MONROE – They’ve heard the question many times: How can you put yourself in that position? You have kids, for crying out loud!
And it is a risk, no doubt. But for the handful of moms who race at Evergreen Speedway, the pull of the competition and the belief that they’re at no greater danger on the track than they are anywhere else is enough to keep them hitting the gas.
“I’ve had people come up to me and ask me why,” said Della Williams, a Mini-Stocks driver and mother of two who turns 40 today. “My grandma thinks I’m insane. I know people wonder why I do this. But it’s not any different than jumping out of a plane or driving to work. If my time comes, it’s going to come whether I’m driving or sitting at my desk.”
“I get asked all the time, ‘How can you do that, you’re a mom!’” said Bombers driver Jill Lang, the mother of two young sons. “But the way I look at it, I could get in a car accident on my way to work. I could get run over crossing the street. You have to live life. I don’t worry about it.”
The fact is, the moms take the question as somewhat of an insult. They have their priorities in line, and all say that the kids come first by a wide margin. But they also say that just because they’re moms doesn’t mean they can’t pursue something they love.
“I’ve been told how dangerous it is and why would I put my family in that situation,” said Nikki Beckel, a rookie Extreme Contact Figure 8 racer and mother of two young children. “But I wouldn’t put my family in an unsafe situation. My kids always come first and if I thought it was too dangerous, I wouldn’t do it.”
The fraternity of women who race at Evergreen is a small one, and those among them that have children are an even smaller group. Williams, Lang and Beckel all say it’s tough enough battling the stereotype of being a female in a male-dominated sport. Add kids into the mix, and you have a combination that leaves many wondering what the women are thinking. But all say they’re proud of their ability to balance all their roles, and their families say the women have done excellent jobs of finding a balance.
“I was against it for about six months,” said Lang’s husband Naima, a former Bombers class champion. “It was mostly a safety thing. But I built the car with the best of the best equipment. She couldn’t be safer. And all she does is show up and drive. I didn’t want her spending all of her time on the car. And she doesn’t. It’s worked out really well.”
All three of the women say they have little to do with the upkeep of the car. That falls to their husbands, who, as Lang said, take every step possible to make sure the cars are as safe as they can be. In fact, the women’s racing careers have become family affairs.
Williams’ husband of 11 years, Ed, is her crew chief and her 13-year-old son Dustin is part of the crew and films her races. Daughter Shawndra, 11, is her mom’s biggest supporter.
“I haven’t missed one race in three years,” Shawndra Williams said. “I usually scream my eyeballs out.”
“I think it’s cool,” Dustin Williams said. “When she spanks the boys, it’s cool. They get all mad and try to spin her out. They’re just jealous because a girl beat them.”
Beckel’s 5-year-old daughter Jordyn spends time with dad Josh, the defending Extreme Contact Figure 8 champion, when he’s working on the cars, and has practically grown up around the track, as will newborn son Jackson.
“She always wants her daddy to win,” said Nikki Beckel, a 23-year-old student teacher from Monroe. “She doesn’t like my pink car, she wants daddy’s orange car to win. But she loves being out there and loves seeing both of her parents racing.”
Lang’s son Tyson (3) has started tooling around the car with Naima and 2-year-old Max is likely soon to follow. They’ve never missed any of mom or dad’s races.
“Max already knows how to do the tire pressure,” said Jill Lang, 29, who sells real estate. “I always tell him I’m going to beat daddy this week, and he gets mad. He wants daddy to win. But he knows which cars are ours, and they love coming out and watching.”
Of course, with the watching comes the possibility that they will see their mom get in an accident. And it’s happened before. Driving Figure Eights, Beckel is constantly making contact, but has yet to have any serious crash. She says because she and her husband don’t worry about it, their kids don’t worry about it.
Williams, an accountant from Lake Stevens, did have a scary accident racing Roadrunner cars in Port Angeles when she was hit and went flying through the air off the track. And she admits that there are a few times when the thought of getting hurt crosses her mind, but usually the adrenaline of racing takes over.
“A couple weeks ago when there were quite a few people crashing, I thought ‘Gosh, if that was me, what would happen to my kids?” Williams said. “But once you hit the track and see the green flag, all you’re thinking about is winning. And the kids know that my car is really, really safe.”
Besides being lucky on the track safety-wise, all three women say they couldn’t race if it wasn’t for the support of their family. While mom and dad are out on the track, friends and family watch the kids
“We wouldn’t do it if it meant putting the kids in daycare,” Jill Lang said. “I wouldn’t have wanted that. Now the kids spend a lot of time with us and we all enjoy doing it together. There hasn’t been any stress.”
While the women have plenty of similarities, what they envision as their racing futures is different.
Williams just began racing three years ago, and says she’s put herself on the fast track to get to the Super Stocks. She hopes to move up to Bombers next year and has her sights set on one day possibly joining the ARCA. But all of that hinges on her finding Mini-Stocks success and finding sponsorship. But both Dustin and Shawndra say they want to follow their mom onto the track, and Della says if there’s a conflict, she’ll give up her career to support theirs.
“I’ll be there for them, no question,” Della Williams said. “But I think we can make it all work. We have so far.”
Jill Lang has become a rising star, becoming the first woman in Evergreen’s then-51-year history to win a race last season. But she says she will race just one more year before giving it up and throwing her energy into her kids.
“Our goal is to get them into quartermidgets at 4 or 5,” she said. “I want to watch them. So as soon as they start, we’ll stop.”
Nikki Beckel said she has no real long-term goals as a racer, and is simply doing it for fun. Right now, her main concern is beating Josh.
“It’s been his sport for so long, I just want to be competitive with him,” she said. “But Jordyn wants to start doing Go Karts and we want to get her into that. If my racing interferes with that, I’d obviously give up racing to support her.”
For now, all the women say they relish the chance to compete each week and show their kids that they can do whatever they want if they just commit themselves to it.
“I want to show her that she can do it all,” Nikki Beckel said. “She sees me balancing two kids, college, work, racing and I’m out there competing with the boys. I want her to see what’s possible for her.”
“I don’t think my friends believe me when I tell them my mom races,” Dustin Williams said. “They think only guys race cars. But girls can do the same thing as guys. My mom’s out there right with them every week.”
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