The St. Johns Grand Prix is in its 7th year with over 200 racers from all over the western part of the country competing for the coveted wins. NAPA Auto Parts and their Arizona Dealers have joined Salt River Project’s Coronado Generating Station and Golden Eagle Distributors as title sponsors of this 3 day event in rural St. Johns Arizona, 200 miles northeast of Phoenix in the White Mountain region of the state on September 1-4, 2006. Tickets are $5 per day and available from the St. Johns Chamber of Commerce at 928-337-2000.
The ASA Speed Truck series is a proven launching pad to the fame and fortune of NASCAR, and with abundant talent, determination and a little luck, Amy man have a chance at joining truck racing alumni Jimmy Johnson, brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch and Casey Mears.
That’s good company.
Elizondo is in her second year in the Speed Truck series. She began in quarter midgets on dirt tracks winning two championships when she was 13 and has been running two seasons in her ASA Speed Truck with the ASA ProAutoSports Challenge Division.
Elizondo also is in the comfort zone after picking up her pace significantly and setting lap records and wins in the last several months as she makes her transition to the trucks. All this while she attends college in pre-engineering, getting straight A’s.
She hopes the attention smothering Danica Patrick’s chances in the Indy Racing League will trickle down. “In a way Danica has been an inspiration,” said Elizondo, noting Patrick’s determination and motivation. “I have all of that, too. Everybody says you’re going to be just like her.”
Elizondo said she’s concentrating on physical fitness. She has a personal trainer helping her build her upper body so she can, uh, manhandle the truck when necessary and increase her endurance. “Amy is also a mature, smart driver. She competes well with our GTSC Stock Car drivers on track and they all respect her abilities. It is not unusual to see her racing side by side with much more experienced drivers,” stated Larry Pond, Managing Director of ProAutoSports.
Racing for Elizondo is heartfelt, too. “It’s a passion I’ve had since I was little,” said Elizondo, who shares her passion between racing and music. She is an accomplished violinist.
She fell in love with racing when she was 7 and saw her first racecar, a quarter midget. At 13 she won two championships.
She is accustomed to being the only girl on the racetrack and she’s held her own as little boys at the wheels of quarter midgets forced her to the wall, and some of them wrecking her. In one night of racing her little car sustained two broken front axels.
The boys still don’t like being passed by a girl, and although she does not disagree that women by nature are not as aggressive as men, she has found it within herself to do whatever it takes.
“When I put that helmet on it’s a different world,” she said. “It’s either me or them.”
She ran her first ASA Speed Truck race in November 2003 at Blythe, Calif., and then her family took a year off to gather the money to challenge for the Speed Truck Challenge rookie of the year title. Amy is scouting for the sponsors that can give her the boost that will allow her to run every ASA-Speed Truck event. She understands that she will have to give back to the sponsors in order to make things work.
“Competing for Rookie of the Year has been our goal since we got the truck,” she said. “When I went to Blythe I’d never driven the truck before. I learned how to shift it and everything the day before the race. I’d never been in a vehicle that I had to shift.”
“This young lady shows a lot of promise, and the ASA Speed Truck Challenge will take her a little closer to her dreams,” said ASA ProAutoSports Managing Director Larry Pond. “We hope one day to see Amy make it. That would make me very proud. That they got their starts with us would be, as they might say, awesome.”
Spectators will be able to meet Amy in person at the St. Johns Grand Prix Labor Day Weekend. She is ready to take on the competition at this event and give it her best.
Tickets are $5 per day for adults and children under 18 get in free. Saturday starts at 9am with a race car parade of 200 cars through the streets of St. Johns. The rest of Saturday is practice. Sunday is qualifying with the ASA-Speed Truck Feature Race at 4pm. Monday is a series of Feature races starting each hour from 10am-3pm.
There is a Vendor Midway with the popular band, The Lakesiders led by Al Holt playing each afternoon from 12-4pm.
Tickets and Vendor spaces are available from the St. Johns Chamber of Commerce 928-337-2000.