Episode 155: Judy Dominick Shares Her Amazing Career in Motorsports
Racing Girls Rock Podcast with Judy Dominick
December 4, 2021
Hello, everyone.
This is Melinda Russell with Racing Girls Rock podcast. And it's my honor today to have Judy Dominic as my guest. I met Judy two or maybe three years ago. Now time flies, doesn't it, Judy? I met her at PRI in Indianapolis, and I reached out to her to see if we could have her as a guest on the podcast, because I know she's been involved in motorsports, and I want her to tell us how she got involved. But first we're going to learn a little bit about Judy, so please tell us a little bit about yourself. Whatever you're comfortable sharing, where you live, your family, pets, whatever you're comfortable with. And then we'll go from there.
JUDY: I currently live in Winston Salem, North Carolina. But I was born in Colorado and lived on a cattle ranch out in Eastern Colorado when I grew up. Then I've lived all over the country ever since. Indianapolis, Kansas City. I can't even remember where else? New Mexico, whatever. And the reason truthfully, my grandfather was a rodeo rider, and my dad was a race car driver. And so I grew up in the boys locker room no matter what I did. And I decided that I liked cars better than bulls. Bulls think they're smart cars don't.
So I started being with my dad and his racing, and then it just evolved. I took a few stops along the way to be a banker and to be a lobbyist. Then I owned a motorcycle dealership, and the racing started for real at that point when I bought the motorcycle dealership.
MELINDA: You've had a lot of fun over the years then I can tell.
JUDY: Probably too much, but that's okay.
MELINDA: And you can never have too much fun, I don't think…that's important. So, Judy, you started a little bit of your story, how you got involved in motorsports. So you owned a motorcycle dealership. So how did that lead then to you getting involved. I know you've been very involved in motorsports for a number of years. How does that go from owning a motorcycle dealership to getting involved in motorsports?
JUDY: Well, my motorcycle dealership allowed me access to some various kinds of motorsports in Colorado, world racing, sidetrack, motocross. And then I had some friends who owned a midget and a sprint car that I sponsored. And then a friend of mine named John Harmsen owned Jolly Rancher Candy. And I grew up with the Vandermere family because my dad raced against Johnny Vandermere up Pikes Peak and in different what they called big cars then, which are now champ cars. Well, champ dirt cars. And John Harmsen called me one day and he said, I have a driver I want you to meet and see if you think I should sponsor him. And I said, Why me? And he said, because you have good instincts. And I said, okay, so I drove down to Jolly Rancher. I was in Boulder, my dealership was in Boulder and Jolly Rancher was in Westminster, Colorado, and I walked in John's office, and there sat John Force… John Force, 1983; John Force, who hadn't washed his hair or put on a clean T-shirt or owned a decent pair of tennis shoes.
From there, I ended up being John's very first PR person. I'm very glad that it worked out well for Jolly Rancher. He won the Mile High Nationals that year, and they went on to sponsor him on the Western Tour. And he won two out of the four because that's when they went from Denver to Seattle to Portland to Sonoma. And then Mr. Harmsen was so impressed with that, he said, Well, what else can we do? And I said, USAC Midgets needs a title sponsor. So Jolly Rancher Candy became the title sponsor of USAC Midgets and my friends from Fort Collins with their midget, we all wen