All Female Pit Crew

[HOUSTONLM04]

From Jayski -- http://jayski.thatsracin.com/cts/ctsnews.htm

 

Seven Dallas-area women will make history at Texas Motor Speedway by competing against men in the pits of a NASCAR race. An all-female pit crew will work with driver Shawna Robinson in the O'Reilly 400. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races at TMS on June 6. It will be the first time an all-female pit crew has gone over the wall in a major NASCAR event. Aaron's Sales and Leasing has agreed to sponsor the truck that is owned by Team Texas president Mike Starr. Team Texas is one of the driving schools at TMS, and TMS officials are behind the plan to debut the all-female team. "This idea came up a long time ago," TMS general manager Eddie Gossage said. "Then we saw all the attention Annika was getting about playing at Colonial, so we wanted to make this happen, but we didn't want this just to be a token female team. We wanted the women to be able to work a competitive pit stop in the same time frame the guys do it." A formal announcement was planned for May 16 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. Mark Stafford, TMS director of sales, and Kenton Nelson, TMS assistant GM, came up with the idea of an all-female pit crew. An agency was hired to find potential candidates. "They began going to fitness clubs in the area and talking to women who were interested," Gossage said. "They wanted women who were physically fit and also women who were competitive."

Of the 20 women initially selected, only two walked away when told how demanding pit work is and that they should expect to hear whistles and catcalls from spectators. The seven women chosen have been practicing pit stops the last few weeks. An all-female pit crew competed in a few Automobile Racing Club of America events several years ago, but it never has happened in NASCAR. Each of the women has to pay a licensing fee to NASCAR to be certified to work in the pits. Starr hopes the women can perform a 16-second pit stop, which would be a couple of seconds slower than those by the top Winston Cup teams. "The jack is the toughest job for them," Gossage said. "I'm a big guy, but I can put all my weight on that thing and hardly move it. You have to be really strong. One of the women is doing a good job with it." Gossage admits all seven of the women are attractive and in their 20s. The women will be flown to Charlotte for the official announcement in May.

They also will make appearances, with show cars, in Dallas-Fort Worth in the weeks before the race. TMS and Aaron's plan to make T-shirts and posters with Robinson and the pit crew.

The women plan to practice at TMS at least twice a week for several hours each day over the next six weeks. They met Robinson for the first time Monday when she came to Fort Worth to test in the truck. "Shawna was skeptical about this idea until she met the women we selected and talked to them," Gossage said. "Then she went out and ran a lap that would have put her on the front row here last year." Robinson and her crew will have a Chevrolet truck that is capable of running up front in the race. Irving's David Starr, the nephew of the truck owner, drove the truck to a third-place finish at TMS in 2001. Robinson, 38, raced in Winston Cup last season and is one of the respected women in auto racing. Last year she was the first woman to race in the Daytona 500 since Janet Guthrie in 1980.

The seven women who will work as the pit crew for driver Shawna Robinson in the O'Reilly 400 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6:

Ann Pratt (Fort Worth)— BA in finance, body fitness competitor

Sue Webb (Carrollton)— Fitness trainer, married mom

Gina Tomaseski (Prosper) — Model, fitness spokeswoman, married mom

Shanda Bronston (Garland) — Talent agency owner, competitive runner

Geri Parris (Plano) — Student at Collin County CC

Alaenda Grable (Dallas) — Student at North Texas

Gail Stracener (Plano) — Fitness trainer

(Dallas Morning News)(4-24-2003)