,
Kinetic Motorworks takes me in as I have no home, no local crew, and no garage after a move to New Hampshire. Without support from folks like these, the 2013 Rally Season would never have happened.I moved across the country to New Hampshire on job prospects and the idea of being close to a rally school. Unfortunately, I learned the harsh reality of motorsports marketing when it comes to gender at this time. Lets face it, I wasn’t exactly Hankook girl material, being 6’ tall and a healthy weight. Even though I was close to a school, I still didn't have the financial support to make time to train there (working full-time as a professional software engineer/scientist). Kinetic Motorworks provided a place to work on the vehicle for myself and my crew chief (who also moved out to the Boston area shortly afterwards), and it’s small performance shops like these that make it possible for many of us grassroots competitors to compete.
Running on a motor that needed a rebuild, but we didn’t have the funds to do it at the time. POR. 100AW 2013. Photo by David Cosseboom.Every event was like starting as a beginner in rally. Day 1 was always getting my legs back, and day 2 was catching up on the time I'd lost re-training on day 1. I knew I couldn't keep up with this, and after my contract was pulled out from underneath me after a large move and only 9 months up there, I no longer even had the financial support to do it. I was living in a 600 sq ft apartment outside of Boston, paying more in rent than most people pay in a mortgage. So.. I pressed 'pause' on this motorsports life and return back to what other people would call 'normal'.
Packed up and returned immediately to the Boston area after 100AW. We didn’t have the ability to stay, or even wash off the car before we had to leave, due to work constraints. Drove 34 hours straight following the rally through a blizzard to make it back to Boston in time for a 10:00am meeting on Monday following the conclusion of the rally at 12:00am on Saturday night/sunday morning. Only to lose the contract for that job the next month. Photo by Martin Asao.
Storage of the Rally Car after New England Forest Rally – No garage, No home, and no running for the 2014 rally season as I did not have the funds or time to bring the trailer back to the Northeast and bring the rally car back down to Florida. I left it there all winter behind a shed at the crew chief’s parents house in Connecticut. I made the financial decision to move to NW Florida with my now full-time partner in life (former crew chief), where we can begin to save up again. [The northeast United States is no place to save money.] That’s where this story finds us now. I'm starting over in motorsports, and this time I'm determined to build that solid foundation. My goals are simple: 1. Save money. 2. Find cheap training vehicles with low power to learn proper lines and low maintenance cost to compete often. 3. Build a shop and acquire tools necessary to maintain said cars cheaply. 4. Dedicate time to train.
