Aspiring young race car drivers learn at an accelerated pace at a school in Wimauma.
By JANET ZINK
Published June 27, 2003
[Times photos: Skip O'Rourke]
Brittney McKee, 12, drives a quarter-midget race car during a practice run in April at Ambassador Racing in Wimauma.
Brittney McKee, car 1, races against Wendy Bennett, car 2, and Andrew Robinson, car 3, at Ambassador Racing in Wimauma.
McKee speeds down the back straightaway during a race.
Brittney McKee, 12, puts on her fire-resistant racing suit before a race against other boys and girls in quarter-midget race cars.
Race director Kevin Gordon, right, goes over some last-minute details at a driver's meeting before a race.
WIMAUMA - It's that time of year when countless little girls slip into sequined costumes for their annual dance recitals.
Not Brittney McKee.
She prefers to pull on a racing suit and put the pedal to the metal.
Spinning out, she believes, is cooler than spinning on a dance floor.
"It's not scary," she said. "It's fun - unless you're a wimp."
McKee, 12, is no wimp. She is one of a handful of girls participating in the revved-up world of quarter-midget race car driving.
She comes by it naturally. Her grandparents, Debbie and Ray Garcia, own and operate Ambassador Racing School, and her uncle, J.R. Garcia, races late model cars on tracks at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa.
Ambassador Racing, located in Wimauma, opened in 1996 to provide kids who dream of becoming race car champions a positive place to get their start. For $50 an hour, the school teaches children as young as 41/2 how to safely race the cars.
McKee began training late last year.
Before developing an interest in cars, McKee rode horses. But the opportunity to speed around a track at up to 45 miles per hour prompted her to hang up her saddle.
"I like going fast," she said. "It's so much fun to get out there."
When she turns 16, she'll have to move on to go-carts or full-size cars; the Quarter Midget Racing Association only allows kids up to age 16 to race.
In the hours before her first race, McKee lay on top of a picnic table, waiting for her time on the track.
"I'm excited," she said in her bubbly voice. "I hope I do all right."
Later that March day, she placed fourth out of six in her division. So far, she's won two races. Once she wins three, she can graduate to the next level.
One spring Sunday at Ambassador Racing School, 14-year-old gas girl Caitlin Rodenbeck, whose duties consist of fueling the cars, concentrated during a pre-race drivers meeting. The back of her shirt read, "Yeah I beat you but I broke a NAIL."
Rodenbeck's brother, Paddy, races cars. Her father, Pat, acts as Paddy's crew chief and her mother, Anne, conducts safety inspections of all the cars in the races.
Such family involvement is typical.
"The whole family participates on race day," said Robert Daubach, president of the Tampa Bay Quarter Midget Racing Association. In his family, Dad acts as mechanic for 8-year-old driver Lance. Mom, Sandy, keeps score and registers drivers. Sister, Michelle, 6, cheers her big brother on.
The cars are essentially scaled-down race cars. Unlike go-carts, quarter-midgets feature four-wheel, independent suspension and full roll cages, said Roy Garcia. Drivers must wear fire suits, seat belts and shoulder harnesses. Power comes from a Honda GX-120 engine, he said.
The sport is not cheap.
The cars, without motors, cost from $1,500 for an older, used car to $4,800 for a new car.
The sport got its start in the 1930s in Los Angeles. Today, quarter-midget racing is now held virtually all over the United States and Canada.
Events are held at venues as large as Indianapolis Motor Speedway and as small as a neighbor's back yard. There are more than 60 permanent sanctioned quarter-midget tracks around the country, including three in Florida. In addition to Ambassador, drivers compete on tracks in New Smyrna Beach and Orlando.
More than 450 cars turned up for a national race in Orlando in January.
Ambassador's track, at one-ninth of a mile, is one of the two largest in the nation, said Robert Daubach, president of the local quarter-midget racing association. Most measure only one-twentieth of a mile.
Ambassador hosts races every other Sunday.
The 20 members of the Tampa Bay group come from as far away as Miami. Four of those members, including McKee, are girls.
Ambassador's largest events, the All-Florida races each March and November, draw about 50 cars. Families arrive early in the morning with their cars in tow, and often camp on the open fields around the race track for the entire weekend.
McKee dreams of becoming a NASCAR driver.
Winning NASCAR racers Tony Stewart and Bobby LaBonte started their careers with quarter-midgets. So did Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman.
It's possible that some of the young drivers at Ambassador will fill their fire suits.
Said Daubach: "It's a long way from here to NASCAR."
