Episode 142: Avid NASCAR fan Kolby Garrison shares her perspective of racing with her vision challenges.
Podcast Description
The Women’s Motorsports Network, produces this podcast, Racing Girls Rock, which features females that have one thing in common; their passion for motorsports! Your host, Melinda Russell, shares the stories of women from all walks of life who find the resources to pursue their passion. She also publishes a digital magazine featuring stories about women in all walks of the motorsports life, IWMA Nation News Magazine.
Show Notes 8-24-2021 Kolby Garrison
Blind since birth, Kolby Garrison has not let her visual challenge stop her from enjoying her favorite things…NASCAR, hockey, and bluegrass music. She is a singer, using her voice in a band and sharing her love of NASCAR with anyone who will listen.
Her ability to understand what she calls a “complex sport” is due to her keen listening ability. Her appreciation for Sirius XM Radio that hosts the NASCAR channel, is undeniable at the top of her Gratitude List, as well as the head of Sirius Daniel Norwood, and all the radio announces for MRN and PRN. Her favorite memory from being at the tracks is meeting the MRN staff in their hauler during a rain delay.
Some of the things she enjoys about being at the race are the sounds of the cars and the air gun hitting the lug nuts. She can tell just by listening if they missed one or not…some team needs to hire her to monitor that! She can smell the gas, and the glue they use for the lug nuts. She feels the texture of the tires, and the shape of the trophy. And the entire race day atmosphere is one that is hard to describe, but she recalls it vividly from a day during a rain delay when she was in the garage.
Her wish list includes meeting TJ Majors, Brett Griffin, and Freddie Kraft, as well as Casey Boat from Door Bumper Clear podcast which is one of her favorites, as well as Dale Jr. Download. She called the spotters “the guide dogs” for the drivers and I loved that analogy! She has her 4th guide dog River, who will make her first trip to a NASCAR race at Martinsville this fall.
Another wish is to get to sing the National Anthem again (she did it in 2013) and to be on the Fan Council for NASCAR. And her biggest wish is to work for a NASCAR team, in PR, or marketing, by sharing how motorsports includes and welcomes people from all walks of life, with a variety of differences and challenges. I hope she gets this opportunity.
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