June 30, 2025
The Middle Child Who Chose Ground Over Air with Charlotte Traynor
Send us a text What happens when you're born into a family of aviators but feel drawn to conquer the ground instead? For 18-year-old Charlotte Traynor, the answer came through motorsports, sparked simply by watching in-car camera footage on television that ignited something within her. Charlotte takes us through her unconventional journey into racing, beginning at age 13 with no family connections to the sport. From indoor karting centers to professional go-karts and now competing in the Maz...
What happens when you're born into a family of aviators but feel drawn to conquer the ground instead? For 18-year-old Charlotte Traynor, the answer came through motorsports, sparked simply by watching in-car camera footage on television that ignited something within her.
Charlotte takes us through her unconventional journey into racing, beginning at age 13 with no family connections to the sport. From indoor karting centers to professional go-karts and now competing in the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series, her path illustrates the complex landscape young drivers must navigate to build a career in motorsports. The financial realities led her to Mazda's development ladder—a relatively affordable pathway that still offers substantial opportunities, including a $100,000 Rookie of the Year prize and significant payouts for female competitors.
Beyond the technical aspects of driving, Charlotte reveals how racing transformed her from a shy teenager into someone comfortable initiating conversations and representing herself professionally. Her mental approach to the sport—maintaining "short-term memory" after setbacks and always keeping her "eyes up"—provides wisdom that extends far beyond the track. Perhaps most poignantly, she shares her experience racing at Daytona for the first time: "I was probably feeling every single emotion you could feel inside the car... It was one of those things like, okay, I'm making it, I am doing this."
As motorsports evolves in the social media age, Charlotte discusses the surprising reality that teams now often ask about follower counts before race results. Her authentic perspective offers valuable insights for aspiring racers while reminding us all that perseverance matters: "You're never gonna know if you never even try... don't let anyone or anything hold you back." Ready to support the next generation of female racers? Follow Charlotte's journey and discover how passion combined with determination can open doors in even the most challenging environments.
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00:00 - Introduction to Women's Motorsports Network
01:46 - Charlotte's Unique Racing Journey
06:01 - Transitioning from Go-Karts to Cars
10:45 - The Mazda MX-5 Cup Series
15:12 - Racing as a Woman in Motorsports
19:30 - Mental Approach to Racing
24:07 - Using Social Media in Racing
29:15 - Best Racing Memories at Daytona
32:51 - Racing Advice and Final Thoughts
WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, the show that puts the spotlight on the incredible women who fuel the world of motorsports, From drivers to crew members, engineers to fans and everyone in between.
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We're here to celebrate the trailblazers, dreamers and doers shaping the sport we love.
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Each episode we share inspiring stories of females of all ages, from every corner of the motorsports universe, past, present and future.
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It's a journey through the seasons of life filled with heartfelt moments, laughter and a whole lot of horsepower.
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So, whether you're a lifelong fan, a racer yourself or simply curious about the extraordinary women behind the wheel, settle in, relax and enjoy a fun and uplifting ride with us.
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This is the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, connecting and celebrating women in motorsports, one story at a time.
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Let's hit the track.
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Promoting a track takes heart, and now showing appreciation can be just as easy with send out cards.
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Because gratitude builds great tracks.
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Because gratitude builds great tracks.
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Hello everyone, this is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, and my guest today is Charlotte Trainor, and Charlotte comes to us from the Southwest and I'm going to let her tell us where that is and a little bit more about herself.
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So, Charlotte, I want to welcome you to the show and would you first start by telling us a little about yourself so we can get to know you better.
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Yes, hello, and thank you so much for having me.
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So my name is Charlotte Traynor, I'm 18 years old and I'm from Phoenix, arizona, so I'm a race car driver.
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I've been racing for about five years now, so I'm just trying to, you know, become a professional in that category, and I graduated high school early, so now I have kind of all my time as an 18-year-old to get to try to focus on racing and, you know, making a living off of it.
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Yeah, that's exciting and I love hearing that.
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And you know we talked a little before the show started that I am pretty familiar with the Phoenix area, as most people know.
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My youngest, two daughters live out there and I come out there a lot, but I haven't ever been to a racetrack other than the one in Avondale, the NASCAR track.
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It seems like whenever I come out there it's they're not racing, it's too hot or it's the break or whatever it is, and so the racing season in Phoenix is a little different, I feel, than most places.
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So remind me I want to talk about that too.
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But let's start first with how did you get involved in motorsports?
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So my start in motorsports is a bit different, I would say, than most people.
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I do not come from a racing family, so I have no connection to motorsports like in that way.
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My dad is a pilot, my grandpa was a pilot, my sister is a pilot, so it's like I come from this family of like aviators and for some odd reason I don't know, I'm just like the ground loving one of the family.
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But I started in motorsports a bit later, when I was around 13 years old and it was just from like watching it on TV, like we would always watch, you know, nascar, formula One, indycar, and even though, like nobody in my family raced, we still loved it and we actually had like dirt bikes.
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We were a little bit in like the motocross scene kind of Like, I'd say, when I was like 10 to 13 years old, because our neighbors were huge on motocross so they kind of got us into, I guess, motorsports through that way.
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So I actually rode dirt bikes for a little while when I was, you know, a young 10, you know year old.
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But yeah, I would just watch you know NASCAR and Formula One on TV, and it's like when they would show the in-car cameras and like the driver's point of view.
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I don't know, it was like a switch or something that just clicked on in my brain and I was like of view, I don't know, it was like a switch or something that just clicked on in my brain and I was like that looks like so much fun, I have to do that.
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Like it just looks so cool.
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Like as a kid, I was like, holy cow, can I actually do this?
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Like how do I become a race car driver?
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I don't know why.
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I was just so fascinated with it.
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So I looked it up and I, you know, looked up all these things about you know how you can become a race car driver and the first thing it kind of said was like, well, start with go-karting.
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So I was like, hey, dad, I kind of want to, you know, um, try this out.
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And obviously he didn't really know what to do, cause he's not a racer, he doesn't come from racing at all.
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So he was like, okay, we just went to an indoor go-karting center, you know like kind of where they go for birthday parties and stuff like that, and I really took to it, like I really enjoyed it.
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It was something that I was actually decent at.
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You know, I didn't have too many things as a kid that I like, really liked and things that like clicked for me and it's like that was one of them.
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So that like surprised me and I really liked it and I was good at it.
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So, sure enough, my dad and I we bought like a professional go kart that you can race, and we did that for like about five years, I'd say.
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And now, you know, I'm moving up and taking the step up into cars.
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So last year was my first year racing cars.
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So now I'm just going along with that journey you know, charlotte, you say that you, you know you're different from your family, but not really, because if they're flying they're in the speed you know.
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That's kind of a speed thing um, I mean, my sister has yeah, she's always been obsessed with like fighter jets and stuff.
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So I'm like, okay, you can conquer the air and I'll conquer the ground yeah, that's a good plan.
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You got every area covered, right one of somebody has to race boats or something oh my gosh, maybe my brother, I can get him into racing something well like you know, there's some people, I know, that race boats out and like by near Lake Havasu and other places.
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So yeah, yeah, I have friends that race like jet skis up there.
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It's honestly sometimes more insane than cars Like it really kind of is.
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I think it really is.
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So you mentioned a brother and a sister.
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Is there three of you in the family, Three kids?
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Yes, there is.
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So I'm a middle child.
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I have an older sister who's 21.
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And then my younger brother is 16.
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Okay, all right.
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So you have the middle child syndrome.
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So yes, I do.
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All right, I have.
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I'm the youngest of three daughters that my parents had, so I was the baby and I always hear about that for sure still, and I'm my 60s, so that's how that goes.
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So, charlotte, what kind of car are you racing?
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Where are you racing?
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tell me all about that so the car that I'm racing now is a Mazda MX-5 cup car.
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When I started racing cars I started in this spec Miata and then we kind of like moved up because Mazda Motorsports they have a really accessible ladder for someone that's wanting to get into car racing for a relatively inexpensive price.
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Because, you know, obviously a kid's dream is to kind of go in the open wheel world and stuff like that, but it's way too expensive for me, like that's out of the budget.
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So you know, mazda Motorsports has a really good pathway for go-carters trying to step up to cars.
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Um, they have like a spec Miata, spec MX-5 and then MX-5 cup and it's kind of like different levels, um, and a relatively inexpensive way to get into the sport.
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So, um, I started in a spec Miata last year driving had some, you know, decent results and success in that, which was great.
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So I kind of like moved up and through some connections that we have here in Arizona, we were able to purchase an MX-5 Cup car and just kind of dabble in that series a little bit.
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And I say dabble is because we're only running three of those races this year.
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Only running three of those races this year.
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I think the calendar.
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Gosh, I don't know how many races I think it might have.
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Like 12 races total over the course of like six weekends, so it's like they're all combined.
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Don't quote me on that, I need to check the schedule.
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That sounds about right, though.
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Yeah, make sure.
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But so we're running a part-time season in the MX5 Cup Series.
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And it's part-time because if you run three races, that's like the most you can run in order to be eligible for Rookie of the Year next year in that series.
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And the special thing about the Mazda MX-5 Cup Series is that its payouts are incredible.
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It has incredible payouts for the drivers, for the females in the series highest finishing female gets like two thousand dollars per race and the rookie of the year gets a hundred grand.
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So, and and the championship winner if you win the overall championship, you get 250 grand.
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So it's like people have become millionaires off racing in that series and there's really nothing else like it that offers that kind of like cash payback.
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So we were really drawn to that series and because our friends from arizona they're competing in that series, so they kind of like pulled us in as we were saying like, hey, we want to get into cars, we kind of shadowed them and would follow them around to the mazda mx-5 cup races and then we realized like hey, we can get into this and they have a car that we can buy.
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So we've just been using them for and they have a car that we can buy.
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So we've just been using them for training and for the races that we do.
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We do with them.
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So it's really been like a lucky kind of case scenario to end up with those people to be able to run in that series.
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Do you want to share who they are, or would you rather not?
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Yeah, I will.
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Um, so it's Parker DeLong racing Um, it's just uh, him and his dad.
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Um, so it's parker de long racing um, it's just uh, him and his dad.
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So it's a totally like privateer operation almost, which is really difficult.
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Trying to run like as a privateer team against all the huge mx5 cup teams like jtr, bsi, mmr, like it's big.
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Those teams have been doing it for years and years and the m MX five cup is like all they know.
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So to step in, just Parker and his dad like to do this and to kind of step up and be able to compete with them is just huge.
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And I mean they have, like last year at road Atlanta, parker got second place like, and that's huge.
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You know, you are really swimming with the sharks in that series.
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So it's been also really cool to like not only see my development but like their development as well in that series.
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So it's super cool to be a part of and we're so just we're lucky to have come across them, because they coached us in go-karts, so it's like he coached me in karting and then we just kind of like followed them.
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Then, you know, when they went to the nx5 cup, then we went, you know a year later.
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So so when you go to those races is, I think, sally mott races.
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That yes, have you met her.
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I have.
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I've met her multiple times.
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I've met all the girls in the series, so there's a lot more this year, which is incredible.
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I've met sally.
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She's incredible.
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She's been so helpful with like all the advice and all the tips that she's given me.
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She's great, super talented as well, so it's really cool to get to like share the paddock with her.
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There's Heather Hadley, who's also incredibly experienced in that series and she's so sweet as well.
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Yeah, there's Ashlyn Speed, who won the scholarship last year and, is you know, this is her first year in the cup series, so it's super cool to talk with her.
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Like we're both kind of the new faces, so that's cool, um, and then there's there's another girl, my mighty casteris.
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I don't know if I'm saying her name right, but um, she's she's from uruguay, I think, and she's she's incredibly nice as well.
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Um, she did like some of the open wheel stuff I think she has experience in that and like the F1 academy, so she was super nice from the brief chat that I got with her.
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So it's it's really cool to like have more girls getting into that series and kind of have that community.
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It's super cool just to get to share the paddock and the track with them yeah, so did you watch the movie or documentary to the finish?
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yes, finish.
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Yes, I did.
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I did watch it.
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It's cool.
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It's like it's crazy.
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Who would have thought that?
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You know Mazda, the MX Web Cup would be getting you know this series, kind of following it.
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It's just, it's crazy.
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But it's so cool to see like that series has grown so much and the viewers that it gets now the popularity it's completely deserved.
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Like the racing in that series is like no other.
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It's so entertaining.
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Like the last lap people will be going like five wide through the dirt, someone's off there, someone's spinning out.
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So it's super entertaining and I it deserves like all the hype and the buzz that it deserves more promotion and I don't think it gets near enough.
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It gets overshadowed by some of the bigger series but the racing is unbelievable, and I think connor zillich raced in that series a little bit he did.
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he did, and that's a thing that they bring up.
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A lot is like the drivers that kind of go through the mx5 cup, you can just go in anything else and be fast.
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Yeah, because the mx5 cup and that can just go in anything else and be fast.
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Yeah, Because the MX-5 Cup and that's why we see, you know, Conor Zilch is so good and kids like Tyler Gonzalez and Nathan Nicholson and all these you know incredible drivers that go off and then they drive other things Like they're so talented they are and it's because the MX-5 Cup is such a good like starting ground and it's because the MX-5 Cup is such a good starting ground and the car is so tricky to get a grasp on and drive.
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The series is so competitive, so it's really like you have everything thrown at you and then when you get in an LMP2 car or a GT car or something like that, it's like the car does the work for you and it's everything's at least in my opinion.
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I feel like I can say that too from driving different things.
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It's like nothing is as hard as the MX-5 Cup car and the racing and the car itself.
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It's just it's really tricky.
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So if you can perform there, you can perform almost anywhere.
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Yeah, and it's road course racing, right, yeah.
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Yeah, and so that's one reason he's so good on road courses.
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Yeah, for sure, he definitely has that, you know, kind of one up on everyone and even in ovals too, like I mean, it's just been, he's been insane everywhere he goes and obviously it's you know, raw talent, but I feel like it's also you know part of the development that the MX five cup brings you know, yeah, hello.
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I'm sorry it's okay, I'm like, oh, am I alone?
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yeah, you were alone for a little bit.
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So, um, sorry about that.
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So, yeah, um, I love seeing these series that make it easier to get started, because, I mean, all sports can be expensive, but but you know, if you're a football player, you're not buying your own footballs and equipment right.
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They're paying you to do all that and and to get into motorsports you've got to bring some money or some sponsors normally, and so it's a whole different model of business and things.
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And so you know, we've got to make it more affordable for people to get started, or, you know, unless you're young and your parents are millionaires, it's really hard to get into it.
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So I love that you're doing that, yeah, and it's really tricky because it's like it's really hard to get into it.
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So I love that you're doing that, yeah, and it's really tricky because it's like it's so tough.
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You see so many kids and I know so many kids that I know if they got in a car, if they got the chance, they would just be incredible, but they don't get the chance because they don't have the funding.
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So that's one of the huge things that I do want to do one day is somehow get you know more kids, give more talented kids a chance.
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You know like it's, you know it sucks how this sport has kind of sometimes just become like overshadowed by the people that have money, you know, and now it's like money over talent, which is really unfortunate, and you know it doesn't even make the racing as good, because then you have more kids and people crashing cars because they don't really know how to drive as well as you know maybe someone else that can't afford to go in the series.
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So you know, one day that would be like a dream of mine to like create some sort of foundation or something that gives you know young talented kids a chance who wouldn't really have a chance, you know, anywhere else kids a chance, who wouldn't really have a chance, you know, anywhere else.
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I, I love that idea for you as well, because I, you know, I mean we can't say that everybody that's in the top series come from money, but if you most of them, most of them do, a lot of them do, and so you know not nothing against those people, because I'll tell you, the NASCAR teams and those three series, they have a lot of extremely talented racers, but I know there's just as many probably that are out there that are winning at a local level, who could compete in a NASCAR series or whatever, and they just don't get the chance.
00:17:49.455 --> 00:17:51.006
And that's the sad part.
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But you know, that's true in football, baseball, everything else.
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You know, you think of all the little league teams that play during the summer and then how many get to really be professional baseball players.
00:18:02.522 --> 00:18:05.730
It's tough, it's really, it's really tough to do.
00:18:05.730 --> 00:18:07.539
So, yeah, for sure.
00:18:07.539 --> 00:18:10.685
So now, where do you race most of the time?
00:18:10.685 --> 00:18:11.205
Charlotte?
00:18:11.205 --> 00:18:13.410
So I race.
00:18:13.730 --> 00:18:16.355
I would say we've kind of been moving more out East.
00:18:16.355 --> 00:18:22.469
When I first started, like in cars and in go-karts, it was all kind of out West, like we would go out to California.
00:18:22.469 --> 00:18:24.479
You know, buttonwillow, willow Springs.
00:18:24.479 --> 00:18:30.065
There's a decent amount of tracks in Arizona as well, like road course tracks, not just the, you know, oval.
00:18:30.065 --> 00:18:34.221
So we kind of, you know, just race on the west coast.
00:18:34.221 --> 00:18:39.540
But now kind of the more we step up and the bigger it gets, lots of the racing is all on the east coast.
00:18:39.540 --> 00:18:45.982
So we've been traveling out east a lot, just going to lots of different tracks like birmingham, alabama.
00:18:45.982 --> 00:18:49.028
I was just in daytona, yeah, virginia.
00:18:49.028 --> 00:18:58.852
So it's kind of it started west and now it's like transitioning to the east because that's where racing is honestly like that's where, that's where everything is, that's where the hub is.
00:18:58.852 --> 00:19:04.833
So definitely like the more I go on with this, the more I'm gonna kind of see myself out there.
00:19:05.220 --> 00:19:09.046
Yeah but so now, who travels with you when you go to the races?
00:19:09.046 --> 00:19:13.832
How you know, how do you get your car there, and all that Normally it's my dad.
00:19:13.972 --> 00:19:27.281
So we one of the past races that we did in the MX five cup my first one at Barber we drove our MX five cup car all the way from Phoenix to Birmingham, alabama, you know, all the way across the country.
00:19:27.342 --> 00:19:28.724
So it's a lot of work.
00:19:28.964 --> 00:19:37.210
It's yeah, it's a lot of work and it just shows, I feel like, how much work and effort that really goes into trying to become a professional race car driver.
00:19:37.269 --> 00:19:43.316
Like I feel like people it just flies over people's heads and they don't realize, like how much work you actually put in.
00:19:43.758 --> 00:19:51.486
You know, and when we're not driving now we kind of keep our car on the East coast because that's where we are the most and it's too hot to train in Arizona in the summer.
00:19:51.486 --> 00:19:58.132
So it's really, you know, it's no use keeping it here when the days are just like 105 degrees and you can't really go drive.
00:19:58.132 --> 00:20:05.564
So we just keep it out east and then we just fly out east because, because my dad's a pilot, it's actually really easy to fly.
00:20:05.564 --> 00:20:08.340
Yeah, you know, if the flights are open, we can just hop on.
00:20:08.340 --> 00:20:09.765
So that is a bonus.
00:20:09.765 --> 00:20:28.788
It is actually really easy to get out there and normally me and him we just go out and then, uh, we have, you know, we have people that are part of the team, that kind of like drive our car to wherever we're going, so like if we're going to Alabama or if we're going to Atlanta, they'll just, you know, drive it out there and we'll just spend the day practicing or preparing for a race.
00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:32.134
All right, yeah, you're lucky that your dad's a pilot.
00:20:32.134 --> 00:20:33.335
That works out good for you.
00:20:33.335 --> 00:20:38.171
Not many, not many drivers have that advantage, for sure.
00:20:38.171 --> 00:20:46.464
Yeah, so, charlotte, what is the thing that was the hardest for you to learn when you were driving a car?
00:20:46.464 --> 00:20:52.468
What took you the most time to to kind of master?
00:20:53.980 --> 00:21:14.666
I think honestly just being able to let things go and have almost like a short-term memory, because sometimes I would get too caught up over things and stuck on things Like, let's say, you have a bad start or someone hits you, I would get so flustered in the moment and I feel like racing cars.
00:21:14.666 --> 00:21:21.887
It's really taught me how to like keep my cool and how to really like forget what just happened in the past corner, cause it's hard.
00:21:21.887 --> 00:21:29.288
It's hard to like get past if you get spied out or you make a mistake, and it's so easy to like beat yourself up over the little things.
00:21:29.288 --> 00:21:36.644
But you know it really made me realize like that's not going to get me anywhere.
00:21:36.644 --> 00:21:40.700
You know, like you, really, as a race car driver, you almost have to have like this short term memory and, just, you know, keep focusing forward.
00:21:41.220 --> 00:21:43.125
I feel like it kind of that's a good thing on life too.
00:21:43.125 --> 00:21:49.989
It kind of gives you like you know that went up on having that in life as well, but that was definitely took me a little bit to learn and it's tricky.
00:21:49.989 --> 00:21:56.624
It's tricky to not beat yourself up over like the little things and you're like well, it's happened, I can't change it, I can't do anything about it.
00:21:56.624 --> 00:21:58.269
So you know, I just got to move forward.
00:21:59.080 --> 00:22:15.675
You know that I think racing, and you know again, a lot of sports, teach us life lessons, and that's one of the things that you know might be a life lesson that you're learning is, you know you can't hold on to everything and hold grudges and all and all that.
00:22:15.675 --> 00:22:30.665
You have to be forgiving, you have to give people grace and and that kind of thing, and and you know I talked to a lot of girls who are very shy and then once they're into racing they come out of their shell, they're there, they go from introvert to extrovert.
00:22:30.665 --> 00:22:31.626
A lot of those things.
00:22:31.626 --> 00:22:36.454
What else have you learned Do you think that you can attribute to being a race car driver?
00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:42.085
Honestly, I have learned so much, I think, to add on to kind of like the introvert to extrovert.
00:22:42.085 --> 00:22:44.507
Like racing teaches you how to.
00:22:44.507 --> 00:22:48.290
I feel like it's almost like life, like things aren't going to go your way.
00:22:48.290 --> 00:22:50.973
You're gonna have more bad days than good, you know.
00:22:50.973 --> 00:22:53.696
And it teaches you how to get over things, and not just get over things.
00:22:53.696 --> 00:23:01.809
It also teaches you how to represent, like as a race car driver, you're not just your only job isn't just to drive the car fast Outside of the car.
00:23:01.809 --> 00:23:11.718
You have to be a spokesperson for yourself, you have to market for yourself, you have to reach out to people, you have to send emails, you have to do all these things that you know people don't realize.
00:23:11.718 --> 00:23:14.826
So it really has, like brought me out of my shell as well.
00:23:14.886 --> 00:23:17.393
I was definitely a very shy kid and I didn't.
00:23:17.393 --> 00:23:22.191
I got so nervous talking to people and I wasn't really one for conversations with people.
00:23:22.191 --> 00:23:26.795
But now, like racing, like I realized like I can just go up to anyone and say anything.
00:23:26.795 --> 00:23:31.086
Now, like I'll go up and I will be the one to initiate the conversation.
00:23:31.086 --> 00:23:35.980
I will be the one to like send the email when before, like I would never do that, but now it's.
00:23:36.080 --> 00:23:42.374
It's really just made me into like a spokesperson and, you know, an extrovert, because that's what you need.
00:23:42.374 --> 00:23:43.541
You know you're not.
00:23:43.541 --> 00:23:46.150
If you don't knock on the door it's it's never going to be open.
00:23:46.150 --> 00:23:57.832
So, you know, it's really taught me that as well, and I feel like that's just so valuable for getting through life is learning how to represent yourself, who you are as a person, build a brand for yourself too.
00:23:57.832 --> 00:24:03.970
So it's incredible All the things that racing teaches you and you don't even realize.
00:24:03.970 --> 00:24:10.567
And then you look back at yourself a few years ago and you're like, wow, I really have grown, not just as a driver but as a person.
00:24:13.045 --> 00:24:31.186
Yeah, that's so true and I'm glad you said that because you know a lot of girls and their parents even don't realize that there's a lot of benefits to being in motorsports that you can't put your finger on before you start and every person's different.
00:24:31.186 --> 00:24:34.481
Every person isn't going to grow up or change.
00:24:34.481 --> 00:24:46.170
You know change how they are, but overall I hear it so often that all the things that motorsports has changed for the good in a young woman.
00:24:46.170 --> 00:24:52.690
So I love hearing that Now do you have marketing partners or is this more of a?
00:24:52.690 --> 00:24:54.361
You know you pay as you go.
00:24:55.723 --> 00:24:57.769
Well, right now it's I pay as I go.
00:24:57.769 --> 00:24:59.861
That's one of the things that I'm working on right now.
00:24:59.861 --> 00:25:10.383
You know, just like putting together sponsorship packets and putting together all these deals and, you know, trying to go up to people, and so that is what I'm my project I would say at the moment.
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