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Racer urges students to follow their dreams
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Stock car driver Allie Owens
By Jordan Cohen
“I tell them you have to depend on what’s inside of you and then make it happen.”
Allie Owens
Stock car driver
The racer’s long-range goal is to qualify for the NASCAR circuit.
CHAMPION — Allie Owens just turned 20, but consider her a veteran stock car driver because she’s been racing since she was 12 — and that’s not a misprint.
“I started on dirt tracks at that age and nobody made a big deal of it even though I was beating guys who were 21 and older,” Owens said.
The Daytona, Fla., native spoke Thursday to students at the Trumbull Career & Technical Center and displayed one of her stock cars, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Her message, however, was not about racing; it was about life.
“I tell them you have to depend on what’s inside of you and then make it happen,” Owens said.
Owens is one of only two women competing in the Automobile Racing Club of America RE/MAX series and she was eager to talk about her obstacles as a female in a male-dominated profession. She said her presentation was especially relevant to her student audience.
“This was different because I was speaking to nontraditional students like women in the automotive classes or guys in cosmetology,” Owens said. “In some way, they can understand what I went through.”
“She is a motivated young woman who appeals to the kind of people we look for in our industry,” said Eric Davis, training director of IBEW Local 573 in Warren. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Electrical Contractors Union are among Owens’ sponsors.
Owens’ car is covered with sponsor logos, and she said her team needs all of them. “Our budget this year is in the mid- to high-six figures,” she said, declining to be more specific.
Owens said she has to stay in top physical shape, and next year’s contract will require it. She must work out at a gym six days a week and be evaluated by a trainer. Students voiced surprise when she told them that the temperature in the cockpit averages 140 degrees and she has a tube from a water tank to keep her hydrated.
“We consider ourselves athletes,” Owens said.
Owens said her long-range goal is to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and to develop a racing team composed of minorities and females. “Our sport needs more of both,” she said.
After her classroom presentations, Owens answered questions outside the garage from a group of all-male students.
No one asked about the challenges a young woman faces in stock car racing. Instead, the questions were on subjects such as the tires, the physics of the car and the engine.
Owens competes in the season’s final race Sunday at Toledo International Speedway.