Lauri Eberhart: How To Get Hired In Motorsports Without A Pit Pass

Welcome And Guest Setup

Melinda Russell 0:01

Okay, hold on a second. Okay. It may not record video. For some reason, it was showing only audio, so I'm not sure why. No, I think we're good. Okay. I'll cut all that out. Hello, everyone. This is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast. And my guest today is Lori Everhart. And Lori and I met recently in person, but I've known of her for a little while, but I want to have her on the show and share her life in motorsports because she's done a lot of interesting things and she has a great story. So I wanted to invite her on. So, Lori, welcome to the show. And would you first start by just sharing a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Sure, Melinda. First of all, thank you for um inviting me to come on the show. I'm always happy to talk about uh motorsports with anybody who's willing to listen. And so um I am uh my name is Lori Eberhart. I'm a native of uh Jackson, Michigan, and uh I grew up there. My first job in racing was at uh Michigan International Speedway, uh where I worked as a summertime, it was my summertime job in racing. Uh but now I uh I lived in I've been in Charlotte for 35 years. I'm currently back and forth between Michigan and Charlotte, North Carolina, but spent my professional career in Charlotte, North Carolina. I've got a wonderful husband and two grown boys uh who are out of the house. And uh uh I enjoy outside of motorsports, I enjoy cooking, gourmet cooking, I enjoy working out, I enjoy reading. Um, I am a self-professed uh history geek. I love uh anything that involves history that I could get into. And uh and those are my those are my personal attributes.

Melinda Russell 1:53

Well, you keep busy, I know, and especially with all those other interests besides motorsports. So I like a lot of the same things you do. I not the cooking though. I'm I'm kind of past I'm kind of past that. I had four children, and it seems like all I did was cook and do dishes, cook and do dishes. So so it's just my husband and I now and our dog, and and I don't I don't mind them not having to cook all the time. So there you go. But I love to read and I love motorsports. So we did find out when we took a road trip recently that we did have a lot in common, actually. So that was kind of fun. That was fun, yeah. So Lori, tell

First Track Jobs In Michigan

Melinda Russell 2:33

me. Um, you know, you spent 35 years in Charlotte and you've been back and forth. How did you how did you get that job first at Michigan International? Because you you don't normally just walk into a racetrack and ask for a job. So, how did you get started there? And then take me through your career and and where you've been all these years.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah, sure, Melinda. And yeah, that was a fun road trip that we had going up to uh Wimna Women in Motorsports North America event uh at Detroit at the Henry Ford. That was a fantastic event uh to see the video of um who was it? Was it Betty Skelton? Was it Betty Skelton that we saw? Yeah, that was that uh movie. Um, if any of your listeners are interested in that's uh series called Left Behind that's from produced by Fox um that talks about women that haven't weren't were left behind, that their stories weren't told. So Betty Skelton was one, Paula Murphy was one, Shirley Modowney's one, but it's a fashion fabulous uh documentary series, but and that was a fun trip. So I started working, my mother uh was the controller at Michigan International Speedway, and she worked her way up from the ticket office into being the controller of the Michigan International Speedway when Roger owned it. Uh, this is before he sold it to International Speedway Corporation, and uh they were looking for some summertime help to come uh work as the assistant to the public relations director, and I thought it would be a fun summertime job. So I went and uh got the job. They paid me a whole $5 an hour uh at the time. That was my very first job in motorsports, but I did like working race weekends because I made double time and sometimes I would make triple time. So I got a really that was the uh surprise to me as a young person in uh high school that I could work extra hours and I get could make decent money for that time period. So I started as the assistant relations uh assistant to the public relations director was a guy named Chris Browning, who was the public relations director at that time. He was from Greensboro, North Carolina, and they brought him up to Michigan to be the PR director. He then went on to run, he ran ran Darlington for a bit, he ran Rockingham for a bit. He's no longer with us. He passed away several years ago, uh, but he was a really interesting uh person to work for. So I started in my summertime job was helping the PR director, and I did the media credentials. So I on race weekends, everybody was getting credentials through the track credentials. I worked through the credential office, and I worked that job, Melinda was great because uh Michigan uh back in the day had two NASCAR races, one in June, one in August, and they had the IndyCar race in July. Uh, but it was a great summertime

College Racing Work At Nazareth

SPEAKER_02 5:10

job. So I worked through the summers uh through high school and then I came back and went to college at Allentown, Pennsylvania, which is in or in Allentown, Pennsylvania, small women's college named Cedarcrest College. Uh, but I would come home for the summers and I would work at the racetrack. Uh, what did happen was during the time I was in school and I was in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Roger Penske built a speedway. Um, it's the old Nazareth Speedway, it's no longer there, but it's in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He built that speedway in partnership with Mario Andretti and Jim Williams. And Jim Williams is uh made his money. He was a supplier to McDonald's. So he was uh involved with the group. But they built uh a one mile uh tri oval. It's kind of was kind of like a small Pocono that was in in um in uh Nazareth, Pennsylvania, called Nazareth Speedway. And they raced IndyCars there in September and they raced another race in April. I can't remember what it was, but it was when I was in school because I knew the organization, I had prior history. I went out there and I helped in the ticket office and I helped in the credentials, of course, and with the media and with PR. So I did that through college. Um, when I grabbed, and it was a history and a political science major from college, so no motorsports. I've got a minor in drama because I did a lot of plays. I was creative, I did a lot of plays in some musical theater. And when I was graduating from school, I was looking for a job, wanted to go into the motorsports industry. Most of the, you know, the NASCAR business was located in Charlotte. That's

Law School Path To Motorsports

SPEAKER_02 6:41

just where it is, that's where it grew up, and there's a big hub. And so I purposely went to the closest law school to Charlotte, North Carolina, which is Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. So I went to law school there. That's how I got to North Carolina. When I was, after my first year law school, I was looking for a summertime job. I reached back out to my motorsports connections and uh got an internship at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So I spent an internship in their events department working a little bit in PR as a summer internship, and I got to know the people there. And I just kept going back. Um, the second, my second year after law school, I worked for NASCAR properties at the time. It was run by an organization that was outside of NASCAR that did all the licensing from NASCAR. They were based in Atlanta. I was after my second year of law school, I interned and I worked for them doing trademarks and um, well, it was all trademark work and licensing work um with the NASCAR logos. So part of that. And then when I graduated from law school, I was looking for my job. I reached back out to my motorsports contacts. And um anyway, Roger Penske put a call into Humpy Wheeler at Charlotte Motor Speedway and said, hey, there's this young lady. We at the time Penske had a, they probably still have it, they have a they had a non-nepotism. You couldn't, if your parent worked there, they couldn't hire the progeny or the the the sons and daughters of anybody that worked there. So I couldn't go to work because my mom was still working for Penske, but put a call into Humpy Wheeler. I went and interviewed with him, didn't hear anything after that, and I was just kind of, you know, here graduated from law school and looking for a job. So I came back home to Michigan. But lo and behold, about a month later, they came and they offered a job in the uh, at first it was the events department, and I took it because I wanted to work in racing. So I was in the events department. I found out after a week I passed the bar exam. So now I'm a licensed lawyer, and then Humpy pulled me in the office and he said, Hey, we want you to be our corporate attorney. I said, That's great. I've got a law degree, I work in racing. So I started as the uh corporate counsel for Charlotte Motor Speedway, and I did that, became the general counsel of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Speedway Counsel And The IPO

SPEAKER_02 8:53

What happened after that was um Speedway Motorsports, which wasn't around, but um Humpy Wheeler and Bruton Smith, who we work for, wanted to take Charlotte Motor Speedway and Landon Motor Speedway public on the public markets to raise money. They wanted to raise money to build Texas Motor Speedway and went to the capital markets. So I was the only attorney on staff, so I got involved in the the deal. And the thing is, Melinda, I'm a history major with a history and political science major with a drama minor. I went to law, I didn't know anything about capital markets or stocks or bonds. I knew nothing about the all the capital markets and doing IPOs and all the capital raising, but I got my lesson really, really quickly. So I got on the team, I did the deals, we went public on the New York Stock Exchange. We're there when they rang the bell when we went public, and then I became the general counsel of the public company Speedway Motorsports. So that's kind of how I got in, you know, through that legal vein. That's how I got into that. But when I was the public, uh the vice, I was the general counsel of Speedway Motorsports, I was also the vice president of communication. So I took on the additional roles of investor communications. So uh investor communications are very highly regulated because you're a public company and you've got a lot of rules, securities rules and the SEC rules. The the the language is very, very regulated, what you can say and what you can't say, because it can affect the public market for your stock. So I was I was doing that, drafting our press releases, meeting with portfolio managers, telling people about the speedway business and what a good business it is. So I took on all those additional uh responsibilities. And I just grew with the company. We went from a private company with two speedways to a billion-dollar market cap company listed on the New York Stock Exchange that had eight speedways at the time. We bought Bristol Motor Speedway, we built Texas Motor Speedway, we bought Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we bought New Hampshire, bought a lot of uh the companies and grew the company to Speedway Motorsports. I was the in-house counsel that did a lot of all that transaction work. Of course, we had outside counsel. I had help, but it was a leader in pulling all of it together. So I did that for uh 12 years.

Running Speedway Operations Day To Day

SPEAKER_02 11:08

I was in the legal role at the Speedway at Speedway Motorsports. The last three years, I had an opportunity to step into an operational role. So my first duties were um I took over the ticket office and managed the ticket office, and then I was given responsible day-to-day responsibilities for all of the departments at the Speedway, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, except for corporate sales. And so I was the number two person for three years with Humpy Wheeler, ran the day-to-day operations of the speedway and had a ton of fun. It was a super fun job. I've always I've always worked in motorsports and I enjoy it. I enjoy the pace of it, I enjoy the creativity of it, I enjoy the um the it the creativity in doing things that people haven't seen before, putting on these live sporting events and creating passion and creating drama and creating stories. And I always liked being a part of it. Um, I left uh Speedway Motorsports and uh after I had been there for 15 years and there were some changes in management, it was time for me to go do something else. So I did I was then hired by International Speedway Corp to go be the vice president of marketing at Richmond International Raceway. So I was up in Richmond for a little bit for some personal reasons. I uh then took a position at uh the NASCAR Hall of Fame where I was the director of sales uh at there selling the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but staying involved in in motor sports. And I left there after a couple of years to go back to my roof and being a lawyer, joined up with an entertainment lawyer, uh business partner of mine.

Launching A Motorsports Law Firm

SPEAKER_02 12:40

We formed Apollo Sports and Entertainment Law Group, which was a uh boutique, sports entertainment law firm. My book of business happened to be motorsports because that's where my background, my connections, all my passions are. So at the law firm, I built out my practice of representing speedways, motorsports companies, drivers, um, companies getting involved in uh in motorsports, um, some Fortune 500 companies, some insurance companies, and built out to book a business in uh in motorsport. One of my long-term clients um at the law firm was a group called Friends of Laguna Seca. They were out in California and they were trying to win the management contract for uh for Laguna Seca Raceway.

Laguna Seca Management Contract Story

SPEAKER_02 13:25

So it started in 2016. There were a lot of, I pulled together the um RFP for the management contract, pulled together the business plan, worked with this group to form their company and bid on the management contract. They didn't win it in 2016 because of some political reasons. Um but eight years later, they did end up winning the management contract, and they called me and said, Hey, would you want to come run our speedway in California? I said, sure, that sounds like a great job. It sounds like a lot of fun. So I spent a year out in California helping them transition the business, did a capital raise, a $6 million capital raise to raise the money to start the management contract, but drafted the business plans, restructured uh the staffing that was there, hired some new people, made some changes, and it was out there for a year to complete that project. I've since uh come back to um again, I'm between Michigan and North Carolina, but I've I've launched my own law firm, uh Laura uh Eberhart Law, and I represent speedways. I'm focusing my practice on representing speedways in the motorsports industry, and uh I've solely built that back out uh to my practice, so that's what I'm doing now. So I I you know, Melinda, I it it's a lot. I got here because I started in motorsports, but I can't seem to get away from it. I think motorsports just grabs you and it takes you, and it just again, it's creative people and it's uh fast paced, and there's always something new and it's always changing. And so I really have a passion for motorsports. The thing that I understand from a legal perspective is I understand the motorsports risk. There are not a lot of lawyers out there. There's a lot of people get involved in uh when they build speedways, they're doing it because they made money. They're a they made money in a car dealership or they're a real estate developer, they made money someplace else. And then they say, Well, I'm gonna build a speedway, and their business lawyers like speedway, that sounds really dangerous. That sounds crazy. I don't know. And that the lawyers don't understand it. I I understand motorsports risks, I've lived it, I've breathed it, I've been through, you know, terrible things that happened, awful things that happened at the speedway, and they do happen, but I know how to protect the companies and how to structure the deals so that there's the best outcome when those unfortunate things happen. So I've enjoyed my career in motorsports and I enjoy meeting people like you, Melinda. We never would have met without our connection to motorsports, and now I have a new friend because of it.

Melinda Russell 15:52

You know, and and as I was listening, um, you loved history and you were at the motorsports hall of fame that kind of tied into the something you love. And and you're right, when you start getting involved in motorsports, whether it be a driver or any other position, and I'm hearing it over and over, it's the people and the relationships that keep you going back. It's not necessarily the cars going around the track, although that's fun and exciting too. But from what I'm hearing of your story, it's the people you met, the connections you made, and you went from one thing to the next, and you kept building on your career and and you had fun along the way. Who can say that about a job?

SPEAKER_02 16:36

I feel very, very lucky that I've never had a job just to have a job. I've always had a job because I've been passionate about it, because I loved it, because I like the people and I like the work that's

Internships Reputation And Long-Term Trust

SPEAKER_02 16:48

now. It's not to say you don't have bad days, it's not to say you don't have a problem that drives you nuts or you're dealing with something that's a hard thing to solve. But all in all, the fact patterns are so interesting and the people are so, and it is the connections. I will tell I a lot of young people call me. How do I get involved in motorsports? How do I get involved in sports law? What do I do? And I said, and this is what I tell them: I say, intern somewhere, even if you have to work for free, spend a summer interning and do a good job. Show up early, stay late, help people add value. Because when those people that you're working with, the next time they're looking to hire somebody, they're gonna remember, oh, do you remember Melinda and she interned for us and she was a real go-getter? Let's call her. That's how you get the job. Yeah, but those connections that you make in your initial internship, 30 years later, you're gonna still have those connections. Yeah, and those people are gonna remember. I have people today that are clients of mine that I met my very first year working in motorsports that were good friends that they call me because it's and it's that trust factor that you build over all those years. Uh the the trust and the reputation that you build that helps build up your business, but it is those relationships, and it's those good relationships that makes participating in motorsports so endearing to me.

Melinda Russell 18:09

Yeah, yeah. And you know, we say it gets in our blood, and you know, it really does get in your blood, and it's hard to walk away from it. Um, even when you see things that you know you wish could be different or you could change, overall, there's just something about the motorsports family that you just cannot walk away from because they sometimes mean more to you, I hate to say it, than your own family. Because maybe you spend a lot of time with them, or maybe, you know, especially if you're uh traveling with NASCAR every weekend you're with that group of people, and it and I just think it's hard to explain to people who've never been involved in motorsport what it's like because there's not a lot of other businesses, and it is a business, there's not a lot of other businesses that have the community that motorsports does.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Right. I also think it's the intensity of the competition, right? It's I mean, there's other sports that are competitive, but race, everybody's trying to go fast, and everybody's trying to that that intensity and that connection and those relationships are built kind of in the heat of the crucible, right? In the heat of that competition, and I think that that that adds to the intensity of the connection, I believe.

Melinda Russell 19:29

Yeah, I do too.

Why Wimna Began On Indy Pit Road

Melinda Russell 19:30

So now I know you've also taken on a role, I believe, with Wimna. So do you want to explain a little bit about what Wimna is and and what you're doing with that?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Absolutely. So Wimna is a group, it's called Women in Motorsports North America. Wimna, Women in Motorsports North America, and it was founded in uh two two uh 2022. It was founded by two um people that you meant, Lynn St. James, who is uh she doesn't need any introduction. We know who Lynn St. James is, and Beth Peretta. Beth Peretta, for your audience who doesn't know, was the um owner of the all female forward team in uh uh 2022 that competed and qualified in the Indy 500. And the I want to tell I would if you if I can tell you because I think it's so compelling for your viewers, uh, the origin story of Wimna. Uh Lynn St. James, who's been around motorsports for a long time, she was walking uh down Pit Road at the start of the Indianapolis 500 in that year 20 2022, and she's walking down Pit Road and she said all of a sudden she came up to the pit and it was all women. And she was she said she didn't know how alone she felt on Pit Road until that instant when she wasn't alone anymore. And she Beth came up and they they didn't know each other, they introduced each other, and Lynn said they both had tears, she had tears in her eyes, and she gave Beth a big hug and she said, I'm so glad you're here. And Beth looked at Lynn and said, I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this for all of us. She put the team together for all of us, meaning all of us women who want to be in motorsport, who have felt alone or not welcome or not included in motorsports it's a male-dominated sport. It is, you can't call it anything else. It's better than it has been, but it's still a male-dominated sport. So they got together and they decided to create a group, Women in Motorsports, North America. I was invited to be on the founding committee when the organization was um being put together. Um, and I did the legal work for the formation of the organization and getting the 50123 certificate and setting up all those things. But I was very passionate about it because I thought, hey, if If this group had been around in my career when I was coming up, I could have avoided some of the hardships that happened or some of the bumps in the road, just having a mentor or a mentee or somebody else that I could talk to to say, hey, I'm kind of struggling with this. What would you do? Or how would you handle this? Um, because we've all we've all had those things happen to us. Um, we don't let it dimmer our ambition or dimmer what we try to do. But Wimna was formed to provide an organization that all women are included, all women are invited, and it's not just women, it's it it consists of men too. We have some very um high uh rank John Dunan is an ally. We Tony Kagan is an ally. We've got a lot of male allies that are supporting uh what we're doing.

Melinda Russell 22:51

Um you were frozen. I can, it's kinda coming and going.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

Okay. Hold on a second, let me turn off. I have all these devices here, let me turn off. I should have done it before I started. That's okay.

Melinda Russell 23:57

Does it matter? Yeah, that's better. It was fine until just all of a sudden, boom. Are you there? It's froze up again.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Are you there?

Melinda Russell 24:18

I am, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

It's froze up again. Hold on to the second.

Melinda Russell 24:21

No, now you're now you're now you're back with me. Okay. Yeah, I know you live it kind of in the country, so I get it. Sometimes it's just how it is. Yeah, sometimes it's just how it is. Yeah. So let's back up and start. I can't remember what you were talking about, but it was after you talked about Lynn St. James. So let's go back after she and Beth met and you did the legal work and then maybe kind of pick it up from there. Can you do that?

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yeah, sure. I can start up from here. I can start up from uh, you know, so we started Wimna back in 2022.

Wimna Programs Careers Mentoring And Membership

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Um, I was part of the founding committee uh that was invited to uh participate in creating this organization. We created it, and the whole uh goal is to make sure that women are supported. We are advancing women that are in motorsports, we're connecting women in motorsports, and we're enabling women in motorsports. So whether that's through providing meet meetings, groups for people to get together to connect, to providing an educational summit that's in December of every year at PRI that has professional development opportunities for women and also some networking opportunities so people can meet. We're also um launching um a Wim A Nation, which is our membership program. So joining the membership and availing yourself to the benefits, which is the events, discounts to events, um, special communications initiatives with our newsletter, um, knowing what's going on across the nation. We have a uh program that's called Electrify Your Career. Um, Bosch is a big sponsor of that, but it's taking college-age women and bringing them to the racetrack and the speedways and showing them and educating them on careers because it's not just drivers, Melinda. It's not just um, but there's engineers, there's PR people, there's hospitality workers, there's lawyers, there's accountants, there's marketing folks, there's salespeople. You pick a you pick a discipline, you can do it in motorsports. Right. Uh there's operations, there's security, there's um race control, there's all kinds of jobs that are available for women if women know about it and they can uh apply to them. So we bring college-age women to the racetrack and we counsel them on the community uh the jobs that are available. So we're connecting and enabling uh and advancing them in those ways. Um, we also have um we're going, we're just about to announce um, it's called Wimna Career Connect, which is an online job fair. So if you're um a member of Wimna, you can go onto an online portal and there are um the the there's Legacy Motorsports, there's Spire Motorsports, there's Bosch, there's NASCAR, IMSA, uh that are um Penske Group that are employers that will be in this online virtual job fair trying to hire people looking for talent and hiring. So that's another place that we connect and enable. Um we're starting um a very small pilot um membership uh program. We've tried to launch memberships since day one, but it hasn't, we haven't found the right uh secret sauce to having a good membership program. So tomorrow we're actually having a partnership, we're having an event at the Formula SAE. Their electronic competition is happening at Michigan International Speedway. I'll be out there tomorrow with some other mentors, and we're doing a uh mentoring networking exercise where we'll try to connect some of the young college students with mentors from Wimna. So we can give one-on-one mentoring uh back to students right where they are in their positions and help them uh plan their careers and help them along their way and establish the connection. So I think with those things, providing the events, providing the job fare, providing the mentoring, we can really, really make a difference in women being able to not just get into motorsports, but in that advance. And then once they advance to help others come up the ladder and to change our sport. And the whole goal of Wimna the go through all this exercise is to grow motorsports. We grow our fan base by getting women involved, we grow our talent pool on the employer side, we make motorsports better by getting more women involved and by growing our audience, and that's the real win I see all around.

Wimna Summit Growth And Presidency

Melinda Russell 29:04

Yeah, absolutely. Um, let's go back to a couple of things. One, the event that happens in December. Um, it's not a it's not a small event, it's grown. I was at the first one in Nashville. 120, 125 women or so were there. A few men, a few men. We let a few men in the door, yeah. And then uh the next year it doubled. It was like 250. And uh I didn't make it this last year because of some surgery, but the year before that there were almost 700. And every year it grows and grows, and it's the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, right before PRI, which couldn't be a better time to have it, a great location to have it. Um, and the speakers, and I know you were one, the speakers, the leaders, uh Cindy Sisson that's in charge of so many things about that event. That is probably one of, if not the best event that I've attended in my years, and I've been to a lot of conventions, summits, conferences, etc., because everybody wants to meet everybody, everybody wants to know your story. How can I help you? What can I do? And and the next year, when you go back, you might not have seen those people, and yet you still, you're friends, you feel like it's a family reunion, too. And and the education and this and the you know, the uh seminars that they put on, Lori, they're amazing, and so we have to get those just get the word out to more and more women. I try to share it quite a bit. That is a starting point if you're not sure where to start. That would be someplace I would go because you can be surrounded by people who can listen, help, encourage, and kind of point you in the right direction. And then also I want you to share uh what position do you have with Wimna now?

SPEAKER_02 31:13

That's funny. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. So I will say it to be I've been I'm the new president of Wimna. Lynn St. James was our first president and uh Beth pres was our vice president. Lynn rolled off, and I I've got really big shoes to fill because I rolled in for Lynn and I've got a three-year term 2026 through 2029. So I'm the new national president of Wimna National. So um I want to take good care of it for Lynn and I want to grow it and make sure it's in a better place when I'm finished. So thank you for letting me say that. And you're right, the summit is if somebody's interested in getting involved in Wimna, they don't know where to start. The summit is a place, it is perfectly placed right before the PRI show opens on Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Indianapolis, which is a center of motorsports. We try very, very hard. And Cindy, who's our executive director, she is the executive director of Winna, so she executes all of the board's visions, has really been um uh a focus on providing meaningful content. Um if people are going to spend their money, if people are going to travel and they're gonna spend their time, I want to make sure that they get something out of it from the content, from the connections, um, that it's very it's worth their while and it advances their own careers. So we're very diligent in making sure that the content is meaningful, it can help people, and then also providing that networking time. Networking time is so important. Um, the thing about PRI and why I think it's such a great networking time, because there's not a race. If you try to meet somebody at the racetrack, everybody's focused on going fast. Everybody's focused on the team, they're focused on going fast, and they're not focused on these other development ideas. So going to PRI is the perfect place to get somebody's attention where they can focus without having to worry about going fast. And I do think it's a great entry point. Um, and thank you for for saying that because it's it's a good entry point for people.

Melinda Russell 33:11

Yeah, and you know, every year, like I said, it just gets better and better. And and again, it's not just drivers, there's track owners, there's every kind of occupation in motorsports that you can imagine. There's um there's people who don't work in motorsports, but just are women who love motorsports. Maybe their daughter races, maybe their husband, however, they're connected, they love motorsports. And you walk away from those three days so um energized and so like proud that you're part of that group because, like you said, we're trying to get more women into the sport. Um, and it's hard when we're all over the United States, but when you have wimna and you can go to their website, wimn a dot is it.com or dot org? I can't remember. Actually, it's not, it's women in motorsportsna.com. Okay, okay. Women in motorsportsna.com. So go go in there, go on there if you haven't seen about it, and sign up to get the emails, come to the conferences, join your local group because now we have local groups. We have one in Detroit for you and I that live in Michigan. There's several local groups. You can become a part of those local groups, meet other women who are in your region, I guess you could say, and be a part of something that is so exciting, and it's really, really growing the sport. And I'm just tickled that I even know all of you and get to go to it because I go home from it and I feel more energized for the new year and what I'm going to be doing. And I think that's how everybody feels.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Yeah, and I think I think that's just great. And I will throw out there the whimna. We do have five. We have a Wimna National, and then we have five individual chapters: Detroit's one, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Southern California, and Monterey, California. Oh, and six Elkart Lake, Wisconsin. We've got Elkart Lake, Wisconsin. So they're natural where you think um hubs would be uh in those, and they each have their different, you know, the Detroit market is very OEM. Uh it's very OEM-based and manufacture-based. Charlotte and Indianapolis are the speedways and the teams, and then Southern California's got its own California coal card car culture, and then you've got Monterey, which is the historics and Pebble Beach and all that. So it makes sense with our car culture, but there's an easy entry point, and I like those regional chapters because you and I never would have met outside of it, and also it gets you um have some people that are close to you in your

Show Up Make Friends And Wrap

SPEAKER_02 35:56

network.

Melinda Russell 35:56

Yeah, absolutely. Wow, we could talk for hours. I think so. What we we already know that because we went on a road trip and we we talked, we did talk for hours. What am I thinking? So, Lori, what have we not shared though so far? I don't want to leave, I don't want to forget something. What have we not shared that maybe someone who doesn't know anything about either Wimna or Women's Motorsports Network or how they how they get involved? What do we need to share that we haven't talked about?

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Um, if it that what I would share uh is other than I would say check out the Wimna website, take a look at that, find out where your local plug-in, your local track, your local um something close to you where you can plug in, you can get involved. Um, people can always reach out to me. My emails on the Women in Motorsports North America uh website. I'm listed up there. People can find my contact information, they can always reach out to me individually. Um I I I think staying involved, not getting discouraged, and and finding that uh the connection where you can plug in and provide some value um makes makes a lot of sense.

Melinda Russell 37:11

Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, we we actually uh it was funny, and I'm gonna tell this little story. Uh I belonged in the Michigan Speedway Promoters Association, as does Lori. And we went to the I went to the meeting in uh whatever month it was, January, February, I can't remember. Anyway, we went to the meeting and I walked in and there was a a woman sitting in a chair and a and an empty chair and a man, and so I sat down and it was Lori. And when she gave me her business card, the name rang a bell. And I'm like, oh, I think I know of you. I don't think we've ever met. And so we had a lovely conversation that day. I live in Kalamazoo, she lives near Jackson, and so we connected and went to an event, and luckily she drove because my back does not allow me to drive long distances yet, even still. And that's how we met, and and that's just one connection that she and I had. Think of the connections that we make through motorsports by accident, by going to an event, by going to the racetrack with a friend that you've never been to before. There's so many ways, and and back to Lori's story. How did she get to where she is today? She's smart, she works hard, she interned, she built relationships, she made connections, and then and you can just watch her path as she uh you know grew and had children and did all those things, and and that's how it works. That's how it works the best. That's what I hear from so many women that I interview, that it's about the people, and so uh Lori, I'm so glad that we had a chance to meet and do a road trip. And I'm I'm sure we're gonna do another one at some point if you're still willing to drive. And um, you know, you make lifelong friends, don't you, Lori?

SPEAKER_02 39:18

Yep, you make lifelong friends and those lifelong connections. And and I was I have over have people that I've known for over 30 years in the motorsports, and it is it's making those connections, seeing opportunities, finding out where those opportunities are, but a lot of it, Melinda, is just showing up, just going to you talk about that Michigan Speedway Promoters Association. A friend told me, and I said I didn't know anybody. I thought, sure, let me go, let me go see what's there. And I made a new friend, and there were some people there that I knew, but it's always it's going. You don't it won't find you in your home on your computer, but you have to go out and find it, but it'll be there, and people will you'll start making those connections.

Melinda Russell 40:02

You know, it's funny because I remember one of the first times I heard Lynn St. James speak, one of the things she said, and I'm pretty sure it was in Nashville. One of the things she said is that when there's an event, men just show up, women need to be invited. And if you wait for somebody to invite you, you're gonna be home a long time. So you just need to show up. Yep, just show up.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Yeah, yeah, yep. And that's what we're trying to do at Wimna is invite women and make sure that they feel included because and she says that a lot. She's and that's right, you think about male behavior, they just go in the room, they don't care. I wasn't invited, I don't care. I'm gonna go anyway. Um, we we wait, but part of it is showing up, and then also we're trying at the Wimna Wimna Nation trying to provide that invitation for all women to come out and play.

Melinda Russell 40:53

Yeah, absolutely. So, Lori, I'm so glad we had a chance to talk again. It's not as much fun on here as it was in the car together and going to the event, but we'll do that again. And I'm so excited that you're the president, and I know that you're gonna take very good care of wimna and that we're gonna see it grow over the next three years. And I just encourage everybody to go to the website women in motorsportsna.com and check it out, sign up, become a member, and support, you know, the organization, and then be a participant. If there's something you can go to, it's gonna be to your benefit to do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Yeah, thank you, Melinda. I've enjoyed our time together, and I'm just gonna start planning our next road trip.

Melinda Russell 41:43

Okay, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Thank you, Lori. Thank you.