Angela Ruch (Cope)

Angela Ruch, previously known as Angela Cope, races in the NASCAR Truck series in the USA. She is one of the more controversial figures in the stock-car world. 

At the beginning of her career, she always raced alongside her twin sister, Amber Cope. The twins are the nieces of Derrike Cope, another divisive figure in US oval racing.

Angela and her sister began their forays into motorsport in a conventional way, growing up around the family workshop and racing karts from the age of nine. They both raced Late Models from the age of 15, before they had their road traffic licenses.

Angela and Amber had their first major races in 2006, when they started making occasional appearances in the ARCA REMAX series. Their relationship with Derrike Cope, indifferent pace and blonde, glamorous appearance rubbed many observers up the wrong way. A Bleacher Report article by Sandra McWatters from 2012 directly accuses both sisters of using NASCAR as a promotional tool for their other commercial interests, which at that time included a clothing line and a beauty salon. 

Angela took part in more races than Amber, due to her seven NASCAR Nationwide events in 2011 and 2012. Sadly, many of these ended in DNFs. Her best finish was in New Hampshire in 2011, where she was 25th. Prior to the Nationwide series, she did one race in the Camping World Truck series, and three ARCA events, between 2006 and 2010. Her Truck appearance in 2010 ended with her stopping on the circuit, the truck leaking fluid onto the track surface. This race was the NASCAR debut of both sisters and marked the first time that identical twins had taken to the track together.

The pair moved up to the NASCAR Xfinity (then Nationwide) Series together in 2011. Angela’s first race was at Iowa; she was 28th at the end, 20 laps down. Her next outing the Mark Smith-owned Chevrolet was Loudon, in which she did better, finishing only 6 laps down in 25th. She did not qualify at Chicago, then retired from the Kansas and Charlotte rounds due to a crash and vibration issues respectively.

Her 2012 season was a little worse, with her two races at Charlotte ending in non-finishes. The first was down to engine trouble, but later in the year, Angela managed to crash on the first lap, driving Jason Sciavicco’s Toyota. She had finished at Michigan in the same car earlier in the year in 28th place.

During their career as a twin sister duo, both Angela and Amber were accused of “start and park” antics during their races - pulling in nowhere near full race distance to be recorded as a starter. In fairness to Angela, she did not engage in this sort of behaviour and although she was not often on the lead lap, she carried on to the flag whenever she could. 

She made a comeback in 2017, initially as a charity fundraiser. Her car was a BJ Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro and she did four rounds of the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Two of these races ended in finishes, the best of them being a 30th place at Kentucky. 

She entered three Xfinity races in 2018, finishing one at Loudon. She was 30th, having begun from 40th on the grid. The others ended in an oil leak and a rare start-and-park.

2019 came around and it looked as if Angela was up to her old self-promotion tricks. After two rides in a Joe Nemechek-owned truck, she started racing a different truck promoting “The Ruch Life”, a new reality TV concept based around Angela’s life as a racing driver and as the new adoptive mother of a baby. 

Her early season with Nemechek proved that she could actually drive; in a hugely crash-afflicted Daytona season-opener, she kept her nerve and finished eighth. She was then a creditable 16th at Las Vegas, from 28 finishers. She even became the first female driver to lead a Truck race at Daytona.

After her switch to Al Niece’s truck in time for the Fort Worth race, she did not fare quite so well. At both Fort Worth races, she crashed out fairly early. She was 16th at Kansas, from 19 finishers, and 23rd at Charlotte, out of 26. Her contract with Niece was meant to be for ten races, of which she completed eight, never finishing higher than 16th and crashing four times.

She did a part-season in Trucks in 2020, driving for Josh Reaume. She crashed out at the Daytona opener and the Chevy truck was replaced with a Toyota for the Las Vegas race. She was 24th at the Vegas circuit, ahead of Reaume himself. Charlotte was also relatively successful and she was 23rd out of 35 finishers, the first of three women drivers entered that day. The rest of her eight-race season was similar, with safe but unspectacular finishes.

Angela continues to be the subject of ridicule, particularly from the media. Her two races with in the Nemechek truck show an intriguing glimpse of what could be if she had access to decent equipment and probably, fewer distractions.

(Image copyright motorsport.com)