LUCAMA, NC – Savannah Beasley is more than just your average teenage girl. Like most girls her age, she goes to church and plays sports but, on weekends, she also likes to go fast.
Beasley, 16, from Kenly, North Carolina, has dreams of one day racing amongst NASCAR’s elite. She currently races in the Bandolero division at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, North Carolina. For her, the racing community at Southern National is like an extended family.
“Racing for me is, it’s a time to get out on the weekend and have fun and come out to the track and spend time with my friends because racing family is like a second family,” Beasley said. “It’s like a second home out here.”
Beasley enters Saturday’s Mother’s Day Special fresh off a third place at East Carolina Motor Speedway in Robersonville, North Carolina. That run gives her confidence that she can be competitive for the rest of the season.
“I hope we can be competitive for the rest of the year,” Beasley remarked. “I think we’ll be pretty good. I think we have a top-three car so we’re going to run as hard as we can and hopefully we’ll make it up there on the podium.”
Beasley feels that racing has a positive influence on her life and the lives of most youths who compete in the sport.
“I think it’s a really good influence or people,” Beasley commented. “It shows that, no matter, girl or boy, you can do whatever you want to do and just follow your dreams.”
Another thing she loves about racing is being able to compete against the boys on the same track in the same event. Beasley is racing at a track where females are not strangers to victory lane. Two women have won championships at Southern National – Ashley Miller in 2007 in the U-CAR division and Haley Moody in 2014 in the Limited Late Model division.
“It’s really fun to be a girl and come out here and race in this sport because, most of the time, people think it’s a boys sport. To come out here being a girl is really fun.”
Beasley has also become more than just a racer but an ambassador for the sport as well. Following Saturday night’s race, Beasley will be at the track on May 14th along with a handful of other drivers to meet and talk with the children from Lucama Elementary School about racing, the importance of education and the positive influence it has had on her life.
For more information about Southern National Motorsports Park, check out SNMP’s website at www.snmpark.com, “like” Southern National Motorsports Park on Facebook or “follow” @SNM_Park on Twitter.
