'I've always been a race fan,' says Alabama native
By Dave Koerner
dkoerner@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
SPARTA, Ky. -- Tina Gordon practically clangs as she walks. A rod extends from her left knee to the ankle, where several screws are in place from a crash last year that crushed her leg.
But don't feel sorry for this Alabama native. She wouldn't want that; she simply is following her late-budding dream to be a racer.
''I wouldn't know what to do without it now,'' said Gordon, who took up racing after owning an insurance agency.
Gordon, 34, is the only woman driving in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which will make its annual stop at Kentucky Speedway on July 12 with The Built Ford Tough 225.
She didn't climb into a race car until 1995, when she accepted a challenge from friends to race her husband Gary's green Nova in a powder-puff race on a dirt track in Gasden, Ala.
''They talked me into it, and I was nervous,'' she said.
Gordon won -- and has been ''hooked on it'' since.
She is 21st in this season's point standings after finishing 25th in the GNC 200 on Saturday in Milwaukee. She is fourth in rookie standings.
She would like to compete at least one more season in trucks, assuming sponsorship becomes easier to realize, then move to NASCAR's Busch Series and finally to Winston Cup cars, where only a few women have tread.
''That's where I want to go, oh, definitely,'' she said. ''It all depends on the sponsorship. The toughest thing about racing is finding the sponsorship to race.''
Until 1995, Gordon said her main connection to racing came through being a NASCAR fan.
''Growing up near Talladega, I've always been a race fan,'' she said, adding that there might have been a hidden desire to become a driver.
''When you're a teenager and you're driving down the road, driving on the edge, I remember thinking, 'I'd like to do this.' But I never seriously pursued it until I climbed into that dirt car.''
Even then, she was far from making a commitment. In time, however, she sold her insurance agency.
''I could be 60 years old and still sell insurance,'' she said. ''So I decided to sell it and pursue racing.''
Until then, she and her husband had agreed to sell his racing equipment ''and get out of racing'' after he was injured when a car fell on him while he was looking under it.
He now has a pest-control business but is with her on race weekends.
''He has been very supportive,'' she said.
Gordon continued racing on dirt tracks, moved to late models and then to NASCAR's All-Pro Series for 1999 and 2000, finishing among the top 20 in points both seasons.
In 2001 she shifted to the ARCA circuit. Then last May her ARCA season was shortened by an accident in Charlotte, N.C., that caused multiple fractures in her left leg.
But in October, just five months after the crash, she climbed into a car at Talladega.
''I had to do it for me,'' she said. ''And once I climbed back into that car, I never thought any more about it.''
Gordon finished 10th in a Busch race at Talladega in April. Her best finish this season in trucks was 13th at Charlotte.
''I'm still floating on that one,'' she said of the Busch finish.
Gordon said she frequently is asked the same two questions.
One: Is she related to Winston Cup driving star Jeff Gordon?
No. Nor is she related to driver Robby Gordon.
And two: How do male drivers treat her?
''I've always gotten support from other drivers,'' she said, adding that this season has created more of a ''family'' environment.
But, she noted of her ability on the racetrack, ''I don't think gender has a lot to do with it.''
Still, she said she hears jokes about woman drivers.
''I even get them from my son,'' she said of Seth, 10, who excels as a catcher in baseball. ''But it's in good humor.''
Gordon said she realizes she's pretty much a pioneer because so few women race professionally.
''I think it's great. I enjoy driving race cars,'' she said. ''I just happen to be a female. If that can do something to inspire some other person, a young girl or a young boy, to pursue -- and not just racing -- but even some other sport they can't pursue because of their gender, that'll be great.''