MONROE — Matthew Spanton and Jessica Newkirk have the coolest teacher in the world.
Miss Jessica is a racecar driver.
Preschoolers don’t always use words to express their feelings, but anyone standing near Jessica Gray’s stinger-eight racecar at Evergreen Speedway could see how her students felt.
“They think I’m Lightning McQueen,” Gray said with a laugh, referring to the racecar character from “Cars,” a Disney-Pixar movie popular with the preschool set. “Every Monday they ask, ‘Did you crash or get a flat tire?’”
After Gray lifted them into the driver’s seat, Matthew, 3, and Jessica, 4, twisted the steering wheel and honked the horn, and later joined their classmates in scribbling on the trunk lid with a marker.
Saturday, June 28 marked the second time this season that some of Gray’s students made the trip to Monroe to watch her race in Evergreen Speedway’s stinger-eight division.
Along with drivers from four other divisions, Gray had parked her racecar on the frontstretch to take part in the speedway’s pre-race autograph session.
“She’ll have the largest contingent of 3-year-olds in the stands,” said Brian Spanton, father of Matthew, as he watched children gather around Gray’s car.
Originally from Waterville, the 30-year-old Gray now lives in Bothell and has been a teacher at Planet Kids-Bellevue for two years. Planet Kids is a Montessori school, and Gray’s students range from 3 to 5.
Gray had watched racing for years, making summer Saturday night trips to Evergreen Speedway with her aunt, Jan Funden, to cheer for uncle Jerry Funden, a 20-year veteran in the super-figure eight class.
When cousin Seth Funden, 24, began racing in the stinger eights — the entry level division for the super figure eight class — Gray decided to join in.
She spent one season racing hornets — the lowest level for Saturday night racing at Evergreen Speedway — to gain on-track experience before moving up to stinger eights.
Why figure eight racing?
“I’ve always loved it,” Gray said. “The chance misses, that contact with the other cars.”
“In our class it’s two bumps and a dump,” Seth Funden said in explanation. “You touch (another car) twice and if you don’t dump them in the intersection, you dump them in a corner, they don’t black flag you.
“We’re one of the last contact sports out here … that involve racing,” he added.
Gray said she had no interest in moving into a different form of racing, and would someday like to move up to the super-figure eight division to compete against her uncle.
That would involve a significant investment of money, however, as the super figure eight division at Evergreen is dominated by specially built cars.
“I might need to find myself a man that could pay for it all,” said Gray with a laugh.
All joking aside, the fact that Gray is a woman who races has made her a positive role model to the parents whose children she teaches.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Tracy Newkirk, Jessica’s mother. “It gets it into (Jessica’s) head that girls can do anything.”
Gray, who is studying for her Montessori certificate, has posted pictures of her racecar and her racing in the classroom. Part of the Montessori approach, Gray said “is more of me not teaching, but me setting the environment for them to teach themselves.”
The positive, gender-neutral environment that Gray’s racing has promoted in a Bellevue preschool has been mirrored on the national and international racing scenes.
Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an IndyCar race on April 19 in Japan, and just a week after that Ashley Force became the first of her gender to win a Funny Car title while drag racing at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Georgia.
Evergreen Speedway has quite a few women racers, as Gray’s students and their parents discovered during the autograph session.
Just two cars over from Gray’s stinger eight was Jill Lang, who has two bomber division victories this year, while farther down the frontstretch, Nikki Bristol stood next to her bomber.
In the pits were bomber driver Kim Wilkinson, mini-stock driver Mindy Harriss, and stinger eight drivers Ashley Schukar and Jocelyn Lafleur.
Other women who have raced at Evergreen this season include Kim Lang in the bomber division, super figure eight driver Jessica Wilkinson and mini-stock driver Jade Bauman.
But for Gray’s students, there was just one driver — male or female — that they wanted to see at the track: Miss Jessica.
“That whole school is just cheering her on,” Jan Fundeen said of her neice’s racing career. “It’s so cool.”
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