AMA PRO RIDER - ELENA MYERS - MUScLES HER WAY INTO DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY RECORD BOOK

DAYTONA BEACH — Elena Myers made racing history Saturday when she became the first professional woman racer to win a major event at Daytona International Speedway.

Myers won the closely contested AMA Pro Motorcycle-SuperStore.com SuperSport race, which was staged prior to the 71st Daytona 200, won by Joey Pascarella
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“I was crying the whole cool-down lap,” she said. “I was crying and that was ridiculous. I’m such a girl. I can get away with it.”

The 18-year-old Myers stayed in the lead group, forging to the top of the chart on Lap 6 of the 10-lap sprint over Daytona’s 3.51-mile Long Course.

James Rispoli tugged the lead back on Lap 7.

On the final, white-flag lap, Myers found herself with the lead as she exited the chicane — a quick left turn that separates the 3,200-foot back straightaway from the Turn 3 banking.

She waited a few seconds for another rider to blow by her for the lead, but there were no takers. She charged through the gear box to reach maximum speed in the East Banking and charged to the finish line.

“Nobody got around me so I went to my next two gears and ended up pulling it off,” Myers said. “It was crazy that nobody got around me. I wasn’t expecting to win after leading down the front stretch.”
Myers’ mentor and bike owner John Ulrich said Rispoli had a problem with his bike, leaving Corey Alexander and Hayden Gillim fighting side-by-side for second place.

Alexander finished second, just a scant .240 seconds behind Myers.

Ulrich said a rider leading out of the chicane is generally a sitting duck for others to draft around for the victory.

“She led them out of the chicane, which is normally a recipe for disaster,” Ulrich said. “When nobody challenged her, she put her head down and made a run for it.

“She did a really good job. She did a great job of staying with the lead group and holding her ground.”
It was Myers’ second career SuperSport Series victory and had officials from the AMA and Speedway scrambling through the record books.

They determined Myers had just become the first female competitor to win a major professional racing event of any kind at Daytona, which opened in 1959.

Myers cried in her helmet because she had just won a major race. She didn’t think about the gender aspect of the victory until she was interviewed by the media.

“I didn’t think about the female part of it until I got to the media center and somebody asked me about it,” she said. “I was more excited to get another win, not just Daytona, but to get a win. If you can win at Daytona, that’s great.”

And, maybe most important, she earned a bit more respect from her male counterparts, who are known to throw elbows during these close-quarter events.

“I am just as capable of running up front and I hope they know that,” she said. “I’m sure they do but I don’t think they are ready to admit that yet.

“They throw elbows at me, but I was throwing elbows at them. I’m not scared to be aggressive. If they do it to me, I have the right to do it back.”

Myers hopes to make a championship run then return to compete in the 2013 Daytona 200. Ulrich says Myers only needs to build endurance to compete in the grueling, 57-lap race.

“I knew she was going to win again,” Ulrich said. “I didn’t know it was going to be at Daytona.”
Myers realizes she created history Saturday, but for her, it was a rider winning a race, that just happened to be at the “World Center of Racing.”

“Right now I see myself as another rider,” she said. “I guess I did something no other girl has done, so it’s a little different to people. Not in my eyes.”

Special thanks to GODWIN KELLY, MOTORSPORTS EDITOR for this story!
Follow Elena Myers racing career: http://elenamyers.com/

SLOAN HENDERSON TO DRIVE FOR KESELOWSKI AT DAYTONA

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – January 12, 2012) – Brian Keselowski Motorsports has announced that Sloan Henderson will drive the No. 29 Dodge in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

“This offseason has been anything but an offseason,” Keselowski said in a team press release. “We worked really hard to put things together and kick off this new venture. We really look forward to working with Sloan and will do everything in our efforts to help her launch her racing career in the right direction. I was very happy with her performance during our testing session and I am confident that she will put her best efforts into our team as well for a great outcome.”

Keselowski, owner and driver of the K-Automotive Motorsports No. 92 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, is now the proud owner of Brian Keselowski Motorsports (BKM), fielding race cars in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards (No. 29 and No. 92) and in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West (car numbers TBA) with new up-and-coming drivers, providing them their start into stock car racing.

K-Automotive Motorsports will continue to be the primary company for Keselowski’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series efforts in the future.

Said Henderson: “I’m truly blessed to have this opportunity to work with BKM and run in the ARCA Racing Series Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway. After a great test session with the team, I’m excited about the possibility and feel comfortable that we can do very well.”
Henderson, 19, is a freshman at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, near Dayton. To read more about her and Brian Keselowski Motorsports, click below to access the team’s full press release in the Team News section of ARCARacing.com at ARCA Nation.

The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on February 18 will open ARCA’s 60th Anniversary Season. SPEED and ARCARacing.com will carry live coverage from the historic 2.5-mile oval.

LEILANI MUNTER GETS IN GEAR TO TAKE ON DAYTONA!

Daytona Beach, Florida (Jan 3, 2012) Track Chic's Woman behind the Wheels, Leilani Münter, race car driver and passionate environmentalist, is bearing down on her goal of driving a “The Cove” themed race car at Daytona International Speedway, arguably one of the most famous race car tracks in the world.


The ARCA race at Daytona is February 18 and will air live on SPEED television, which is available in 79 million homes. This will be the first ever ocean awareness themed race car to race the high banks of Daytona. Münter is seeking corporate and philanthropic donations for the remaining funds required, which is $30,000. Leilani has already raised $15,000 in donations prior to this story. To make a tax deductible donation, please visit opsociety.org/securedonation.htm and be sure to write “For Daytona” in the notes.

The Academy-Award winning documentary “The Cove” exposes the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins in a small cove in Taiji, Japan. It also exposed the undeniable connection between dolphin parks and dolphin captivity, and the largest slaughter of dolphins in the world.  ”The Cove forever changed me. I know race fans will respond to it, they just need to know about it,” said Münter. “The race falls on my birthday, and my greatest wish is to end the slaughter and the ongoing abuse of these beautiful ocean creatures.”

This campaign in designed to educate and engage 75 million race fans in the United States. Director of “The Cove” Louie Psihoyos has committed to giving away 1000 DVDs of “The Cove” at the race, and in addition, will be in attendance for the race alongside dolphin activist Ric O’Barry autographing DVDs of the film. People donating $50 or more will be entered into a raffle to win two pit passes for the Daytona race and two other lucky fans will win two garage passes each. Münter will be wearing a helmet painted for “The Cove” during the race, which will then be auctioned off with all the proceeds going to Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project to continue the fight on the ground in Taiji. To donate to “The Cove’s” awareness campaign at Daytona,click here and be sure to write “For Daytona” in the notes.

Münter is a biology graduate turned race car driver and environmental activist who adopts an acre of rainforest for every race she runs and promotes only environmentally conscious companies on her race car. Since seeing the film, she has traveled three times to Taiji, Japan to document the slaughter first hand and has organized several screenings of the film. Most recently, she spearheaded a campaign to turn the lights of the Empire State Building red to raise awareness.

At Münter’s last race at Daytona, she was driving the first ever 100% eco sponsored race car, with six environmental companies coming together to get her car on the track. The race was watched by 2.4 million people live on SPEED television and 100,000 people were watching the race trackside. The media exposure she received included the front page of the sports section of the New York Times.

“The Cove” received 47 awards including the Audience Awards at Sundance Film Festival and the Oscar for best documentary film. New York Magazine described it as “Passionate, exciting, and frightening” and Cinematical called it “A stunning, shocking story. The film itself is an act of heroism.” Over 2.3 million people from 151 different countries have signed a petition asking for the slaughter to end. The grassroots movement to spread awareness has spread to social media, with over 500,000 fans of the movie on Facebook.

For more information on the cause visit thecovemovie.com, opsociety.org and dolphinproject.org and for more information on Leilani, visit carbonfreegirl.com.

To read Track Chic's Woman Behind the Wheels interview with Leilani, click here.