Anita Liden

 

Anita Lidén is a Swedish driver who is most famous for attempting to build a career in NASCAR in 1970.

She tried to enter the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, but never made the start, having no car and no backers. She had shown up at Riverside and hung around the gates in the week before the 500, handing out business cards in the rain and attempting to persuade car owners to take a chance on her.

Despite her chutzpah, the enterprise did not work. Her complete lack of stock car experience, apart from some slow testing laps, and general lack of American racing experience, worked against her. Her husband Lasse, another racer who was with her, was also unsuccessful in launching a US competition career.

Anita and Lasse lived near the Anderstorp circuit, where he raced both cars and motorbikes. She was formerly a model and got into motorsport through her husband.

She had raced in Formula Ford in Sweden in 1969, in her first year of competition. She usually used the name "Anita Snabb", which translates to "Fast Anita". Her car was a Merlyn. In 1969, she entered the Junior race at the Hyllingeloppet event at Knutstorp, finishing second.

After her trip to America, she returned to Sweden and quickly went back to single-seaters. She continued to race in Formula Ford, then in the Swedish and European Formula Vee championships. She took part in the Swedish series in 1970 and 1971 and the European championship between 1970 and 1072.

Much later, in 1976, she raced in the Lee Cooper Mini Lady Cup, a Swedish all-female racing series, and won at least one race, although not the championship, which went to Birgitta Uppling. Her car was advertised for sale in 1978, so her career appears to end there.

(Image copyright Autosprint, 1971)

Arianna Casoli

Arianna Casoli races in the Whelen Euro NASCAR series. The Italian is the most prolific female driver in the championship and is one of its longest-standing competitors.

It was in 2016 that she first strapped herself into a stock car, aged 42. She raced in the Elite 2 development class and her car was a Ford, one of the championship's stock bodies. Her best finish was 15th, at Adria, and she was 19th in the championship, although she was that year’s top lady driver. Prior to her first races, she had only done a little testing in a car that was the most powerful and heaviest thing she had ever driven.

She fared better at the wheel of a CAAL Racing Chevrolet in 2017, almost getting into the top ten at Venray. She was 15th overall that year.

Another season in Elite 2 in 2018 gave her a championship 17th. She improved this to 15th in 2019, with a best finish of twelfth at Zolder.

An accident in 2020 threatened to end her Euro NASCAR adventure, but she completed the four-round championship, finishing tenth with a best finish of fifth at Zolder.

A full championship ran in 2021, with Arianna in the EuroNASCAR2 class. She was 18th in the championship, with one top-ten finish, a tenth place at Most.

She did a part-season in the same class in 2022, with a best finish of 17th at Brands Hatch. This was repeated in 2023.

Another EuroNASCAR season in 2024 ended with a trip to Brazil for the final rounds of the NASCAR Brazil series.

Prior to 2016, she raced in a number of one-make series in Italy, including the Saxo and MGF Cups, beginning in 1996, when she was 22. Her first car was a Renault Clio. This stopped in 2002 so she could finish her education and have children. She began racing seriously again in 2015 in the SEAT Ibiza Cup in Italy, having made a guest appearance in 2013 with her friend Valentina Albanese.

(Image copyright @suomi1985)

Hila Paulson Sweet

Hila with Parnelli Jones

Hila Paulson Sweet was an American driver known for her stock car racing in the 1950s, and for being instrumental in setting up all-female racing clubs.

Born in Compton, Los Angeles, she spent most of her adult life in California. She started racing in 1950, when she was 22, initially in the "Powder Puff Derby" events put on for wives and girfriends of male drivers. Her younger brother Ray also raced. To begin with, she competed alongside her first husband, Bob Morgan, and the pair owned a car together. She was later married to Ummie Paulson, an expert car builder who acted as her crew chief.

She raced in a couple of official NASCAR Late Model races in 1956 and 1957, in a Chevrolet. Both races were at the Gardena circuit, and she did not finish either of them.

Hila is most famous for her huge success in the “Powder Puff Derby” scene, where she was almost unbeatable. Although there were no rules specifically banning female drivers, or limiting them to ladies' races, they normally had to share a car with a husband, boyfriend or male relative, who would use the car for the main events, hence the popularity of powder puff or "Cheesecake" derbies.

She was part of a group of female drivers who became known as the Lady Leadfoots, which set up a racing league for women. The group's official name was the California Women's Racing Association and it was formed in 1950, amalgamating several groups active in jalopy racing, including the Cheesecake Derby Association. Hila was not part of the combined committee at the beginning, having led one of its constituent groups, but she had risen to the rank of President by 1953. This was in spite of a claim that one of the organisations tried to ban her from competing as she won too often. The CWRA advertised for new drivers in newspaper Situations Vacant columns, promising start money.

The CWRA's home track would become Gardena Stadium, but their first all-female event was at Carrell Stadium in 1950, before the other groups joined them. Hila competed against pre-war Irish driver Fay Taylour, visiting from Europe, as well as the glamorous Peggy Peek, Esta Cornett and Ellen McCoy. Her sister Edna Bates was a regular rival. Most powderpuff races were contested over a few laps in a single heat, but the Carrell event was a full programme of heats and a final.

Hila was never shy of publicity and must have jumped at the chance to enter a match race against Parnelli Jones in 1955, then a leading jalopy racer at the Carpinteria Thunderbowl. According to the Santa Barbara News Press, there was little to choose between the two drivers for the first third of the six-lap race, before Parnelli Jones pulled ahead. Hila kept on his tail until the final corner, when she pulled up the inside of him and sent him off the track, taking the win for herself. Later in the year, she also took on brothers Marty and Tommy Artoff at the San Bernardino track.

In 1959, she also did some sportscar racing, and won a Ladies’ race at Ascot, in a Jaguar. The year before, she took a Ford Tractor stock car to a ladies' race at her home track of Gardena, winning from Barbara Scott and Bonnie Bosley, both in MGs.

After retiring from the track herself, she continued to be active in motorsport until an advanced age, organising get-togethers for other former racers on the jalopy and stock car scenes. Her marriage to Ummie did not last and she later married Bob Sweet. They moved to Florida, where they owned their own track.

Away from active competition, she was instrumental in getting Parnelli Jones drives, alongside Ummie. Parnelli Jones won the Indy 500 in 1963. She also wrote about stock car racing for local newspapers. Later, she organised get-togethers for former racers.

(Image from The Jalopy Journal)

Toni Breidinger

Toni Breidinger races in the NASCAR Truck series and has been a regular in the ARCA Menards Series for several seasons.

She made her ARCA debut in 2018, aged 19, driving a Toyota for Venturini Motorsports. Her first race was at Madison and she finished tenth. She was then twelfth at Gateway and 18th at Chicago. Her team-mate was Natalie Decker, and they were joined by Leilani Munter at Chicago, making up the first three-woman team in the series. She made one appearance in the CARS Super Late Model Tour in 2019, finishing 15th at Radford. Away from ARCA, Toni raced in the USAC Silver Crown championship for dirt cars and in Late Models.

In an attempt at a sideways move, she tried to qualify for the inaugural W Series championship in 2019. She made the list of 55 drivers who were assessed, but was rejected at this stage.

In 2021, she returned to ARCA, entering nine rounds of its main series. Her best finishes were two ninth places at Winchester and Springfield. She spent half the season with Tyler Young before going back to a Venturini car. In addittion to this, she contested one Menards Series West race in each car, both at Phoenix, finishing one and crashing out of the other on the opening lap.

An almost full ARCA season followed in 2022, driving Cathy Venturini's car. Six of her twenty races ended in top tens, with her best being an eighth place at Salem. She was sixth in the championship.

In 2023, she made her first starts in the Craftsman Truck championship, driving for David Gilliland and sponsored by Victoria's Secret. She finished all three races, the best of these being a 15th place at Kansas. This was combined with most of the main ARCA season, where she earned seven top-ten finishes, including a third place at her lucky track, Kansas.

This arrangement continued for 2024, with a part-season in Trucks and a regular spot in ARCA. Most of her time was spent in ARCA, with her qualifying pace improving and more top tens coming her way during a full season. She has had a variety of sponsors. The same team runs her in certain rounds of the East and West series, where she is also a top-ten regular. Her Truck schedule is more limited.

She finished in the ARCA top ten on eleven occasions in 2024, the best of these being a pair of sixth places at Berlin and Springfield. Her final championship position was fourth. Her best East series finish was a fourth place at Flat Rock.

She previously raced in sprintcars against her twin sister, Annie. She is the only female NASCAR driver of Arab descent in the world, having Lebanese heritage.

(Image copyright Roman Empire)

Amber Balcaen

 

Amber Balcaen is a Canadian driver who races stock cars in the USA. She did the full ARCA season in 2022. 

She is from a racing family, but is the first to race on asphalt rather than dirt. Her career began with dirt-track karting when she was 10, in around 2002. As soon as she was old enough to race sprint cars as a senior, she got her own car and started winning.

After two or three seasons in sprintcars, she took part in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme in 2014 and 2016, as well as competing in Late Model racing in 2016. She was third in the Whelen All-American Series, with one win and six more podiums. She was the first Canadian female driver to win a NASCAR-sanctioned event. 

In 2017, she raced in the NASCAR K&N Series, in a Toyota Camry. She was 20th at New Smyrna in her only major outing. She took part in one race in the CARS Super Late Model Tour series in 2018, at Hickory. However, she crashed out early on. 

In 2019, she made another guest appearance in the same series, finishing fourteenth at Radford. She returned to competition in the 2021 ARCA Menards West Series, driving a Toyota. 

Although she only finished one of her three races, this was an eleventh at Irwindale. 

Her career took a hit in 2020 when she was injured in a midget car crash in July, at Valley Speedway. Her car turned over and she suffered burns, two collapsed lungs and broken bones.

Following several part-seasons, she put together a deal for a full ARCA programme in 2022, partly assisted by Busch beer’s Accelerate Her female driver sponsorship scheme. She was run by Mark Rette and usually drove a Ford, although this was substituted for a Toyota for a couple of races. When schedules allowed, she also made a few guest appearances in the East and West series, picking up one tenth place at Iowa in June.

It was her most successful ARCA main season ever, with six top-ten finishes. The best of these was a seventh at Kansas. 

A quieter year followed in 2023. She did three ARCA races for Bill Venturini's team, the best of these ending in sixth place at Daytona. She retired from the Talladega and Kansas races. She also made a guest appearance in the NASCAR Canada series. Her car overheated but she was classified in 17th place.

By contrast, she ran a full ARCA season in 2024, driving for Billy and Cathy Venturini. Her best finish was a sixth place at Kansas, one of seven top-tens she earned that year. She also did most of the ARCA East series in Cathy's car, but only finished once from five entries.

She did one West series race, and also made another guest appearance in NASCAR Canada, at Ohsweken. She did not finish due to brake problems.

Away from the driving seat, she has appeared on TV in the USA, most notably in the NASCAR Racing Wives reality series. Despite the title, she was shown as a driver rather than a partner.

(Image copyright Amber Balcaen)

Louise Smith

 

Louise after a crash at Occoneechee in 1949

Louise Smith was a successful NASCAR driver from its earliest days, who has become part of the legend of the series. 

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, 1916, she made her NASCAR debut at Daytona in 1949, although had driven in some local, informal races before that.

Her driving style was aggressive and she often crashed, endearing her to spectators. Her nickname was “The Good Ol’ Gal” and she became the subject of NASCAR legends; it has proved impossible to work out which stories about her are true. For example, she is supposed to have come third in her first race, but failed to stop at the chequered flag, because the team owner had told her only to stop in the event of a red flag. She may also have destroyed her husband’s car in a beach race during her first competition. Neither of these was the 1949 Daytona event, although some reports say that she did flip her car during that race, only to be helped by spectators and carry on. Some sources suggest that this happened in 1946.

Other rumours abounded about her background, with some claiming that she was a moonshine runner who could drive faster than all of the local police.

A newspaper report from May 1950 claims that she “became a driver only last winter”. Searches of newspaper archives bring up nothing from before 1949, so this could be the truth. Other reports suggest that she started racing a little earlier, perhaps in 1948. 

Evidence comes from before Daytona in 1949, she was recorded as entering a ladies-only race at Greenville Speedway with her “student” Barbara Peigler in two cars. Barbara had apparently been taught to drive by Louise and was having her first race. This does suggest that Louise had been driving for longer than a couple of months.

 She won 38 races during her seven-year career, taking in most of the NASCAR categories, including Grand Nationals (now the Sprint Cup). Most of her wins (28 of them) came in the Modified class. She did eleven Grand National races between 1949 and 1952, with a best finish of 16th at Langhorne in 1949. Langhorne was later described as her favourite track. This was one of three races she entered that year, normally competing against either Sara Christian or Ethel Flock Mobley as well as the male drivers of the time. Both of these women were also present at Greenville when Louise and Barbara raced there, along with Sara Christian’s sister, Mildred Williams. NASCAR’s founder, Bill France, was keen for the three women to race as it was good publicity for his fledgling series.

She never ran even close to a full Grand National season, with 1950 being her biggest campaign. She entered six rounds, qualifying for all except Darlington and finishing two. Both of these were 19th places, at Dayton and Hillsboro. Her second Daytona start ended in a first-lap crash. 

After not racing in 1951, she did three races in 1952, but did not finish any of them, two due to mechanical problems and one due to her falling ill early in the race itself at Morristown.

Among the other drivers she raced were Buckshot Morris, Lee Petty, Curtis Turner and Bob and Fonty Flock, Ethel Flock Mobley’s brothers.

As well as mixed events, she often raced against other women. In 1954, she travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee and took on local drivers Mildred Beets and Joyce Gunter, among others. At the time, she was described as “the 1953 Southeastern States women’s stock car champion.” She travelled widely during her career, racing in the northern and eastern states.

This part of her racing life is not particularly well-documented, as her novelty value had worn off somewhat by now and Bill France was no longer promoting her.

Her career ended very suddenly in 1956. She had just finished a race at Bronx, New York and was on her way to Daytona when her husband decided to “rededicate himself to the Lord” with the help of a local preacher. After speaking to her husband and the preacher, Louise decided to follow suit and pulled out of the Daytona event.

After a long period away from motorsport completely, she returned as a car owner in 1971, continuing for some years. She also oversaw the beauty contest attached to the Southern 500 race. The drivers who used her car included Ronnie Thomas in 1978, the year he won Rookie of the Year. While she was racing, she often ran a car for another driver at the same time.

She died of cancer in 2006, aged 89.

Marian (Mopsy) Pagan

Marian Pagan, often known as “Mopsy” was one of the first female drivers to try her hand in NASCAR. 

Residing in California, she was the first woman from outside NASCAR’s Southern heartlands to try her hand at one of its top-level events.

She only made one Cup start in 1954, finishing 18th out of 33 in the Oakland Grand National race in a Plymouth run by her husband Eddie. He also took part in the race. Some of her male rivals protested her entry, but responses from the media and the public were largely positive.

“Mopsy” had relatively little experience in motorsport, but she had been quite successful in horse-drawn buggy races and was a member of the Cheesecake Racing Association, a twelve-woman racing league that competed widely. Their main haunt was Culver City but they also made several appearances at Gardena, at least one of which featured Mopsy.

In a 1955 newspaper interview, Eddie Pagan claimed that Marian had got into motor racing through him and that she first competed in 1951 after seeing her first “powderpuff derby” ladies’ race. Further details of her pre-Oakland career have proved tricky to find; full results for powderpuff derby races were rarely published.

In 1957, she was one of nine women who competed in the Mobilgas Economy Run for the Ford team. This was not a race but a cross-country trial with the aim of covering the greatest distance on the least fuel. She was tenth in the “Low Price” class, driving a Ford Fairlane. This appears to be the last time she entered a large-scale motoring event.

Away from the track, Marian worked in the aircraft industry.

(Image copyright Oakland Tribune)

 

Robin MccCall

Robin McCall is the youngest female driver to have raced in NASCAR, aged eighteen in 1982. 

She had a brief Winston Cup career in 1982, entering four races and starting two, both at Michigan. She did not qualify for two races at Charlotte, the first of which she entered a couple of days after graduating from high school. Her car was a Buick, owned by Jim Stacy. She did not finish either Michigan race, due to an engine failure at about half-distance in the first race and a crash early on the second. This was the end of her time in NASCAR; she had signed a five-year deal with Jim Stacy Racing but was unable to find the necessary funds to keep her seat. 

Robin had been racing full-sized stock cars for less than two years when she made her Cup debut, although she had been a successful midget racer from the age of eight. Throughout the 1970s she won multiple titles in her home state of Texas and beyond, including a Grand National championship in 1979. She spent 1981 racing in the All Pro Super Series in a Pontiac Firebird. 

Away from the Winston Cup, she raced on short tracks and in Late Models, before switching to sportscars in 1984. She returned to the All Pro Super Series in 1983, driving a Chevrolet Camaro. Her schedule took in tracks as far apart as Pensacola, Florida and Cayuga, Ontario, where she was 21st in the Molson 300. 

That year, her first foray into sportscars was the Lime Rock round of the Kelly American Challenge. She shared a Pontiac Le Mans with Bill Johnson.

She was linked with a 1984 NASCAR drive for TG Sheppard’s team, which was considering offering her a backup driver role, but this did not happen. Robin became something of an irregular racer and made one-off appearances in various championships. In 1985, she competed in SCCA Sports Renault as well as the Kelly American Challenge, where she shared a Camaro with Scott Flatt and finished ninth at East Rutherford.

She raced in the IMSA championship and in the 1985 Daytona 24 Hours. Her car was a Corvette run by Southern Racing, but she and her two co-drivers, Gary Baker and Joe Ruttman, did not finish. They made it to the 21st hour but were well down, having needed a lengthy pitstop for a new rear end.

In November that year, she married racer and crew chief Wally Dallenbach Jr. She was 21 and he was 22. 

She did make another appearance in IMSA in 1987, driving an Oldsmobile Toronado for Irv Hoerr’s team. She was fourteenth, from 28th on the grid. 

Later, she was a member of the PPG Pace Car team that provided safety cars and precision driving displays at CART and Indycar events. 

Her daughter Kate was born in 1996. She raced Late Models between 2014 and 2016.

Deborah Renshaw

Deborah Renshaw raced in NASCAR in the 2000s. She was most successful in the Truck series but her career was overshadowed by controversy. 

She began racing in the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series in 2001, quickly becoming successful. Between then and 2002, she achieved thirteen top-ten finishes and became the first female driver to lead a race in the series. 

In 2002, she had two serious brushes with trouble. The first was when some of her opponents protested about her car at Fairgrounds Speedway, Nashville. The protesting team, which included driver Mark Day, had entered a car into the race with the intention of finishing behind her so the complaint could be lodged. Deborah was accused of being a “bad driver” when the question of sexism arose, and the protest also covered her team-mate Chevy White, a man. Deborah and her team were sanctioned for an engine irregularity, which apparently comprised a cylinder head that was 0.006 inches too wide. Day admitted to having been in a dispute with Deborah earlier in the season and had made various statements about the ability of women to race.

Later on, this would pale into insignificance. She entered the ARCA Series for six rounds, in a Ford, driving for Bob Schacht’s team. In September, at Charlotte, she was involved in a fatal accident during practice, in which Eric Martin died after being hit by Deborah’s car. He had crashed and was stranded in the middle of the track, although he was uninjured. Deborah came unsighted around the bend at high speed and collided with the driver’s side of the stricken car, killing Eric Martin instantly. Deborah was injured herself and needed surgery on her foot. She has always maintained that she cannot remember anything about the crash itself, other than sliding on fluid dumped by the stationary car. Investigations by ARCA led to recommendations that spotters be compulsory for qualifying as well as races; at the time of the accident, the team spotters were mostly not active. ARCA’s action indicates that spotter coverage was identified as the main cause of the accident, but Deborah came under attack from many sides, with some suggesting that she be tried for manslaughter and banned from racing again. She sat out the rest of the season.

Despite this, she made a small return in 2003, although she only finished one race. Her best result in the ARCA ReMax series the year before had been a seventh place at Nashville, one of three top-tens she picked up. On her return, she managed one 24th place at Daytona, despite having qualified tenth.

Prior to the October accident, she had had a deal with Rick Goodwin to race in the Busch Series in 2003, but these plans were shelved for reasons not made public. As well as losing her Busch drive, she had been dropped from a Dodge diversity programme, which had lost its main funding. 

In 2004, she moved over to the Camping World Truck Series after an ARCA drive with Braun Racing fell through, driving a Ford for Bob Keselowski’s team in the second half of the season. Her best finish was 15th, at Martinsville. 

She had another season in Trucks in 2005, managing a twelfth place at Dover, but her main sponsor, Easy Care Service Contracts, dropped out at the end of the year, leaving her without funding. She had run almost a full Truck season in Ray Montgomery’s Dodge.

In 2007, Deborah did some Late Model racing, and made a guest appearance in the Nashville ARCA race, in a Ford. She has not raced since and now pursues a retail business career under the name Deborah Renshaw-Parker.

(Image from http://bennysims.fanspace.com)

Diane Teel

Diane Teel  raced in the NASCAR Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series in 1982 and 1983 and was one of its most successful female drivers. 

In 1982, she scored her first top ten finish, an eighth place at Hampton in a Pontiac. This was one of four races she entered that year, with three of them leading to finishes. She was 26th at Martinsville and 15th at Richmond, but did not finish at South Boston, her last Nationwide race of the year.

She followed this up with a tenth place at Martinsville in 1983. Martinsville was her home track, and it was here that she made her Busch Series debut in 1984, the first woman to race in the series. Unfortunately, it was a one-off, and her Pontiac overheated fairly early. 

She had one more try at the Busch Series, as NASCAR’s second-tier championship had become known, in 1986. She finished one race at Hampton, in 21st place. 

She had begun racing in 1976, when her NASCAR crew chief husband Donald Teel and Langley Park promoter Joe Carver entered her into a local race as a publicity stunt to promote a local car parts business. She spun off near the end of the race, her car dumping water on the track. 

In 1977, she moved into the Limited Sportsman division and was on the pace very quickly. Her best finish was second, one of three podium finishes. Her first-ever race in her Chevrolet Chevelle stock car gave her an eighth place; she had run as high as fifth but spun on sand and water at the edge of the track going for fourth. At the end of the season, she was runner-up in the Langley Limited Sportsman rookie standings, with 16 top-ten finishes from 19 races, half of them top-fives.

As a competitive female driver, Diane gained considerable media attention. In July that year, she won a match race with Langley’s other regular woman driver, Bonnie West, who raced in a different division. Diane finished several laps in front and picked up a $100 prize. A series of profile interviews syndicated in local papers took pains to point out her commitment to her role as a wife and mother and disassociate her from any feminist activity.

She won the championship the following year and became the first woman to win an official NASCAR-sanctioned event in the process. Her first win was at Langley Park, the scene of her less-than-successful debut. As well as winning her local title, she took the next step up the NASCAR ladder to the Grand National series. Naturally, she found higher-level competition hard-going and was not always able to qualify. She was one of ten drivers who did not make the cut for the 1978 Dixie 500 and she did not start for the Martinsville Grand National race in 1979 either, finishing one place below the required eighth place in the qualification race. 

She continued to be a force to be reckoned with at Langley Speedway, winning races in its Limited Sportsman category in 1980 and 1981. In 1981, she tried again at Martinsville in a Late Model Sportsman car. Daily Press journalist Bob Mings was scathing about her efforts, pointing out that she was running 18th out of 19 cars when she had to stop near the end. Several of the paper’s readers wrote in to criticise his treatment of Diane, whose car had suffered a clutch problem requiring a lengthy pit stop and dropped her down the order.

By the time of her 1982 Nationwide debut, she had mostly silenced her doubters. Her name appears on entry lists, not in opinion columns. She and Donnie spoke directly to their local paper, the Virginia Daily Press, in 1983, explaining how the rising costs of competing at the next level, coupled by Nationwide races promised at local circuits which never happened, had affected her career. Later, in 1986, the Newport News reported that she had raised some funds for her racing through hosting a series of seafood suppers, which she cooked herself.

Following her retirement in 1986, she continued her work as a school bus driver, a career she had followed alongside her racing activities. A couple of months before her on-track debut, she had won her class in a School Bus Rodeo.

(Image copyright South Boston Speedway)

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)

Natalie Decker

Natalie Decker made history in 2018 by becoming the first woman driver to start the Daytona ARCA race from pole. She was fifth overall.

This was the start of her second season in ARCA with the Venturini team, who ran her in seven races in 2017, driving a Toyota. Her best finish was seventh, at Elkhart Lake, and she also finished in the top ten at Pocono, the race before.

She did almost the full ARCA championship in 2018, nine top-ten finishes from 20 races, including two fifths at Daytona and Elko. She only missed the Michigan round after undergoing surgery for a hernia.

Her first attempt at a major race was in 2016. She tried to qualify for a Camping World Trucks race at Martinsville in 2016, after being supported by the Alan Kulwicki driver development programme. She did not qualify. She was part of a three-woman Decker family team, with her older cousins Claire and Paige. The two sisters just managed to qualify.

She returned to the Trucks series in 2019, driving for David Gilliland. Her first race ended in a crash. By her third, at Las Vegas, she was into the top twenty for the first time with a thirteenth place.

At the end of 2018, she was announced as one of 60 drivers on the longlist for the women-only W Series Formula 3 championship, despite having no single-seater experience. She made the initial cut and went on to test an actual F3 car in Spain, although she was not selected for the races themselves..

It was back to Trucks for the 2019 season proper. 2019 was not a vintage year for Natalie or her N29 team; eight crashes dented her chances somewhat. Her best finish was a thirteenth place at Las Vegas.

She crashed out of her K&N Pro Series East guest appearance, but her first of two ARCA races gave her a sixth. This was at Daytona at the start of the year.

Daytona was her lucky track again in 2020. She entered the Gander Outdoors Truck series and qualified 30th for the first round at the Florida track, but she fought her way to fifth. Unfortunately, the rest of her thirteen-race season did not go to plan. Her next-best finish was a 20th place at the Daytona road course. Having admitted in 2019 that she was affected by juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, her illness kept her away from the track for part of the year and meant she was not racing at 100%.

2021 brought some new challenges. She moved up to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for five rounds, usually in Chris Our's Chevrolet. It was a difficult season and her best finish was in her last race at Martinsville, where she was 25th.

Away from stock cars, she had more success with Trans Am, which she had tried in 2020. She raced an Audi R8 LMS at Watkins Glen and Circuit of the Americas, picking up two second places and a fourth.

Her Trans Am career continued in 2022 with her debut win in the Audi. The Charlotte victory was her only outing in the series. Her stock car activities were limited, sometimes by illness, but she continued to appear in the Xfinity Series. Although she did not qualify at Daytona or Talladega and her car was taken over by Chad Finchum at Dover, she did qualify for three races. These were at Martinsville, Nashville and Atlanta, with the best of these being Atlanta, where she was 27th.

There was limited racing for her in 2023, but two of her events were more outings in the Xfinity Series. She was 34th at Charlotte, driving for Bobby Dotter's team, but did not finish at Daytona after crashing out fairlt early. She was driving for Emerling-Gase Motorsports this time. Dotter gave her another drive at Homestead, but she did not qualify. 

Emerling had already run her once at Daytona. She did the season-opening ARCA race and was fourteenth overall. 

Her 2024 season was a short one, consisting of two Xfinity races, at Daytona and Charlotte. She was 18th at Daytona and 29th at Charlotte. She had different sponsors and car owners each time. Part-way through the year, she announced her pregnancy and took a break from competition.

She was part of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme in 2015 and has competed in late models and local truck and stock car events since 2013.

(Image from http://speedsport.com)

Hailie Deegan

Hailie Deegan is the first female driver to win a race in the K&N Pro Series.

Hailie, born in 2001, only began racing seriously in 2017. She finished two CARS Super Late Model Tour events and was unspectacular, if reliable. Her career only really got started in 2018, when she signed up for a full season in the K&N Pro Series West, driving Bill McAnally’s Toyota. She was still only 16. In her early teens, she had been a successful off-road racer with junior titles to her name.

Her season began with a promising seventh place at Bakersfield, then it wasn’t long before the “firsts” began to stack up. She earned her first top-five finish two months later, coming in fourth at Orange Show and then fifth at Colorado. Her first pole position was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track; she finished second. However, her next race, at Meridian, yielded her first win, from fourth on the grid. Before the end of the season, she had racked up another pole at Bakersfield and two top-ten finishes.

As well as the Western Pro Series, she did some rounds of the Eastern championship. This was far less successful, beginning with a non-finish at Smyrna due to electrical problems and ending with crashes at Iowa and Gateway. In between, she managed a best finish of thirteenth at Memphis.

Away from championship races, she won a heat of the 2018 Star Nursery series at Las Vegas. A second attempt at the Star Nursery in February 2019 led to a fourth place, from pole.

2019 started with the first race of the Pro Series East championship, at New Smyrna. Again, Hailie had to retire her Toyota with electrical problems. Back in the West series at her favoured Vegas track, she earned another win after a last-lap dash to the front. She had started from eighth on the grid. She won again at Colorado, from fourth, and was second at Roseville from pole. In all, she scored six podiums during the season and was third in the championship.

Her part-season in the Pro Series West was not as stellar, often due to non-finishes. She started with a pole at Smyrna, but could only finish 16th after electrical problems. She was ninth at Bristol and Gateway, her best Western results of the year.

In 2020 she concentrated on the ARCA Menards Series, running in David Gilliland's Ford for the full season. It was a strong season with two second places at Daytona and Springfield, plus two further top-five finishes. The only time she was out of the top ten was when she did not finish, which was a fairly uncommon occurrence. She was third in the championship.

She also did her first race in the NASCAR Truck series in 2020. It was a single-race deal for the Kansas event and she was 16th overall, having started in 34th place.

The Truck series was her main on-track home in 2021 and she did all 22 rounds. Mostly, she ran in the mid-field and managed to stay out of trouble, although she did show some flashes of speed, especially in qualifying. The Gateway oval was her best circuit and she was a season's-best seventh there.

Another full season in Craftsman Trucks beckoned in 2022, with David Gilliland's team. It was another mid-ranking season, but she managed a career-best sixth at the Talladega Superspeedway. This was her second top-ten of the year after a tenth place at Mid-Ohio.

She also made her debut in the Xfinity Series at Las Vegas, in Bobby Dotter's car. She was thirteenth, from 35 finishers.

A full-time move back to Trucks followed. The 2023 season started badly with crashes at Daytona and Las Vegas, but she was twelfth at Atlanta from 32nd on the grid. Her first top ten was two races later, at Fort Worth, followed by thirteenth at Bristol from sixth on the grid. She had a mid-season slump, although she remained a consistant finisher, but did get back on the pace at Talladega, finsihing eighth. She was 19th in the championship.

Her season in 2024 comprised just over half of the Xfinity Series. It started badly with a crash at Daytona and she was not really on the pace all year, although she did manage a best finish of twelfth at Talladega. This was one of four top-twenty finishes that year, from thirteen races.

Late in 2024, she announced that she would be moving into single-seaters in 2025, racing in the Indy NXT championship for the HMD team.

Hallie’s on-track nickname is “Dirt Princess”. She returned to her dirt-track roots in 2021, racing a SxS vehicle in both the Nitro Rallycross and Camping World SRX Series. She was fourth and fifth in the two finals at the rallycross event, held at The Firm in North Carolina.

Her father is motocross racer Brian Deegan.

(Image from https://hometracks.nascar.com)

Gisela Ponce

Gisela Ponce is a Mexican driver who has raced in both NASCAR and touring cars, and now competes in truck racing.

She is from a racing family: her brother Javier is a racing driver, her father (also Javier) raced for many years, and her grandfather was the president of his regional motorsport association.

After several seasons of karting, she took her first steps in senior motorsport in 2009, when she was nineteen. Her first racing season was in the VW Stock 1600 championship, driving an original Beetle. Her first outing ended with a third place at her local track, Aguascalientes. She was fourth overall, and second in the rookie standings.

In 2010, she worked with the Volkswagen team and undertook training with them, then competed in a VW Golf in the regional Aguascalientes Copa RC Racing series. She finished second after a very strong season, and won at least one race.

In 2011, she formed her own family team, and contested the 1600cc Mexican Touring Car Championship. She was third in the final standings, having led for part of the season. This run in a national series was accompanied by more races in the Central Mexican touring car series. She was the champion in the VW Sedan class, and second in the Chevy 1600 class.

Her NASCAR adventures began in 2012, when she entered the Mexican Stock V6 NASCAR series for the first time, driving a Chevrolet for the OAM Ramirez team. Her best finish was fifth, at Mexico City, and she was in the top ten for nine of the twelve races. Her finishes gradually improved over the season; her best result was in the last round. She was seventh overall.

As well as NASCAR, she found time for some Mexican touring car races, in another Chevrolet. She scored one podium in the 1800cc Mexican Touring Car Championship, and was seventh overall.  

For 2013, she had a lighter schedule, with only a couple of guest slots in NASCAR. This would become a pattern in her career: a strong year followed by one where she was less active, due to a lack of sponsorship. She only got to her local Aguascalientes rounds, but earned a pair of fourth places.

It was back to business in 2014, with a few races in NASCAR, yielding a fifth and eighth place, at Aguascalientes again. She raced for her family team in the Super Touring 1 Light series, in which she was back on form, finishing fourth.

In 2015, she made a move into truck racing, in the Campeonato Tractocamiones Freightliner. She was fifth overall, having been in contention for a championship win until quite late in the year. This was in addition to a season in the Mexican Super Touring 3 series, where she was sixth, with one podium place. Her car may have been a Chevrolet.

Most of 2016 was spent truck racing, in a Freightliner. She did not do quite as well as in 2015, despite running a full season, but was still ninth overall. Late in the year, she made a guest appearance in the Mexican V6 Series, and was eighth at Mexico City.

A limited season in Trucks followed in 2017. She made guest appearances in the Mikels Trucks and Freightliner one-make series, scoring one seventh place in the latter. She did not finish her Mikels Trucks race at Monterrey.

She also participated in the 24 Hours of Mexico, an endurance race for saloon cars held at Amozoc Puebla. This was her second attempt at the race.

She did two races in Super Touring Light in 2020, but had to cut her season short as she was pregnant. She returned to the tracks in 2022, racing a BMW in the Copa TC2000 Mexico. She was seventh in the championship with a best finish of fourth at Mexico City.

In 2023, she did some endurance racing in a Honda Fit. She and her team-mates won the Endurance 2 category at Puebla. 

(Image from eaglentsracing.com)