Interview: Richardson stock car driver Lindsey Adams

by Andrew Laska of Richardson Echo

When we are kids, most of us don’t know what we are going to be when we grow up. Some people do. The person I interviewed seemed to know. This person has just turned professional and comes from three generations of this chosen profession.

All that would not be very extraordinary, if not for the fact that this life long Richardson resident just turned 21, wants to dominate NASCAR, currently races for breast cancer survivors like her very own mother, and – yes – she is a woman in a sport dominated by men.

Meet Lindsey Adams.

I interviewed Lindsey at her home in Richardson.

Echo: This is probably a question you get asked all of the time but I have to ask it. One doesn't think of a bright young woman wanting to get involved with race car driving. You obviously don't represent the typical stereotype for a race car driver. How did you get involved with driving and when did you decide you wanted to be a race car driver?

LA: I'm a third generation racer but I wasn't allowed to race for so many years. I grew up at the motocross track but I wasn't allowed to race motocross. After begging and begging my dad to race something, my godfather Dan Tomlin with Tomlin investments thought it would be great if we got a go-kart and started racing go-karts. We did and I immediately started winning. I won a national championship in the KART National Championship in the Rotax International Class. After that Dan gave me a call and said, "Would you like to drive a Formula car?" I said, "Absolutely" and I drove a Formula Mazda for Tomlin Investments in 2006 and at that point I knew I wanted to be a race car driver.

Echo: How old were you at that time?

LA: I'm 21 now so it was like about 18 and 19ish. I was 18 when I found out he was going to put me in a Formula Mazda.

Echo: For the sake of people who don't know all the classes of cars tell me what a Formula car is? How would I know one if I saw it?

LA: A Formula car looks like an Indy car. It's an open wheel race car. It has no fenders. It has wings and in my case we had a Mazda engine in my car.

Echo: You say you come from a 3rd generation [of racers]. Describe the other generations.

LA: My grandfather had a speed shop here in Dallas called Custom Automotive. Racers like Carroll Shelby and Johnny Rutherford would come in for repairs. My dad grew up around drivers like that. He went out, competed in a go kart race and won his first race. His dad said, "Absolutely not. You are not going to be a race car driver. You are going to be a doctor." He always wanted to drive and that was always his true passion. He continued on with his other passion which was to become an orthodontist and once he established himself he started racing motocross very seriously. He was extremely competitive. He won championships and that is what I grew up around. I really wanted to get a dirt bike. My mom wouldn't let me. She'd hate to see me on a motorcycle. We got a go kart and continued forward with that.

Echo: How did you learn how to drive?

LA: I learned how to drive through a collaboration of a bunch of different people. In the beginning it was my dad that taught me everything I knew. When things got too intense and too competitive for it to be just me and my dad I worked with different mechanics from all over the country with certain factory teams that would hire racing coaches and driver coaches to help me learn how to drive.

Also, they have systems nowadays where you can have a computer in your race car and it will literally draw a map of what you did on the track. You can go back and look at where you accelerated and where you braked and where on the track you did those things... your turning points. All that kind of stuff. There is so much that is digital and so much that is electronic that you can use to help you.

I just switched from open wheel racing which is road course racing, where those kinds of systems are super important and we relied so much on our data acquisition. Now I am racing stock cars so it's very different. Now I have crew chiefs and fellow drivers and so many people that are helping me understand what I need to be doing and how to translate my terminology for problems with the car to their terminology. It's really different. It's French vs. Spanish. It's not the same language. It's been an interesting transition.

Echo: How long have you lived in Richardson?

LA: 21 years we've lived in this house. Forever! [laughs]

Echo: Your whole life?

LA: My whole life.

Echo: Typically people don't associate race car driving with Richardson.

LA: No. Not quite! It's more like a Charlotte, North Carolina or an Indianapolis kind of thing.

Echo: So you grew up in Richardson. Tell me about living in Richardson.

LA: I went to Hockaday and so many of my friends lived in Preston Hollow or Highland Park. I loved living in this neighborhood. Growing up here was just unbelievable. I actually knew my neighbors unlike a lot of my friends. You see them mowing their lawns across the street and they will say "Hi" to you every single day. It's not like you ever ignore each other. You've got Heights Park. I've got this neighborhood so wired down I can tell you per block how long it is mile-wise from running it. I love Richardson. I love the fact that you walk in your front yard and it's still home. You can walk across the street and it's still home. Traveling all over the world, this is where I want to come back to. My family lives here. My family lives across the street. I have family everywhere. It's such a sense of safe and home and things are going to be OK.

Echo: Tell me the kinds of reactions you get when people find out you are a driver. I'm not really a car guy but I would guess most people expect the guy with grease under his fingernails to want to be a race car driver. Tell me about reactions you get that might surprise people.

LA: I grew up going to Hockaday which is an all girls school in Dallas. I was there for 14 years. I was brought up with pig tails and pink fingernail polish and knee socks and the whole deal...super girly. I was always this secret tomboy, but I was a cheerleader in high school and I did all of the girly stuff. The whole getting ready for prom thing. All of it. At the same time the other side of my life was racing. So the normal reactions? If someone knew me they wouldn't be surprised. They'd say it makes sense because you are kind of aggressive and passionate and - you know - all these kind of things that would make a great race car driver. So when someone doesn't know me most of the time they don't believe me so that's why I don't tell many people, "Hey! I'm a race car driver!"

The average Joe is gonna say, "yeah right! You probably don't know what a carburetor is!" That's the normal thing. Would you like a story maybe?

Echo: Yeah... I'd love a story.

LA: Well there was this one time I was racing in go karts and it was the National Championship race. This was the championship I ended up winning. Racers come in from all over the country that didn’t quite know each other, and I pull in the pits. I have pink on my helmet and on my racing suit. I guess the given that I was a girl didn't quite mix. I pull in the pits and I am waiting in the go kart and my dad pulls up and is talking to me. I haven't taken my helmet off yet - this is qualifying - and this [other] driver pulls in right behind me.

His crew chief pulls goes up to him and says, "You just got schooled by that guy," - talking about me. "He just kicked your butt, dude" and they are fighting. I take my helmet off and they both look at me and they are looking like, “Nope, you got schooled by a GIRL.”

Things like that happen all the time when people don't expect me to be a female.

Echo: Let me ask you something more personal. You have co-branded with the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Obviously, that's for a very personal reason for that so why don't you tell us about that reason and tell us what it means to you.

LA: When I was really little, my mom got breast cancer. At that point I wasn't that affected by it because I didn't really realize what was going on and she went through chemo and she lost her hair. I was like, "What's happening?"

She was such a fire and survivor through all of that. She obviously survived. Breast cancer was always something that I knew about, and always something I was aware of but when I was 17 she had a bad mammogram. At that point, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like, "This cannot happen to our family again and to my mother who is such a strong woman."

At that point she decided to go forward another mastectomy. At that point in my life it was "Grow up and grow up now. Your mother could have breast cancer again so be an adult." At that point I decided that I was going to use my racing for something more than just a fun weekend at the track.

We decided to try and find a breast cancer foundation. She completely recovered from her mastectomy. Everything is great and she is super healthy so praise the Lord for that! So we went forward and found a foundation. We started working with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation based in New York City. We worked with them a little bit. It was a great relationship. We wanted to work with someone on a more day to day basis so we made contact with the National Breast Cancer Foundation based here in Frisco (Texas.)

That ended up being a completely has been a positive relationship. Everything was great with that. We definitely - I would say We have made a difference, especially in the motor sports world. We have tried to turn breast cancer into household thing to talk about. I want to help people become more comfortable speaking about breast cancer. In our family it was such a scary thing that we didn't talk about it that much. I didn't go around when I was 17 and say, "My mom had a bad mammogram; she could have breast cancer again."

At that point when we were deciding to use Breast Cancer with the racing, we asked "Do we really want to do this? Yes. Absolutely."

We need to make it more comfortable for everyone - we need women to be totally cool with going to get a mammogram, and wanting to do it and not being afraid. We need to promote a positive outlook on the survivors. My mom and I started a program called survivor's circle where at races we honor a survivor, or more than one survivor, or families that have lost women to breast cancer. We honor them. We race for them and for their survivorship. These women have been to the wall and back and we think they deserve something to celebrate their life. So that's what Survivor's Circle is.

Echo: Tell me about your sponsor.

LA: National Breast Cancer Foundation?

Echo: Yes.

LA: They aren't actually a sponsor. They are a non-profit organization that we have co-branded with in the past. We are hopefully going to be starting our own foundation this year. Right now we are looking for corporations that want to co-brand with a good cause. and it will be more expanded than just breast cancer awareness. We will continue with raising awareness for beast cancer. We want to move forward and work with kids and homeless shelters and all different kinds of organizations. It will be a much broader thing.

Echo: I wanted to ask you about Lance Armstrong who has a certain connection with cancer - in fact he is a cancer survivor himself - have you ever met him, and what is your opinion of him, and tell me that you are thinking?

LA: I have not met Lance. I would absolutely love to. I think his story is extremely inspiring. I think he has inspired countless people across the world. I think the fact that he using such great athleticism to promote cancer awareness is just fantastic. I am an athlete. I do some cycling myself. I have so much respect for what he has done and what he is physically capable of doing. It's unbelievable to show the strength of the body and what it can take, what it can do, and he is a prime example of that.

Echo: Tell me a little bit about actually driving the car. Tell me about the speeds you can attain and how much danger are you actually in during races.

LA: My goal right now, in life, is to race in NASCAR. This past weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway they were maxing out at almost 200 miles per hour. That is quite the rush right there. The fastest I've probably ever gone is probably 160 in a race car.

But it's not about how fast you go, it is how fast you stop. In the road course racing I've done you go from 140 miles per hour to 40 in a few hundred feet. It's unbelievable the braking power. That's what would surprise a lot of people. I taught a racing school up in Tulsa, Oklahoma in a Radical SR-4, which is a type of race car. At the end of the day I got to take my mom and my dad out in my race car. I think what they were so blown away by was your cornering Gs and also the stopping power of the car. It literally thrusts your body forward - you have a six point harness on - but for someone that's never done that before that's what is most surprising.

Echo: Have you ever felt in fear of your life when you have been on the track?

LA: My way of thinking about fear is that fear is what gives you respect for the car that you are driving. I think that is something that is so important to have because the second you stop respecting the car that is the second it stops respecting you. I believe by being afraid you have something to lose. I think that fear is really important. I think it's a complicated emotion to have but at the same time very important.

Echo: I read something about you moving up to the professional circuit. Before we go long term or short term, tell me about moving up to the professional circuit as opposed to the semi-professional or amateur - I'm not sure what the proper terminology is.

LA: My way of thinking about it is the way I define professional is are you doing this full time, is all of your energy spent towards it, is everything you do - do you sacrifice for it?

And for the past three or four years, my whole life has been geared toward racing. Racing comes before boys and friends. High school dances, fun trips with my friends, and lake weekends. It always comes before that. So I would consider myself a professional just in the fact that everything I do is geared toward racing but it's different now because before I was in a junior series.

It was called a junior series. That was Formula BMW. Skip Barber and Formula Mazda and the other Formula car series I've done. So they have been junior series. This year I will be moving to possibly having a salary and my money not going back into racing but helping me live on my own. That will be obviously really nice but right now because right now we are waiting for a sponsor.

This is huge. We need a corporation - a company - that sees what I am doing, that appreciates what I do in the non-profit field. The fact that I am using something that is so competitive and so dangerous for something that is so awesome and helping so many people. I really need someone that sees that, that appreciates it and wants me to move forward. The cool thing is with racing there is so much you can do to help each other especially the series that I am about to go into.

Hopefully this year I will get in a full size stock car. I will be in a completely professional series. Everyone I am racing against, that will be exactly what they do. They don't work at the McDonald's as well. They are full-time professional race car drivers.

Echo: How does someone become a sponsor? What's the commitment?

LA: The commitment is a financial commitment but I would say it’s also an emotional one?

Echo: How does it benefit the sponsor?

LA: They could have a competitive and aggressive outlook for their company. Employee appreciation. Advertising. Marketing. Co-branding with a non-profit as a tax incentive. It's unlimited.

Echo: You mentioned NASCAR. You don't have any ambition to race Indy cars, let's say?

LA: We'll see. My whole life has been Indy Car, Indy Car, Indy Car. That's all I ever wanted to do. Just dropping that over a six month period is not really possible for me to do. I have aspirations to get back into Indy car down the road but I have committed my entire life and my career to NASCAR and to stock car racing.

Once I dominate that sport, then I will allow myself to go over into the Indy car series. But I hope to be extremely competitive winning races before. I believe you should do one things right one hundred percent instead of spreading yourself to thin.

Echo: What is the outlook for Lindsey Adams?

LA: Our goal is to compete in the ARCA Remax Series in 2009, and if that goes well hopefully run a limited schedule in the Craftsman Truck Series. The unfortunate thing about racing is that everything is dependent upon finding a sponsor. or in someone believing in me enough to put me in that series. I am on a driver development program with a certain truck team, which is so awesome. I love the team. They are great. They drivers are so competitive and it’s fantastic. Currently, my focus is on developing oval track skills and getting used to fender-to-fender competition that I wasn’t exposed to in open wheel racing.

So it would go ARCA Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Nationwide Series, and the Sprint Cup Series. All of which are televised.

Echo: Good Luck!

LA: Thanks.