Aug. 15, 2025
Crash, Crown, and Cobalt: Delaney Dunns Wild Ride
Send us a text Delaney Dunn's racing journey is one of perseverance, breaking barriers, and finding strength in what makes her unique. Racing for 11 years since age 15, this 26-year-old driver from Otis, Maine has transformed from an uncertain rookie into the newly-crowned "Queen of the Oval" in the Ladies Acceleration Tour. The path to Victory Lane wasn't straightforward for Delaney. After eight years without a feature win, she finally broke through at Oxford Plains in a rental race car - a...
Delaney Dunn's racing journey is one of perseverance, breaking barriers, and finding strength in what makes her unique. Racing for 11 years since age 15, this 26-year-old driver from Otis, Maine has transformed from an uncertain rookie into the newly-crowned "Queen of the Oval" in the Ladies Acceleration Tour.
The path to Victory Lane wasn't straightforward for Delaney. After eight years without a feature win, she finally broke through at Oxford Plains in a rental race car - a moment she describes as feeling "like I won the Oxford 250." Her determination was tested further last year when she was involved in a viral crash with an ATV on track, an incident that could have ended her racing career. Instead, she bounced back stronger.
What many don't know about Delaney is that she races while being on the autism spectrum, receiving her diagnosis at 17 after she had already begun racing. Rather than viewing this as a limitation, Delaney considers her autism a "superpower" that enhances her racing abilities, giving her a sixth sense when it comes to car handling and translating sensory input into actionable feedback for her crew.
Now competing in a 2009 Chevy Cobalt in the Ladies Acceleration Tour's four-cylinder "hornet" division, Delaney races alongside women aged 16 to 56 at tracks throughout Maine and New Hampshire. She's achieved the remarkable feat of securing a top-three finish at every currently active racetrack in Maine, winning at three of the five venues.
With four races remaining and points standings incredibly tight, Delaney remains focused on consistent performance to potentially claim the overall championship. For aspiring racers, especially young women, her advice is simple: "Start early, earlier the better." Her story stands as powerful proof that with persistence, support, and self-belief, remarkable achievements are possible regardless of your starting point or the challenges you face.
Feel inspired by Delaney's story? Follow the Women's Motorsports Network for more profiles of extraordinary female racers breaking barriers and changing the motorsports landscape one lap at a time.
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00:00 - Introduction to Women's Motorsports Network
01:45 - Meeting Delaney Dunn
03:45 - The Ladies Acceleration Tour
08:18 - Life as a Female Racer
17:00 - Viral Crash and Comeback
26:53 - Queen of the Oval Championship
33:30 - Autism as a Racing Superpower
40:14 - Episode Conclusion
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Hello everyone, this is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, and my guest today is a friend I've had for quite a few years, delaney Dunn.
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We've known each other, gosh Delaney, five years maybe, maybe more Longer than I think it's longer than five years.
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I think so too.
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I think I met you in 2018.
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Oh, I think 2017.
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Maybe so.
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Yeah, so it's been a while and we've kept in touch and I follow you on social media and I see the ups and downs.
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You've had lots of things happen, in the last couple of years especially, but I wanted to have you on because you've accomplished something really big, which we'll talk about a little bit.
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But first I want you to share with my listeners a little bit about yourself.
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My name is Delaney Dunn, I'm 26 years old, from a tiny town called Otis, maine, and I've been behind the wheel of a race car for 11 years.
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Wow, can you believe that?
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11 years yeah 11 years, started at 15 years old.
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I'm 26 now.
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Gosh, it goes fast, doesn't it?
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Oh yeah, I saw an old photo from my very first race weekend and I'm like who is that kid?
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Yeah.
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And you've learned a lot.
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I know that for sure.
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So, Delaney, do you have any siblings?
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I have a younger sister who actually got through adoption, and then I have two brothers.
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Okay.
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Biological siblings Okay.
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And how about any pets?
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Do you have any dogs or cats?
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or turtles, two cats, gunner and Phoenix.
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Okay, all right, so I like the name Phoenix, I love Phoenix.
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In fact, I'm going to Phoenix on Tuesday to see my daughters and my grandkids.
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So, delaney, tell me your motorsport story.
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How did you get started?
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Who introduced you to it?
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Where did you start?
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And then bring me up to speed where you are today?
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Oh, I think real first introduction was when I was 12.
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My dad was racing a late model at the time and I had the opportunity to go into the pits one day and help them tinker on it.
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And then, a couple years later, after some urging of mom and dad, I finally got my very first race car when I was 15.
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Didn't win my very first feature till 2022 and just went on from there yeah, and you've had a lot, of, a lot of exciting kind of things happen in those years.
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So, um, what kind of car are you driving?
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uh, this year it's a 2009 Chevy Cobalt oh, okay yeah, that's cool, does it?
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does it race?
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pretty good uh, considering the results at west cassette, I think it goes pretty well I think so.
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I think so, for sure.
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So what's your favorite thing about being in motorsports?
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making new friends and seeing new places because, especially with now being part of a tour, we get to go all over and see new tracks and new scenery and meet new friends yeah, and then are you still racing locally around at the track, or you usually race uh, the touring series I'm with visits that track and living out here on a beautiful lake.
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It's nice having weeks off in between so you'll be able to enjoy it.
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Yeah, I don't blame you.
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You know I love the racing every week and as a fan then I can go every week.
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But honestly, and the local tracks do give some weekends off to certain classes, but overall they race pretty much every weekend and I honestly feel like that can kind of burn you out a little bit.
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Yeah, the last couple of years we did the every week thing and I'm like I'm getting burnt out.
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Let's do the touring deal.
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Yeah.
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Enjoying it.
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And you still get to race and be part of the community and, like you said, you get to travel and do all those things.
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But you also can have other things in your life.
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Yeah, it's a.
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It's a great balance right now.
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Yeah, I would think so for sure.
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So let's talk about that series that you're in.
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Tell me all about it.
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Oh, it was.
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I say last year was the very first year of it, it's called the ladies acceleration tour by betty nelson yeah who have interviewed and have chatted with.
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So go I have check out her episode yeah I actually was the very first winner for the ladies acceleration tour last year and I actually got two wins with them.
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So wow both at my home track well, so you had a little bit of an advantage a little bit.
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Yeah, in looking at the field, I actually have them.
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I think I have the most years under my belt out of all the other drivers really, and they're all ages, aren't they?
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Oh, from 16 to 56.
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yeah, yeah, I knew that.
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Um, she, she put together a great, a great little series that travels, and I shouldn't say little, a great series that travels because, um, it's all women, yep, and what.
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And so tell me about it, it's all women.
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What kind of cars is it?
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And where?
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Where do you go to race?
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uh, there's two divisions actually.
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There's the v8 class, which is like your camaros, your street stock kind of style cars, and then you have your four cylinders, the hornets which I race in that are like your shittyetty Cobalts.
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Your Acura Integras your four-cylinder front-wheel drive caged Enduro-style cars.
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Right, right.
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And then you live out east, so you travel in the east side of the country.
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Tell me what tracks you go to.
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We go to Spewy 95 in Herman, maine.
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We recently went all the way up to Caribou, maine, all the way up by the Canadian border, west Cassett Speedway, which is a little bit more coastal, unity Raceway, the rebuild, which is dirt, and then in a few weeks we're actually going to go to Riverside Speedway in Groveton, new Hampshire.
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Uh-huh.
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Yeah, I knew you were going to Riverside because I listened to a podcast called In the Pits.
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Yep.
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Are you familiar with it?
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A little bit.
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Okay, so it's all.
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It's guys in Maine and up in that area and they do a podcast and they talk about local racing west cassett and riverhead and white mountain and some of those others but they also talk nascar and stuff and so I don't know how I got introduced to them.
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But anyway, I listen to that pretty regularly and uh, and then betty had told me you were going to Riverhead, so that's pretty exciting.
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Yeah, it's a super fun track.
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It's tight and short, but it's fun.
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Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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And so how many races altogether does that series do?
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About six or eight.
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We had nine races originally scheduled, but we weren't able to get one rescheduled because of a rainout.
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So this season's eight races.
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Okay, eight races, so that's a nice number for the summer to race yeah, and with some kids in sports and stuff too, it actually works out very well yeah, for sure.
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So, um, what does the typical race weekend look like for you?
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Because now you're traveling, you're not going right there to your local track, so let's what's race day look like, or race weekend uh, race weekend actually starts on fridays.
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Um starts with unit going to unity raceway and helping my teammates on on at unity on friday nights on dirt and then usually we already have the car loaded.
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So when we went up to caribou we actually left at like seven in the morning because it's a four and a half hour haul all the way up there.
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Track opened out around noon time and we didn't hit tires, didn't hit the track till about three o'clock in the afternoon okay, all right.
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And what kind of track is that?
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Do you know?
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That's asphalt.
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Yeah, and is it a bigger track or a small one?
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About a third mile.
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The average size track in Maine is about a third mile.
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Okay, all right, and it's mostly asphalt, but I did hear you say there's a dirt track involved.
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Yeah, there's a Unity Raceway rebuild that got revived back in 2022 as a dirt track.
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It originally was pavement and I remember the pavement days of it, but I've only really got to drive on it when it was dirt.
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So what do you have to do to your car to run dirt instead of pavement?
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We're going to take the Lexan windshield out and put in a wire mesh screen and I think we're going to put some beefier tires on it, but we're going to run the same car we have all season.
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Okay, all right.
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Do you like dirt or asphalt better?
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I have more laps on pavement, but dirt's always fun.
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Yeah, it is fun.
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I like sliding sideways.
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It's so different.
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Oh, it is different.
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And you just can't explain.
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You know, like, if somebody's like I grew up around pavement really, or when I was really really started getting into motorsports when I live, it's mostly pavement really started getting into motorsports where I live, it's mostly pavement, and so um, but when I first started going to the races it was in Illinois and it was it was dirt tracks and so um, but I didn't really remember that much about those dirt tracks and how different it was until I got really more and more and more involved in in racing and, um, I didn't think I really cared for dirt, I don't know why, it was just in my head.
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But after I went to, um, oh, what's?
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It's called the I can't think what it's called sprint car week or something, and it they go to like super dirt car week, kind of like.
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Kokomo, indiana, is where I went to to see to watch it with some friends and after I went that night I was like I love watching dirt.
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Yeah, it's definitely unique.
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Unity actually yesterday had the Sprint Cars of New England there and they put on quite the show.
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I bet yeah, they're fun to watch, aren't they?
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Oh yeah.
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I wish I could drive one, but I'm also terrified of them.
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You know, I'm a little terrified.
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I would be a little terrified of them and only because I've seen so many flips and rolls and I'm kind of addicted to flow racing and some of those, because you know, I don't I meet so many people Delaney, just like you, but I can't go to your races every weekend.
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And so I can get on flow and I can be like, oh, they're racing at Riverhead this weekend, I'll be able to watch, or I can get on Dirt Vision, or I can get on um racing america or whatever they are, and so I've gotten to where, you know, in the summer everything's a rerun yeah so I sit with my computer and have that streaming on my computer, and then my husband has whatever on on the tv and so I can watch a movie and watch racing at the same time, which, which is kind of fun.
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Like.
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What.
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Which track do I want to watch today?
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Oh, and I and I, you know, if I go to one and and it's not real exciting or whatever, you can switch around.
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It's just, it's just amazing.
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It's just amazing what we can do.
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And you know, I know there's a lot of controversy over can do, and you know, I know there's a lot of controversy over the streaming and does it hurt the track and that, and, and honestly, you know it might hurt some tracks because people stay home if the weather's iffy, but for me it's such a blessing because I can watch people in california or texas or maine and there's no way I could go to all those races, and so for me it's wonderful, for sure.
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Oh, definitely.
00:14:32.076 --> 00:14:39.734
Yeah, so when you started racing as a girl in motorsports, did you have anybody that didn't treat you very well?
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Or did they just accept you as one of the drivers, or did they just accept you as?
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one of the drivers.
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I actually got quite a good group at the track that I raced at for the 10 of the 11 years that I raced.
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And what track was that?
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Speedway 95.
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Oh yeah, I have turned the most of my laps around that place, okay, and actually got most of my wins there as well.
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But start now.
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I was I was actually in the kids, actually started out in like the kids class, so they saw me as this little kid getting my start and then jumped up to the adult class and like there are some people that like butted heads with me and then they're like, yeah, she'll push back yeah once I kind of was able to stand up for myself.
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They kind of were like okay, we'll, we'll back off yeah, I think they have to test your limits and they want to, you know.
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Yeah, they want to see what they can get away with, because that, you know, that's part of racing in a lot of ways that you know, bumping into you and different things.
00:15:47.869 --> 00:15:50.456
Um, it's just the way it is.
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But once they find out that you'll bump back, then they go bother somebody else, maybe for sure.
00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:35.798
Yeah, so when you have a bad weekend at the track and I know you've had some of those, um, have you ever felt like, oh, I'm just uh, biggest thing last year was I had people actually like offer cars to me like within like a day, and I'm like I can't afford it right now, but I'll consider it yeah but it did get to a point last year where we were gonna almost sell everything and buyVs and just try something different.
00:16:36.479 --> 00:16:37.965
Yeah, yeah but.
00:16:38.466 --> 00:16:41.091
I had a good group of guys over the winter.
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Give me a phone call and I'm back behind the wheel again.
00:16:44.376 --> 00:16:50.397
Yeah, that's great, because you did have kind of an upsetting event last year.
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Do you want to talk about that, or would you rather not?
00:16:54.486 --> 00:16:55.529
We can chat about it.
00:16:55.671 --> 00:17:00.654
Okay, do you want to let some of the others know what you went through last year?
00:17:01.664 --> 00:17:11.730
Last year I went viral by having a collision on a racetrack with an ATV and not many people.
00:17:11.730 --> 00:17:16.693
They've heard of the accident but they haven't met the driver.
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Right.
00:17:18.144 --> 00:17:18.930
Because everybody was.
00:17:18.930 --> 00:17:21.244
He's actually doing pretty okay.
00:17:21.244 --> 00:17:23.973
I actually got to see him the other day actually at the racetrack.
00:17:23.973 --> 00:17:26.732
He's doing actually really well considering.
00:17:27.154 --> 00:17:27.655
Yeah.
00:17:28.445 --> 00:17:28.967
He's.
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I think we're both lucky on both ends of the deal.
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I'm lucky to be able to be back in a race car this year and he's lucky to not have any more injuries right.
00:17:39.336 --> 00:17:43.185
So how did an atv end up on the track when you were on the track?
00:17:44.048 --> 00:17:44.650
there was a.
00:17:44.650 --> 00:17:48.440
This was in the sport four division, which is my.
00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:53.328
I had a inaccurate tagger that looked like a little mini truck yeah, yeah.
00:17:53.328 --> 00:17:59.038
The caution happened on the backstretch and I was the very dead.
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Last car I got by the rack and then, right when I got by the rack was he was came out behind the wall and next thing I know four wheeler is on my hood.
00:18:12.066 --> 00:18:12.366
Yeah.
00:18:13.410 --> 00:18:18.405
Yeah, he didn't realize you were he didn't realize you were.
00:18:18.405 --> 00:18:19.248
He didn't realize you were still coming.
00:18:19.248 --> 00:18:19.890
Yeah, he didn't realize that was.
00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:24.086
I haven't gone around the corner yet and yeah this wrong place, wrong time right.
00:18:24.587 --> 00:18:34.998
Right, it did go viral, that's for sure, and you know those kind of things do and thank goodness everybody was, you know, has moved on and and is okay from that.
00:18:34.998 --> 00:18:41.513
But scary things happen and weird things happen at a track and that's one of the things that you know.
00:18:41.734 --> 00:19:18.817
After something like that, it can be discouraging and it can be upsetting to the point where it's like, okay, I don't know if I want to go back to the track, but you did yeah yeah the next race I got back in the car I believe was actually at wiscasset speedway in a borrowed car okay a buddy of mine was like hey, I'm going to be already there, do you want to drive it for the ladies tour race, and the car wasn't really up to ladies tour caliber, but I was able to pull off a top three finish yeah, yeah it was very encouraging to prove to myself that I could still do it.
00:19:19.138 --> 00:19:20.079
Right, right.
00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:24.569
It wasn't about how fast the car was going, it was about getting you back in the car.
00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:27.557
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah.
00:19:27.557 --> 00:19:37.451
So if a young gal or a mom came up to you and said Delaney, my daughter thinks she wants to race, would you encourage them to do that?
00:19:37.451 --> 00:19:38.294
And what would you say?
00:19:39.345 --> 00:19:42.214
Start in go-karts Start young.
00:19:42.214 --> 00:19:44.712
I feel like I got a late start.
00:19:44.712 --> 00:19:49.916
I feel like if I started younger, I probably would have been probably in the street stock by now.
00:19:50.317 --> 00:19:50.557
Yeah.
00:19:50.644 --> 00:19:52.943
But I'm loving my four-cylinder front-wheel drive racing.
00:19:52.943 --> 00:19:56.127
But I say start early, earlier the better.
00:19:56.127 --> 00:20:05.355
I see a lot of kids in these kids divisions actually like create amazing friendships with the other drivers and they're all they'll.
00:20:05.355 --> 00:20:10.455
They'll all go to their race, cars go racing and then, next thing you know, they're all playing football in the pits.
00:20:10.924 --> 00:20:12.529
Right, right.
00:20:12.770 --> 00:20:24.851
They'll make friends for a lifetime that's true, and you know I, I interview a lot of younger girls that are still in school or homeschooled or whatever, and, and you know I, I usually ask them what do your friends think about your racing?
00:20:24.851 --> 00:20:34.390
And a lot of them tell me that their friends don't understand and and don't don't get why they're at the racetrack on the weekends and not at the movies or whatever.
00:20:34.390 --> 00:20:46.397
You know and um, the and what I always tell them is you know, those friends are important, but the friends you're going to have for life are the ones at the racetrack definitely I've.
00:20:46.960 --> 00:21:32.326
There's one girl that I'm racing with right now in the ladies tour that it's been like eight years since I've raced against her and she's just now getting back into racing and I'm like I'm the only other driver that's raced with you in the past yeah, but it's kind of cool seeing people get back behind the wheel after so many years with this tour as well as the next generation joining as well yeah, because you know they see it, as it's not every weekend, it's not as expensive and all those things, and for a, for a woman and, you know, a mom or whatever, to a lot of them it doesn't take them away from the family every weekend, and so you know it's the perfect fit for some people.
00:21:32.667 --> 00:21:38.212
Some people want to be at the track every weekend and some people don't, but they still want to race and so that gives.
00:21:38.212 --> 00:21:40.258
That gives an option for sure.
00:21:40.258 --> 00:21:42.567
Um, who helps you with your car?
00:21:42.567 --> 00:21:43.048
Delaney?
00:21:43.810 --> 00:21:54.315
uh, two brothers, family racing um, horace proffered and von pierce gave me a phone call back in march actually, so so a little bit late.
00:21:54.315 --> 00:22:02.195
We kind of had a short notice to get a car together, but me and Horace we actually raced against each other.
00:22:02.195 --> 00:22:11.309
And then he's like you really need to get back behind the wheel, Lainey, and we have a deal made on this car and do you want to drive it?
00:22:11.309 --> 00:22:23.538
And then next thing we know we're standing in victory lane with that car and got crowned got crowned, so let's talk about that for a minute.
00:22:23.718 --> 00:22:24.700
Show us your crown.
00:22:24.700 --> 00:22:35.618
That's amazing and so, um, how did you win a crown instead of a trophy at a racetrack?
00:22:37.226 --> 00:22:43.898
We had what they called the Ladies Acceleration Tour Queen of the Oval Triple Crown Series.
00:22:43.898 --> 00:22:47.434
It started at Speed 195, my home track.
00:22:47.434 --> 00:22:53.972
I ended up winning the heat race but had some mechanical issues and finished fourth in the feature.
00:22:53.972 --> 00:23:25.914
And then our second trip to Spud Speedway was part of that, where I actually had an incident on the racetrack where I team-boned another car because she was broadside, nowhere to go, hit it, got hauled into the pits and then just played the handicap system and was able to accumulate enough points at the end of the day this past Saturday that I was able to win the championship yeah, so, so, so fun.
00:23:26.056 --> 00:23:37.779
when you you sent me those pictures and I was like, oh, I'm so happy for you because, like you said, I've interviewed Betty and I know enough about the tour to know that that's a big deal, that's so fun.
00:23:38.505 --> 00:23:43.354
And this is only year two, so who knows what can happen in year three or five?
00:23:43.776 --> 00:23:46.692
Exactly, but it's definitely fun.
00:23:46.692 --> 00:23:48.371
Where are you going to be in five years?
00:23:48.371 --> 00:23:50.431
Do you think this is something you want to keep doing?
00:23:50.431 --> 00:23:51.955
Is raising this tour?
00:23:53.507 --> 00:23:57.435
As long as there's the tour available, I'll run it.
00:23:57.435 --> 00:23:59.126
It's, it's fun I have.
00:23:59.126 --> 00:24:03.897
I have fun with these girls where we actually actually all joke with each other.
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