 SummitRacing.com Nationals at 'The Strip' at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Alexis scored her first round win. She's determined to continue improving; "School is in session, big-time, but I love every minute of it." http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea7347#cm Traffic Jam Help Sat, 10 May 2008 01:05:24 GMT http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/5 http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/5 Bryn MacKinnon <bmackinnon@edmunds.com> Factory Installed Navigation Systems Real-Time Traffic <IMG height=276 src="http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea72c3/cmd.233/enclosure..eea72c4" width=430 align=textTop> With in-car navigation systems becoming more and more common, the dusty, old stereotype of men being unwilling to stop to ask for directions may also extend to women, too. With a good (and easy to use) nav system, now you don稚 have to rely on the kindness (and accuracy) of strangers to help you find where you need to go. But not all factory-installed navigation systems are equal and many of them don稚 include one of my favorite features: real-time traffic. If a factory navigation system is high on your new car must-have list, you値l want to check out <A href="http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/audio/articles/125947/article.html">this article</A> on the best in-car nav systems that feature real-time traffic. http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea72c5#cm Not Their Father's Dealerships Wed, 07 May 2008 23:05:56 GMT http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/4 http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/4 Joanne Helperin <jhelperin@edmunds.com> Women-Owned Car Dealerships <IMG height=339 alt="Photo courtesy of Inmagine." src="http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea71dd/cmd.233/enclosure..eea71de" width=420 align=textTop> Ward's Dealer Business, an industry publiciation, recently published a good article on women-owned dealerships. Here's an excerpt: "Women bring a different approach and style to something that has been a man's world," [Deborah Dorman, president of ENYCAR, Inc., the Eastern New York Coalition of Automotive Retailers] says. "And what they bring helps the industry to prosper because of some of the old traditional methods and styles commonly used in auto retailing today are not effective for today's workforce." Few women dealers woke up one morning and decided to buy a dealership. Most women dealers became dealers because their fathers were dealers before them or their husbands were. They learned the business the traditional way in many cases, learning through family need: filing, working the customer service desk, filling in the parts and service departments and otherwise helping out where needed. Today women own a mere 8% of U.S. dealerships, but that should change as more women become aware of the opportunities. To read the whole article, click <A href="http://wardsdealer.com/ar/auto_not_fathers_dealerships/">here</A>. http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea71df#cm Sarah Fisher and Hillary Clinton meet in Indiana Wed, 07 May 2008 01:05:02 GMT http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/3 http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/3 Joanne Helperin <jhelperin@edmunds.com> Indiana Democratic Primary Sarah Fisher Hillary Clinton Sarah Fisher and Hillary Clinton have a certain amount in common. They are both groundbreakers, advancing women's position in areas strongly dominated by men. So it wasn't unfitting that Fisher decided to endorse Clinton. Today the AP reported on Clinton's visit to Fisher's garage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Fisher gave Clinton a team helmet and introduced her around. Of course, today is the Indiana Democratic primary, so we'll see if Clinton needs that helmet (crash and burn?) or if she'll be crossing the finish line first. For photo, see <A href="http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20080507/2008_05_06t123035_450x316_us_usa_politics.jpg?x=400&y=280&sig=qnxVshp5.1Zyq_PEKCkC1A--">here</A>. For more information on these pioneering women, see <A href="http://www.sarahfisher.com">Sarah Fisher's Web site</A> or <A href="http://www.hillaryclinton.com">Hillary Clinton's Web site</A>. (And please, even if you don't like Clinton, restrain your comments to something relevant.) http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea716a#cm Care and Feeding of a Drag Strip: NHRA Safety Safari Tue, 06 May 2008 01:05:51 GMT http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/2 http://blogs.edmunds.com/women/2 Sheila Scarborough <see_the_world_now@yahoo.com> Women in NHRA drag racing race track management drag strip preparation Safety Safari <div align="center"><img alt="Robin Crosby, NHRA Safety Safari (Photo by Sheila Scarborough)" title="Robin Crosby, NHRA Safety Safari (Photo by Sheila Scarborough)" src="http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea707c/cmd.233/embedded..eea70c1" align="middle" height="280" hspace="10" width="350"> </div> In professional drag racing, cars don't just launch down any old street. They need a 1,320-foot strip that is carefully prepared to handle 2,000 pounds of nitromethane-fueled vehicle reaching over 300 mph in mere seconds. Enter the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Safety Safari. It provides crash rescue and emergency medical assistance if needed, but is also responsible for orchestrating racing competitions and grooming the track. Robin Crosby has been working national-level events on the Safety Safari since 2000. During the NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, I asked about her responsibilities: "Anything that has to do with track preparation, anything that has to do with the safety of the drivers, racers, crew and our own [NHRA] staff," said Robin. "I [first] started out in the staging lanes....I used to pair up cars, make sure that drivers were in, that [competitive] pairs were correct, that they had all their safety gear on. Gear depends on which classes [of car] are running. Some require gloves, helmets, 5-point harnesses. Others require fire suits; tops and bottoms. Some vehicles require arm restraints, or window nets, or <a href="http://hansdevice.com/s.nl/sc.5/category.22/.f">HANS devices</a> [Head And Neck Support]...." How does she remember all of the rules? She laughed, "Well, to be totally honest with you, in the wintertime when the Rule Book comes out, (around the first of the year, before [race teams start] testing and tuning in the middle of January) I sit in the bathroom and read a chapter at a time." The Safety Safari also prepares the track for an NHRA event. A good starting line launch is key to a good drag race, and racing tires are slick, with little grip of their own. Robin and her crew make a sticky track ahead of time with glue-like adhesive and the "tire dragging machine." "We come in two days before the race starts. We make sure [the track] is scraped down to the concrete, we clean it so that there's no oil or dirt, we make sure that it's nice and spiffy," said Robin. "Then we start dragging it with the tire machine and use VHT, which is a traction compound, an adhesive, sprayed on the track in liquid form, to make race car tires adhere to the track. Then we run our drag machine, our tire machine (mounted with old Hoosiers Tires with the sidewalls cut off) until we get rubber down on [the track.] Then we clean it again, wash it, spray it and it's ready to go!" The work continues between rounds during a race event, and the drivers and crew chiefs are not shy about letting Robin and her crew know when they don't think the track is up to par. "You need to keep the bald spots under control," said Robin. "The higher-powered cars with their tires, when they take off they come up to high speeds and it rips off the rubber [from the track] so you have to put more rubber down either from what we've scraped up between rounds, or from powder or spray [adhesive] and then dragging over the top of that with the dragging machine.”" Everyone dreads rain, because it isn't safe to race on a wet drag strip. There's an elaborate, detailed procedure for thoroughly drying a track; the Safety Safari crew uses big machines that are basically motorized ShopVacs. They vacuum up the standing water, and then act like a hair dryer on wheels, to blast air down every inch of the quarter-mile until it's dry. Robin thinks sunshiny thoughts whenever clouds roll in - "You always try to keep positive; 'It痴 not gonna rain! It痴 just gonna blow over real quick and we値l be able to get out there and get back on.'" She works on the team with her husband; "I met [him] at a drag strip. He started racing, then I became a track manager at <a href="http://www.dragway.com/">Lebanon Valley Dragway</a> in upstate New York. I had worked constantly at the track, for different events, then the track owner asked if I wanted to try [managing the facility] and I said sure. The only part I didn't know at that point was financial; how to do tickets, how to do marketing, but that all came very easily." Robin used to do a little racing herself, in her <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/saturn/review.html">Saturn</a> SL2 (really!) "Yep, an all stock car, no special parts, and I always got a head start. That's what's great about <a href="http://www.nhra.com/basics/index.html#et">bracket racing</a>; you can take anything in your garage to the track." http://blogs.edmunds.com/.eea707c#cm