July 11, 2025 • 34 mins
When six-year-old Lena Chin attended her first race at Sebring, something clicked—the sights, sounds, and energy of motorsport captured her imagination completely. Nearly two decades later, she's become a competitive force in the Gridlife Touring Cup Series, piloting her Honda S2000 against some of the best amateur racers in the country.
In this illuminating conversation, Lena pulls back the curtain on the unique world of Gridlife racing—a grassroots series that blends competitive motorsports with music festival energy at iconic tracks across America. Far from the polished corporate atmosphere of professional racing, Gridlife offers an accessible yet fiercely competitive environment where drivers compete on street tires while building a tight-knit community that feels like family.
Lena's journey reveals the evolution of success in racing—from chasing trophies to measuring growth through consistent improvement, rising from 20th place to consistent top-10 finishes against fields of 50 cars. Her Honda S2000, built by AD Smedgard Motorsports with a transplanted K24 engine and full racing modifications, represents the technical side of the sport, while her interactions with young female fans highlight the human impact of representation in a traditionally male-dominated space.
Beyond the adrenaline of wheel-to-wheel competition, Lena shares how she balances racing with career and personal life, finding renewal through time spent at Chicago's lakefront and exploring the city's diverse neighborhoods. She offers listeners a glimpse into memorable racing moments—from night racing at Daytona to recent podium finishes at Mid-Ohio—and announces an upcoming women-only track day at Gingerman Raceway designed to welcome newcomers to the sport.
Whether you're a seasoned racing enthusiast or simply curious about the human stories behind motorsport, Lena's perspective offers a refreshing look at modern grassroots racing and the women proving they belong on track. Follow her journey on Instagram @oneLenaChin and YouTube at Lena Chin Racing, and discover why more fans and competitors are calling Gridlife racing home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Melinda Russell (00:02):
Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network
podcast, the show that puts thespotlight on the incredible
women who fuel the world ofmotorsports, from drivers to
crew members, engineers to fansand everyone in between.
We're here to celebrate thetrailblazers, dreamers and doers
shaping the sport we love.
Each episode we share inspiringstories of females of all ages
(00:24):
from every corner of themotorsports universe past,
present and future.
It's a journey through theseasons of life filled with
heartfelt moments, laughter anda whole lot of horsepower.
So, whether you're a lifelongfan, a racer yourself or simply
curious about the extraordinarywomen behind the wheel, settle
in, relax and enjoy a fun anduplifting ride with us.
(00:46):
This is the Women's MotorsportsNetwork podcast, connecting and
celebrating women inmotorsports, one story at a time
.
Let's hit the track.
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(01:55):
Hello everyone, this is MelindaRussell with the Women's
Motorsports Network podcast, andmy guest today is Lena.
Lena Chin is a race car driverand she drives in a series that
we haven't really interviewedvery many people about, so I'm
(02:15):
excited to have her kind ofshare more about that.
But first, lena, I want towelcome you to the show and
would you tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Lena Chin (02:25):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Yeah, so I'm Lena Chen.
I drive a Honda S2000 in theGood Life Touring Cup Series and
I've been racing probably forabout 17 years now.
But I've been into cars andmotorsports most of my life.
(02:45):
So I kind of got my start whenI was younger.
My dad took me to the 12 hoursof Sebring when I was about six
and I just thought it was thecoolest thing ever.
So I kind of got hooked there,watched a lot of Formula One, I
played a ton of Gran Turismo andother racing games anything I
(03:06):
could kind of get my hands on atthe time, right TOCA racing and
I'm kind of aging myself toowhen I'm saying it's like Rad
Racer, but yeah, always reallyloved it.
One of my favorite arcade gameswas Ferrari F355 Challenge.
That was always a ton of funbecause it actually had a clutch
pedal.
But yeah, the bug never reallyleft me.
(03:29):
It took me until my mid-20s tobe able to afford to actually go
racing and kind of been workingmy way up.
Melinda Russell (03:39):
That's very cool, so I'm going to go back a
little bit.
Do you have pets, kids,anything that you want to share
about Sure?
Lena Chin (03:49):
Yeah, I have my best little doggie.
Her name is Foxy.
She comes to the racetrack withme sometimes.
She's a rescue dog that I gotwhen she was about two or three
in Florida where I used to live.
She's, I believe, half corgi,half golden lab.
I never got the DNA test, butshe has short little lowered
legs, which I love, and she hasjust the sweetest personality.
(04:12):
She'll go up to anyone and justask for belly rubs.
Melinda Russell (04:15):
Yeah, my dog's the same way.
He loves belly rubs, he's aShih Tzu, so yeah, he loves that
.
And you live in Chicago and sowe're not too awfully far from
each other.
We couple hours at the most.
And, lena, I actually was atgrid life at ginger man recently
, and so you know, I, you gotstarted at Lamon, which is or no
(04:40):
, sebring, which is a littledifferent than grid life, but in
a lot of ways it's kind of thesame to the road course in that.
So why don't you share with usa little bit about how you got
going like in grid life, ormaybe a little bit more about
grid life, because a lot ofpeople probably don't know what
that is.
Lena Chin (05:00):
Yeah, so grid life is kind of a it was a grassroots
competition.
It actually started as a trackday for people in the Midwest
and kind of grew and theydecided to switch it up and add
time trial.
And then, I believe in about2017, 2018, they decided to add
this like wheel to wheelcomponent, which is the Gridlife
(05:23):
Touring Cup, and it happened toattract some of the best
amateur racers in the country,people who've won championships
through other series that exist.
I'm sure you know some of yourfans or you know listeners,
might've heard of NASA and SCCAand everything.
So you know we've had formerchampions come in, we've had
(05:44):
IMSA drivers come race with usin GLTC, so it kind of spanned
from that.
Prior to me joining Gridlife Iwas racing NASA Florida, kind of
doing regional stuff and thenlike the national championship
and I was looking for maybe alittle more competition than I
(06:04):
was getting at the time and Idid my first race with Gridlife
at Atlanta Motorsports Park withthis Honda Prelude I had it was
an old X racer IMSA Preludewith an H23 and you know I'd
always been kind of podiumingand the fields were a little bit
smaller in Florida and I go tothis grid life event and I
(06:28):
placed 14th and I was like thisis ridiculous.
Like oh my gosh, I've never hadcompetition like this before and
you know, the goal of racing,at least for me, is always to be
improving myself.
So I kind of made that decisionat that point.
I was like, ok, like this is aseries I want to be in.
It's full of young people, theyhave a wonderful kind of family
(06:51):
aspect to it, they have amusical aspect to it.
So it's definitely kind of theup and coming race organization
race series.
So I'm excited to kind of be apart of it now and also be able
to hone my my racing skills.
Melinda Russell (07:06):
Yeah, absolutely, and my husband and I
drove over.
They were at Ginger man a fewweeks ago, three or four weeks
ago, and we drove over becauseit's not far from Kalamazoo and,
wow, I couldn't believe howmany people were there.
Now I've been to Ginger man acouple of times for events, but
it was never grid life and therewere just people everywhere and
(07:32):
cars and it was just amazing,so fun to watch.
And you know, I'm glad that wetook the time to go, because
it's not a series that I thinkpeople hear a lot about, not
like a lot of the other series,and so I wanted to make sure
that we could, you know, promoteit a little more and get the
word out.
And there's quite a few womenthat race in the different
(07:54):
classes, which was kind of cool.
So tell me about that.
Have you always raced in thesame you know class or what?
How has that gone in Gridlife?
Lena Chin (08:05):
Yeah, so within grid life I've always raised within
the touring cup class becauseI'm very much a wheel to wheel
racer.
I'm friends with a lot of thewomen, the other women that come
and race.
You know Natalie, who I knowyou interviewed.
She's a great friend of mine andit's been great to kind of see
her blossom within the classDevin Alexander.
(08:29):
She races Time Attack with herSubaru another amazing female
racer.
So really, really fun to havethat.
You know us as a group workingtogether to kind of promote
women in motorsports and, and Ithink Good Life does a really
good job of that.
So definitely definitelyexciting to see that Good Life
(08:50):
definitely has a kind of like anearly IMSA feel to it.
So if you, if you remember IMSAfrom like the 80s and it was a
lot of street stock cars andstuff it wasn't like the big
money kind of stuff that'shappening now yeah, I see a lot
of similarities between whereGood Life is now and where IMSA
was back in, maybe like the 80sand stuff.
(09:11):
So it's really cool to see.
Melinda Russell (09:13):
Yeah, and it's just grown so much.
That's the thing that's reallycool about it.
I love that part of it.
So what's your favorite part?
You know you've been racingquite a number of years.
What keeps you going back everyweekend?
Or you know, I know you don'trace every weekend, but what
keeps you going back instead of,you know, hanging out or doing
other things?
Lena Chin (09:33):
You know, if I could afford to go racing every
weekend, I probably would.
I think that there's nothingelse like it.
It is, like I said, kind oflike an extended family we love
that we all have, and it takesso much to process that.
I think it's really special tobe able to do that.
And there's not many otherthings within my life that I can
(10:14):
say requires that amount ofmental capacity.
So being able to focus on notonly your line, not only who's
around you, your speed, yourbreaking points, the flag
stations, like there's so muchgoing on, and being able to
manage it all, it's like thismassive sense of accomplishment
every time you get out there,and especially when you do well
(10:36):
right.
Melinda Russell (10:36):
Right, right, you know when you when I hear
you say about you know howyou're handling all these things
though it's kind of what we doas women, isn't it?
You know, we, we have a lot ofplates in the air or we're
juggling a lot of balls, orwhatever you want to say.
You know between life and thethings that we have to do, and
then racing's got a lot ofsimilarities to that as well.
Lena Chin (11:01):
Yeah, absolutely, you know life, career, friends,
family, like yes, absolutely, itis a lot of juggling.
The sense of urgency I thinkyou get with motorsports is
special.
With that little kick ofadrenaline it's like a drug
right.
Melinda Russell (11:16):
Yeah, for sure.
I always say you only have toget somebody to the track once,
and then they're usually hooked.
And so that's our goal, isn'tit To bring new people to the
track, expose them to're usuallyhooked?
And, and so that's our goal,isn't it to bring new people to
the track, expose them towhatever kind of racing it is,
and, and then our job is usuallydone.
They'll.
They'll keep coming back ontheir own because they're going
to get hooked on it for sure.
Lena Chin (11:35):
Yeah, I love that part, yeah, so tell me about
your car so my car is a HondaS2000 built by AD Smedgard
Motorsports.
Previously I'd built my owncars, ran my own teams.
I really want to concentratemore on like the driving aspect
versus the build aspect.
2022 GLTC max build car.
(12:03):
It has a K24, which is a motorout of a TSX.
It's not the original motor.
It has all the suspensiongoodies you know, like remote
reservoir shocks.
It's got differential full rollcage.
The interior has been removed.
It's you know, very few partsare original on it, but it was
(12:25):
all designed to be able to befixed quickly at the track so we
don't have a ton of timesometimes between sessions.
So that ability to kind of swapout differentials,
transmissions, any of thesuspension beds, real quick is
kind of vital for our racing.
So we do run a square setup.
(12:45):
That's pretty common in ourseries.
I run a 255, 35 18-inch tireand everyone in the series runs
200 tread wear street tires.
So I think a lot of people arepretty impressed with our lap
times that we're able toaccomplish with that, because
we've definitely had lap timesthat we're able to accomplish
with that, because we'vedefinitely had lap times that
(13:06):
seem to match or even beat someother people with slick tires.
So that's pretty exciting it isexciting.
Melinda Russell (13:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Now tell me a little bit aboutum.
You know, I know that, uh, gridlife goes to a lot of different
tracks.
I think you mentioned to me youlove Gingerman, so um, is that
your favorite track?
Or what other tracks do you goto?
I if people wanted to follow?
Or you know people listen fromall over the country, so where,
where else will you be racingthat they could maybe come out
(13:36):
and see a race.
Lena Chin (13:37):
Yeah, so this year, um, I'll be out at um.
My my all time favorite trackright now is Lime Rock In
Connecticut.
Love that track.
It's tiny, it's very fast paced, I've done very well there, so
I definitely enjoy that track.
I'll also be at PittsburghInternational Raceway, okay.
(13:59):
And then Autobahn in Illinois.
I think that's in August,september, september, excuse me,
okay.
And then there's a possibilityI might do Road America next
month in July.
So that's another big one forgood life.
Melinda Russell (14:15):
You know we race all over the country.
Lena Chin (14:17):
Yeah, we were at Road Atlanta earlier this year.
We go to Mid-Ohio.
Some of my competitors aregoing to be racing there this
weekend, so that's prettyexciting.
We jokingly call ourselvesDirtbag IMSA just because we do
follow and go to a lot of themajor tracks.
Melinda Russell (14:36):
But our.
Lena Chin (14:36):
Super Bowl, like you said, is Gingerman Raceway.
That's kind of where it allstarted, so the crowds are huge.
We got 10 000 plus fans coming.
Melinda Russell (14:45):
you know um getting to meet the young fans,
like you said, um was so specialand and talking to them and and
getting them excited aboutracing was was um definitely a
highlight of of the weekend forme there there were a lot, of, a
lot of kids there, but I meanthere was old people like me,
little kids and everybody inbetween, Because you know, it
(15:07):
was just, it's just fun andMichigan's a hotbed for racing,
and so as soon as you hearthere's a race and on a Saturday
I was there on a Saturday, butfor a weekend and then, you know
, I also heard that some peoplecome just for the music.
So they have excellententertainment, I'm told.
Lena Chin (15:29):
Yeah, yeah, it's something pretty exciting about
a good life.
It's like you know, you raceall day and then you give
yourself you know an hour, acouple hours to kind of
decompress, and then you get togo to this amazing concert,
right?
So we've gotten to see somereally, really cool artists and
just hang out and and um.
Being able to dance and anddecompress that way after a race
(15:52):
is truly, truly special.
Melinda Russell (15:54):
It is for sure, and you know the thing is, lena
, not just race car drivers, butbut fans.
They want more than just racingnowadays.
You know they want to beentertained, and especially when
it's a weekend.
You know NASCAR is similar tothat, where you know they try to
provide some kind ofentertainment and different
things, because when they cometo the races they want more than
(16:19):
just that.
And it used to be.
The racing was enough, but it'sjust not anymore.
There's too much else fightingfor their attention, for sure,
for sure, I can tell you realquick.
Lena Chin (16:29):
I had a story.
I forgot what year it was, butI went to the F1 race in Austin
and you would never believe it,but Taylor Swift was playing for
the concert after.
And, oh my, my gosh, it was sospecial because, um, these
daughters and mothers were thereat the race, right, and then,
you know, originally they werekind of there for Taylor Swift,
(16:50):
but I could see how excited somany of them were to see the
race cars before the concert.
You know, like that was hugethat they sold out.
Of course it's Taylor Swift,right, yeah, and um, and so,
like that's a great way to getmore fans in, right, there's
definitely a crossover betweenum, music and and racing, so
it's really cool to see becauseyeah, you know we need that.
Melinda Russell (17:14):
It really is cool to see.
So, um, what would you say?
You know some people thinksuccess has to be getting the
trophy.
I don't necessarily think thatthat's really.
Success can be a lot of things.
It can be improving from thestart of the year to the next.
It can be all kinds of things.
How do you look at beingsuccessful If you look back on
(17:37):
your?
You know at the end of thisyear you're going to look back.
What's going to be the thingsthat make you feel like you were
successful.
Lena Chin (17:46):
So there's a few things I always look at for
success.
Certainly I used to run intothe camp of I need the trophies,
but now that you know I'magainst better competitors, I
kind of have taken a step backand really kind of changed how I
feel about what success meansto me.
For one, like you said,improvement is huge.
So I've been racing withGridlife in the GLTC field with
(18:11):
this car specifically for aboutthree years now and each year
I've kind of been improving,I've been moving up the field.
I kind of started around 20thout of 50.
And you know, the next year iskind of up to 15th um and now,
like my goal of being within thetop 10 um, within, you know,
about 50 cars um is generallywhere I'm at.
(18:32):
So I do see that improvementand that's huge um.
The other is just being a goodsteward for um, for women in
motorsports and to kind of getthe children and the kids
interested and be a good stewardin that sense.
So those are kind of the maingoals I look for and what
(18:53):
success kind of looks like forme.
That's important and then alsojust in terms of being a good
competitor to everyone around me, you know, and making sure that
we all want to continue to racetogether.
You know there's not a ton ofwomen in motorsports, as I'm
(19:15):
sure you're very aware of.
So just being that good stewardand showcasing, hey, we can be
here, we can be very competitive, you know.
Is is so, so important to me.
Melinda Russell (19:28):
Yeah, it is because, you know, some of the,
I'm going to say, older men thathave been in racing are harder
to win over than the younger.
The younger men seem to be waymore accepting of women, but I
think they're they've grown upkind of with that.
From, maybe, quarter midgets orcarding, there was a lot more
(19:50):
girls maybe.
And so, um, yeah, we have to,we have to hold our own.
And yet, um, you know, makesure that they understand those
around us that we're there torace and have a good time and be
successful, just like they are.
You're all there for the samereason, and so, you know, you
want to make sure that when youcome to the next race there's
(20:13):
not somebody that's out to getyou or whatever.
We're all going to be lookingout for each other a little bit,
I would think for sure.
Out for each other a little bit, I would think for sure.
So, as a woman, I know you havea dog, that you know that you
have to take care of, just likehaving a child or worse.
Sometimes I had four kids andso then now I have this dog,
(20:35):
who's my child, and sometimesthey take more work than having
the kids.
So how do you balance life?
You know all the things thatyou have to do in a normal.
I'm sure you have a normal job,some kind of work that funds
your racing.
How do you manage all that?
What do you do to take care ofyourself?
Lena Chin (20:57):
Well, I'm very thankful that I have a great
support group of friends aroundme and you know, that's
certainly helpful.
Managing life it's not alwayseasy, you know.
Thankfully, foxy, my dog, isvery chill.
She does help me get out of thehouse sometimes when I'm just
(21:21):
feeling lazy or overwhelmed andshe's like, hey, no, we have to
go for a walk.
Um, that's nice, she actuallyhelps me in that sense.
Um, but yeah, I think I just,um, I have to take it one day at
a time.
I try to plan out my racing,but I try not to plan too too
much because then it can kind ofbecome overwhelming racing but,
(21:43):
I try not to plan too too much,because then it can kind of
become overwhelming.
You know, me and my friends getto do this thing we call
following the goose.
So some weekends when I'm notracing and I don't have any
prior commitments, just being inthe city of Chicago, we'll just
go out and explore aneighborhood.
You know, and that'sdecompressing.
We have the lake over here onthis side right and it's a
(22:04):
10-minute walk for me.
So I use the lake to kind ofreset, kind of reorder and
determine you know kind ofwhat's important, what I need to
do next in terms of motorsports or my life, work or what
have you, and it just kind ofgets me away from the screen
time, right.
So my day job is, you know,lots of meetings, lots of
(22:26):
PowerPoints and computer-basedthings.
So being able to go to the lakeand just kind of recharge is so
vitally important for me.
Melinda Russell (22:37):
Well, and there's so many cool little
neighborhoods and like littlerestaurants tucked in places
where you wouldn't expect them,and you know you could spend a
long time doing that, justfinding all the cool little
restaurants alone, so that's,that's probably kind of a lot of
fun to do, Exactly.
Lena Chin (22:55):
Yeah.
Melinda Russell (22:57):
So if somebody came up to you a mom or a dad at
a race and said you know, mylittle girl saw you racing and
she wants to race, what wouldyou say to them?
Lena Chin (23:10):
You know, I would give them all the encouragement
they needed to be able to do it.
I think that's kind of whatwe're out there for is for the
next generation and to have theconfidence to tell them hey, you
can absolutely be out heredoing this.
You know, that actuallyhappened to me at Gingerman.
A little girl came up to me andshe was so, so sweet and at the
(23:34):
end, after we talked and sheasked for my autograph.
You know, she was like what'syour favorite part about racing?
And I kind of jokingly said itwas like beating the boys.
Melinda Russell (23:43):
And she just loved it.
Lena Chin (23:45):
Yeah, so she's.
She saw the little.
You know, one of the otherseries we have in good life is
called the rush series and it'sa smaller car and she was.
She was a younger, smaller girland I think that just really
spoke to her and just the same,when I was young, you know, the
first time I saw a racinggo-kart, I was like, oh my gosh,
I need to have one of these, Ican fit into it and I can race
(24:06):
right so yeah, yeah, that's fun.
Melinda Russell (24:10):
So do you have a favorite memory?
Uh, you've raced 17 years.
A favorite memory good or bad?
That if somebody said you knowwhat's, what's the best thing
that's happened for you inracing, what would be something
you would always look at and saythat's my favorite memory.
Lena Chin (24:29):
Gosh, there are so many.
I think one of them was I gotto race this RX-7 in a I think
it was a 14-hour race at Daytonaand it was nighttime and I was
just in the groove andeverything was just right, like
it wasn't too hot in the car.
We were doing really well.
(24:50):
The car was handlingbeautifully.
That was amazing.
Another one was I was doing anendurance race at mid Ohio
earlier this year in WRL and weactually had another woman racer
in the team and we did reallywell.
It was a brand new team We'venever been together, brand new
(25:12):
car and we managed to podiumthird place on Saturday and we
got second place on Sunday,which was outstanding.
So that was really special tosee a brand new team kind of
come together and do so welltogether.
Melinda Russell (25:28):
So I love mid Ohio.
Been there many times to seethe motorcycle races back in the
day.
My husband is a biker and wewould go there and get up at oh
dark 30 to put our blanket downon the key at the keyhole.
Because that was our favoriteplace to sit, so I love that
track and also um road america.
(25:51):
Those are both two of ourfavorite places to go.
For sure, those are greattracks.
So, lena, how about um?
Somebody wants to follow you.
They're like, oh, she races acool series.
I'd like to know, you know whenshe's going to be racing.
Maybe she'll be racing close.
How would somebody follow youor keep track of you in your
(26:12):
racing.
Lena Chin (26:13):
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram that's probably the
easiest at one Lena Chin, thenumber one, and L E N A C
HA-C-H-I-N.
I have a YouTube channel, leenaChin Racing, so you can see my
in-car videos and I'm going totry to get more like bloggish,
(26:43):
bloggish videos up therehopefully sooner than later.
You know, certainly, if you haveFacebook, you can look me up.
It's just Leena Chin.
So yeah, I am certainlyreachable.
Would love, you know, foranyone who listens to your
podcast to come say hi, please.
Please, do not be shy coming upto me.
I love meeting new people.
Okay, If they have anyquestions about how I got to
where I'm at or what they can dowithin motorsports, you know,
because it's not.
(27:03):
You know, I love the racingportion, but I've done the other
parts too.
I've done timing and scoring.
I've done corner working.
I've, you know, been a fan,like I've kind of been around
the ring and love it all.
Melinda Russell (27:16):
Yeah that's awesome and you know, the nice
thing about your series is youwalk right up to the trailer and
look at the car and talk to thepeople, and everybody's willing
to talk to you.
You know they all want to share.
They all want to share abouttheir car and what you know, and
it's such an open and funatmosphere because it's it's
(27:37):
kind of like a party but there'sracing involved, so it's a.
It's a good time, that's forsure, for sure, for sure.
Yeah Well, lena, is thereanything we haven't talked about
that you'd like to share, thatwe missed?
Lena Chin (27:52):
Uh, you know, just uh , maybe future plans.
I'm hoping eventually to um, totake my racing a little more
serious.
Maybe try to.
You know we're always, I'malways shooting to go
professional racing.
I know it.
It is so, so, so difficult.
I've seen very few be able toaccomplish it.
But you know I'm working onhoning my skills.
(28:12):
I do want to take a moment tojust shout out to my sponsors,
asm Motorsports.
They, they helped build the car, they help manage it right now.
You know, thank you, andy,dakota, my parents, for
supporting me in my endeavors.
Thanks mom and dad.
You know I have family thatgets to come out to some races,
(28:35):
so I appreciate that.
And then my sponsors beingSawbell and Hawk Brake Pads.
So I appreciate their help withgetting me out on racing and I
am open for more sponsorships.
Melinda Russell (28:48):
So if anyone is interested, yeah, absolutely,
and they, they, definitely.
I definitely encourage anybodythat is listening.
You know, the thing that's niceis you get a lot of up close
and personal, like I said, andso they see all those stickers
and they can ask you about thosecompanies and you're going to
be able to share with themeasier than a lot of other race
(29:10):
series, and so that's anexcellent way for companies to
get their name out there.
So I encourage, if you'relistening, to reach out and
support Lena and race cardrivers wherever you are,
because it's a very expensivesport and the sponsors are so
important.
They keep you going and none ofus could do anything without
(29:33):
them.
So I'm glad you mentioned those.
That's very, very nice of youto do that.
So, lena, I'm so glad wefinally got to see each other.
I kept missing you at the track.
I'd come and see and you weregone and I'd come back.
Oh no, she left again and so Ikept missing you.
But this is better, becauseit's kind of noisy there to try
(29:55):
to do an interview and this ismuch better anyway.
Lena Chin (29:59):
No, I definitely appreciate it and definitely
appreciate you reaching out.
I am so sorry I forgot one moresponsor, koenig wheel.
Thank you so much for yoursponsorship.
I could not do it withoutrolling on your wheels, so I
just wanted to say that one too.
It'd be hard to race withoutthe wheels, wouldn't it?
It would be very difficult, sothank you.
But yes, thank you so much forreaching out.
I'm sorry we weren't able tomeet at the track, but this was
(30:20):
wonderful yeah.
Melinda Russell (30:21):
And you know I'll be back to Ginger man.
I'll be back next year to watch.
I said to my husband okay, nextyear we have to make a better
plan.
I want to take my lawn chairand sit up on the hill in the
shade and, you know, do theracing, like we used to do at
Mid-Ohio.
So, we've already planned we'llbe back next year, and then
(30:42):
we'll be able to see you face toface.
Lena Chin (30:45):
Excellent, I can't wait for that.
Oh, one other thing I'd like tojust say is we are doing a
women's only track day atGingerman Raceway.
I believe it's in October.
I will send you the detailsbefore this podcast comes out
just so that you can have it forthere.
But yes, in October we areplanning I'm going to help
instruct.
I'm not organizing it, but Iwill absolutely be there and in
(31:08):
full support of all women doinga track day.
So if you're listening to thisand you always want to get on
track, it is such a low pressureway to just enjoy the day,
learn what it's like to be arace car driver and how to
manage driving on the track.
It's really exciting and I hopesome people can join from here.
Melinda Russell (31:28):
Oh, I think they will.
That's a great activity to havefor the women.
So you know, sometimes when Ihad somebody say to me well, I
wanted to start racing, but Iwas intimidated because there
weren't that many women and Ididn't want to ask a bunch of
questions and look stupid, andyou know how that goes on and on
, and so she went to a woman'sonly event and that's how she
(31:51):
got started racing.
So I encourage you, if you'relistening to this, we'll get
some information out there forthem to find out when that is
and we'll promote it so thatthey can go.
If they're here in SouthwestMichigan or Northern Indiana,
anywhere in this area, GingerMan's a great place to go.
Lena Chin (32:09):
Yeah, it's an amazing track.
There's nothing really to hit.
It's very open and it's a great, great place to kind of learn
the ropes.
Melinda Russell (32:16):
Yeah for sure.
Well, Lena, thank you again forbeing on.
I really appreciate it and I'llbe watching how you're doing
this year and and anytime youwant to reach out and share an
update or anything, I'm alwaysalways willing to share it
awesome.
Lena Chin (32:33):
Thank you so much again sure you're welcome.
Melinda Russell (32:36):
All right, promoting a track takes heart,
and now showing appreciation canbe just as easy with send out
cards.
You can thank sponsors,volunteers, drivers and fans
with personalized digital cardssent right from your phone or
(32:57):
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It's that simple Unlimitedsends for just $10 a month.
Go to sendoutcardscom forwardslash 53240.
That's sendoutcardscom.
Forward slash 53240.
(33:18):
Because gratitude builds greattracks.
That's it for this episode ofthe Women's Motorsports Network
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We hope you've been inspired bythe stories I shared today and
feel more connected to theamazing community of women in
motorsports.
Remember, whether you're behindthe wheel, in the pits or
(33:42):
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(34:06):
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(00:24):
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(00:46):
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(01:55):
Hello everyone, this is MelindaRussell with the Women's
Motorsports Network podcast, andmy guest today is Lena.
Lena Chin is a race car driverand she drives in a series that
we haven't really interviewedvery many people about, so I'm
(02:15):
excited to have her kind ofshare more about that.
But first, lena, I want towelcome you to the show and
would you tell us a little bitabout yourself.
Lena Chin (02:25):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Yeah, so I'm Lena Chen.
I drive a Honda S2000 in theGood Life Touring Cup Series and
I've been racing probably forabout 17 years now.
But I've been into cars andmotorsports most of my life.
(02:45):
So I kind of got my start whenI was younger.
My dad took me to the 12 hoursof Sebring when I was about six
and I just thought it was thecoolest thing ever.
So I kind of got hooked there,watched a lot of Formula One, I
played a ton of Gran Turismo andother racing games anything I
(03:06):
could kind of get my hands on atthe time, right TOCA racing and
I'm kind of aging myself toowhen I'm saying it's like Rad
Racer, but yeah, always reallyloved it.
One of my favorite arcade gameswas Ferrari F355 Challenge.
That was always a ton of funbecause it actually had a clutch
pedal.
But yeah, the bug never reallyleft me.
(03:29):
It took me until my mid-20s tobe able to afford to actually go
racing and kind of been workingmy way up.
Melinda Russell (03:39):
That's very cool, so I'm going to go back a
little bit.
Do you have pets, kids,anything that you want to share
about Sure?
Lena Chin (03:49):
Yeah, I have my best little doggie.
Her name is Foxy.
She comes to the racetrack withme sometimes.
She's a rescue dog that I gotwhen she was about two or three
in Florida where I used to live.
She's, I believe, half corgi,half golden lab.
I never got the DNA test, butshe has short little lowered
legs, which I love, and she hasjust the sweetest personality.
(04:12):
She'll go up to anyone and justask for belly rubs.
Melinda Russell (04:15):
Yeah, my dog's the same way.
He loves belly rubs, he's aShih Tzu, so yeah, he loves that
.
And you live in Chicago and sowe're not too awfully far from
each other.
We couple hours at the most.
And, lena, I actually was atgrid life at ginger man recently
, and so you know, I, you gotstarted at Lamon, which is or no
(04:40):
, sebring, which is a littledifferent than grid life, but in
a lot of ways it's kind of thesame to the road course in that.
So why don't you share with usa little bit about how you got
going like in grid life, ormaybe a little bit more about
grid life, because a lot ofpeople probably don't know what
that is.
Lena Chin (05:00):
Yeah, so grid life is kind of a it was a grassroots
competition.
It actually started as a trackday for people in the Midwest
and kind of grew and theydecided to switch it up and add
time trial.
And then, I believe in about2017, 2018, they decided to add
this like wheel to wheelcomponent, which is the Gridlife
(05:23):
Touring Cup, and it happened toattract some of the best
amateur racers in the country,people who've won championships
through other series that exist.
I'm sure you know some of yourfans or you know listeners,
might've heard of NASA and SCCAand everything.
So you know we've had formerchampions come in, we've had
(05:44):
IMSA drivers come race with usin GLTC, so it kind of spanned
from that.
Prior to me joining Gridlife Iwas racing NASA Florida, kind of
doing regional stuff and thenlike the national championship
and I was looking for maybe alittle more competition than I
(06:04):
was getting at the time and Idid my first race with Gridlife
at Atlanta Motorsports Park withthis Honda Prelude I had it was
an old X racer IMSA Preludewith an H23 and you know I'd
always been kind of podiumingand the fields were a little bit
smaller in Florida and I go tothis grid life event and I
(06:28):
placed 14th and I was like thisis ridiculous.
Like oh my gosh, I've never hadcompetition like this before and
you know, the goal of racing,at least for me, is always to be
improving myself.
So I kind of made that decisionat that point.
I was like, ok, like this is aseries I want to be in.
It's full of young people, theyhave a wonderful kind of family
(06:51):
aspect to it, they have amusical aspect to it.
So it's definitely kind of theup and coming race organization
race series.
So I'm excited to kind of be apart of it now and also be able
to hone my my racing skills.
Melinda Russell (07:06):
Yeah, absolutely, and my husband and I
drove over.
They were at Ginger man a fewweeks ago, three or four weeks
ago, and we drove over becauseit's not far from Kalamazoo and,
wow, I couldn't believe howmany people were there.
Now I've been to Ginger man acouple of times for events, but
it was never grid life and therewere just people everywhere and
(07:32):
cars and it was just amazing,so fun to watch.
And you know, I'm glad that wetook the time to go, because
it's not a series that I thinkpeople hear a lot about, not
like a lot of the other series,and so I wanted to make sure
that we could, you know, promoteit a little more and get the
word out.
And there's quite a few womenthat race in the different
(07:54):
classes, which was kind of cool.
So tell me about that.
Have you always raced in thesame you know class or what?
How has that gone in Gridlife?
Lena Chin (08:05):
Yeah, so within grid life I've always raised within
the touring cup class becauseI'm very much a wheel to wheel
racer.
I'm friends with a lot of thewomen, the other women that come
and race.
You know Natalie, who I knowyou interviewed.
She's a great friend of mine andit's been great to kind of see
her blossom within the classDevin Alexander.
(08:29):
She races Time Attack with herSubaru another amazing female
racer.
So really, really fun to havethat.
You know us as a group workingtogether to kind of promote
women in motorsports and, and Ithink Good Life does a really
good job of that.
So definitely definitelyexciting to see that Good Life
(08:50):
definitely has a kind of like anearly IMSA feel to it.
So if you, if you remember IMSAfrom like the 80s and it was a
lot of street stock cars andstuff it wasn't like the big
money kind of stuff that'shappening now yeah, I see a lot
of similarities between whereGood Life is now and where IMSA
was back in, maybe like the 80sand stuff.
(09:11):
So it's really cool to see.
Melinda Russell (09:13):
Yeah, and it's just grown so much.
That's the thing that's reallycool about it.
I love that part of it.
So what's your favorite part?
You know you've been racingquite a number of years.
What keeps you going back everyweekend?
Or you know, I know you don'trace every weekend, but what
keeps you going back instead of,you know, hanging out or doing
other things?
Lena Chin (09:33):
You know, if I could afford to go racing every
weekend, I probably would.
I think that there's nothingelse like it.
It is, like I said, kind oflike an extended family we love
that we all have, and it takesso much to process that.
I think it's really special tobe able to do that.
And there's not many otherthings within my life that I can
(10:14):
say requires that amount ofmental capacity.
So being able to focus on notonly your line, not only who's
around you, your speed, yourbreaking points, the flag
stations, like there's so muchgoing on, and being able to
manage it all, it's like thismassive sense of accomplishment
every time you get out there,and especially when you do well
(10:36):
right.
Melinda Russell (10:36):
Right, right, you know when you when I hear
you say about you know howyou're handling all these things
though it's kind of what we doas women, isn't it?
You know, we, we have a lot ofplates in the air or we're
juggling a lot of balls, orwhatever you want to say.
You know between life and thethings that we have to do, and
then racing's got a lot ofsimilarities to that as well.
Lena Chin (11:01):
Yeah, absolutely, you know life, career, friends,
family, like yes, absolutely, itis a lot of juggling.
The sense of urgency I thinkyou get with motorsports is
special.
With that little kick ofadrenaline it's like a drug
right.
Melinda Russell (11:16):
Yeah, for sure.
I always say you only have toget somebody to the track once,
and then they're usually hooked.
And so that's our goal, isn'tit To bring new people to the
track, expose them to're usuallyhooked?
And, and so that's our goal,isn't it to bring new people to
the track, expose them towhatever kind of racing it is,
and, and then our job is usuallydone.
They'll.
They'll keep coming back ontheir own because they're going
to get hooked on it for sure.
Lena Chin (11:35):
Yeah, I love that part, yeah, so tell me about
your car so my car is a HondaS2000 built by AD Smedgard
Motorsports.
Previously I'd built my owncars, ran my own teams.
I really want to concentratemore on like the driving aspect
versus the build aspect.
2022 GLTC max build car.
(12:03):
It has a K24, which is a motorout of a TSX.
It's not the original motor.
It has all the suspensiongoodies you know, like remote
reservoir shocks.
It's got differential full rollcage.
The interior has been removed.
It's you know, very few partsare original on it, but it was
(12:25):
all designed to be able to befixed quickly at the track so we
don't have a ton of timesometimes between sessions.
So that ability to kind of swapout differentials,
transmissions, any of thesuspension beds, real quick is
kind of vital for our racing.
So we do run a square setup.
(12:45):
That's pretty common in ourseries.
I run a 255, 35 18-inch tireand everyone in the series runs
200 tread wear street tires.
So I think a lot of people arepretty impressed with our lap
times that we're able toaccomplish with that, because
we've definitely had lap timesthat we're able to accomplish
with that, because we'vedefinitely had lap times that
(13:06):
seem to match or even beat someother people with slick tires.
So that's pretty exciting it isexciting.
Melinda Russell (13:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Now tell me a little bit aboutum.
You know, I know that, uh, gridlife goes to a lot of different
tracks.
I think you mentioned to me youlove Gingerman, so um, is that
your favorite track?
Or what other tracks do you goto?
I if people wanted to follow?
Or you know people listen fromall over the country, so where,
where else will you be racingthat they could maybe come out
(13:36):
and see a race.
Lena Chin (13:37):
Yeah, so this year, um, I'll be out at um.
My my all time favorite trackright now is Lime Rock In
Connecticut.
Love that track.
It's tiny, it's very fast paced, I've done very well there, so
I definitely enjoy that track.
I'll also be at PittsburghInternational Raceway, okay.
(13:59):
And then Autobahn in Illinois.
I think that's in August,september, september, excuse me,
okay.
And then there's a possibilityI might do Road America next
month in July.
So that's another big one forgood life.
Melinda Russell (14:15):
You know we race all over the country.
Lena Chin (14:17):
Yeah, we were at Road Atlanta earlier this year.
We go to Mid-Ohio.
Some of my competitors aregoing to be racing there this
weekend, so that's prettyexciting.
We jokingly call ourselvesDirtbag IMSA just because we do
follow and go to a lot of themajor tracks.
Melinda Russell (14:36):
But our.
Lena Chin (14:36):
Super Bowl, like you said, is Gingerman Raceway.
That's kind of where it allstarted, so the crowds are huge.
We got 10 000 plus fans coming.
Melinda Russell (14:45):
you know um getting to meet the young fans,
like you said, um was so specialand and talking to them and and
getting them excited aboutracing was was um definitely a
highlight of of the weekend forme there there were a lot, of, a
lot of kids there, but I meanthere was old people like me,
little kids and everybody inbetween, Because you know, it
(15:07):
was just, it's just fun andMichigan's a hotbed for racing,
and so as soon as you hearthere's a race and on a Saturday
I was there on a Saturday, butfor a weekend and then, you know
, I also heard that some peoplecome just for the music.
So they have excellententertainment, I'm told.
Lena Chin (15:29):
Yeah, yeah, it's something pretty exciting about
a good life.
It's like you know, you raceall day and then you give
yourself you know an hour, acouple hours to kind of
decompress, and then you get togo to this amazing concert,
right?
So we've gotten to see somereally, really cool artists and
just hang out and and um.
Being able to dance and anddecompress that way after a race
(15:52):
is truly, truly special.
Melinda Russell (15:54):
It is for sure, and you know the thing is, lena
, not just race car drivers, butbut fans.
They want more than just racingnowadays.
You know they want to beentertained, and especially when
it's a weekend.
You know NASCAR is similar tothat, where you know they try to
provide some kind ofentertainment and different
things, because when they cometo the races they want more than
(16:19):
just that.
And it used to be.
The racing was enough, but it'sjust not anymore.
There's too much else fightingfor their attention, for sure,
for sure, I can tell you realquick.
Lena Chin (16:29):
I had a story.
I forgot what year it was, butI went to the F1 race in Austin
and you would never believe it,but Taylor Swift was playing for
the concert after.
And, oh my, my gosh, it was sospecial because, um, these
daughters and mothers were thereat the race, right, and then,
you know, originally they werekind of there for Taylor Swift,
(16:50):
but I could see how excited somany of them were to see the
race cars before the concert.
You know, like that was hugethat they sold out.
Of course it's Taylor Swift,right, yeah, and um, and so,
like that's a great way to getmore fans in, right, there's
definitely a crossover betweenum, music and and racing, so
it's really cool to see becauseyeah, you know we need that.
Melinda Russell (17:14):
It really is cool to see.
So, um, what would you say?
You know some people thinksuccess has to be getting the
trophy.
I don't necessarily think thatthat's really.
Success can be a lot of things.
It can be improving from thestart of the year to the next.
It can be all kinds of things.
How do you look at beingsuccessful If you look back on
(17:37):
your?
You know at the end of thisyear you're going to look back.
What's going to be the thingsthat make you feel like you were
successful.
Lena Chin (17:46):
So there's a few things I always look at for
success.
Certainly I used to run intothe camp of I need the trophies,
but now that you know I'magainst better competitors, I
kind of have taken a step backand really kind of changed how I
feel about what success meansto me.
For one, like you said,improvement is huge.
So I've been racing withGridlife in the GLTC field with
(18:11):
this car specifically for aboutthree years now and each year
I've kind of been improving,I've been moving up the field.
I kind of started around 20thout of 50.
And you know, the next year iskind of up to 15th um and now,
like my goal of being within thetop 10 um, within, you know,
about 50 cars um is generallywhere I'm at.
(18:32):
So I do see that improvementand that's huge um.
The other is just being a goodsteward for um, for women in
motorsports and to kind of getthe children and the kids
interested and be a good stewardin that sense.
So those are kind of the maingoals I look for and what
(18:53):
success kind of looks like forme.
That's important and then alsojust in terms of being a good
competitor to everyone around me, you know, and making sure that
we all want to continue to racetogether.
You know there's not a ton ofwomen in motorsports, as I'm
(19:15):
sure you're very aware of.
So just being that good stewardand showcasing, hey, we can be
here, we can be very competitive, you know.
Is is so, so important to me.
Melinda Russell (19:28):
Yeah, it is because, you know, some of the,
I'm going to say, older men thathave been in racing are harder
to win over than the younger.
The younger men seem to be waymore accepting of women, but I
think they're they've grown upkind of with that.
From, maybe, quarter midgets orcarding, there was a lot more
(19:50):
girls maybe.
And so, um, yeah, we have to,we have to hold our own.
And yet, um, you know, makesure that they understand those
around us that we're there torace and have a good time and be
successful, just like they are.
You're all there for the samereason, and so, you know, you
want to make sure that when youcome to the next race there's
(20:13):
not somebody that's out to getyou or whatever.
We're all going to be lookingout for each other a little bit,
I would think for sure.
Out for each other a little bit, I would think for sure.
So, as a woman, I know you havea dog, that you know that you
have to take care of, just likehaving a child or worse.
Sometimes I had four kids andso then now I have this dog,
(20:35):
who's my child, and sometimesthey take more work than having
the kids.
So how do you balance life?
You know all the things thatyou have to do in a normal.
I'm sure you have a normal job,some kind of work that funds
your racing.
How do you manage all that?
What do you do to take care ofyourself?
Lena Chin (20:57):
Well, I'm very thankful that I have a great
support group of friends aroundme and you know, that's
certainly helpful.
Managing life it's not alwayseasy, you know.
Thankfully, foxy, my dog, isvery chill.
She does help me get out of thehouse sometimes when I'm just
(21:21):
feeling lazy or overwhelmed andshe's like, hey, no, we have to
go for a walk.
Um, that's nice, she actuallyhelps me in that sense.
Um, but yeah, I think I just,um, I have to take it one day at
a time.
I try to plan out my racing,but I try not to plan too too
much because then it can kind ofbecome overwhelming racing but,
(21:43):
I try not to plan too too much,because then it can kind of
become overwhelming.
You know, me and my friends getto do this thing we call
following the goose.
So some weekends when I'm notracing and I don't have any
prior commitments, just being inthe city of Chicago, we'll just
go out and explore aneighborhood.
You know, and that'sdecompressing.
We have the lake over here onthis side right and it's a
(22:04):
10-minute walk for me.
So I use the lake to kind ofreset, kind of reorder and
determine you know kind ofwhat's important, what I need to
do next in terms of motorsports or my life, work or what
have you, and it just kind ofgets me away from the screen
time, right.
So my day job is, you know,lots of meetings, lots of
(22:26):
PowerPoints and computer-basedthings.
So being able to go to the lakeand just kind of recharge is so
vitally important for me.
Melinda Russell (22:37):
Well, and there's so many cool little
neighborhoods and like littlerestaurants tucked in places
where you wouldn't expect them,and you know you could spend a
long time doing that, justfinding all the cool little
restaurants alone, so that's,that's probably kind of a lot of
fun to do, Exactly.
Lena Chin (22:55):
Yeah.
Melinda Russell (22:57):
So if somebody came up to you a mom or a dad at
a race and said you know, mylittle girl saw you racing and
she wants to race, what wouldyou say to them?
Lena Chin (23:10):
You know, I would give them all the encouragement
they needed to be able to do it.
I think that's kind of whatwe're out there for is for the
next generation and to have theconfidence to tell them hey, you
can absolutely be out heredoing this.
You know, that actuallyhappened to me at Gingerman.
A little girl came up to me andshe was so, so sweet and at the
(23:34):
end, after we talked and sheasked for my autograph.
You know, she was like what'syour favorite part about racing?
And I kind of jokingly said itwas like beating the boys.
Melinda Russell (23:43):
And she just loved it.
Lena Chin (23:45):
Yeah, so she's.
She saw the little.
You know, one of the otherseries we have in good life is
called the rush series and it'sa smaller car and she was.
She was a younger, smaller girland I think that just really
spoke to her and just the same,when I was young, you know, the
first time I saw a racinggo-kart, I was like, oh my gosh,
I need to have one of these, Ican fit into it and I can race
(24:06):
right so yeah, yeah, that's fun.
Melinda Russell (24:10):
So do you have a favorite memory?
Uh, you've raced 17 years.
A favorite memory good or bad?
That if somebody said you knowwhat's, what's the best thing
that's happened for you inracing, what would be something
you would always look at and saythat's my favorite memory.
Lena Chin (24:29):
Gosh, there are so many.
I think one of them was I gotto race this RX-7 in a I think
it was a 14-hour race at Daytonaand it was nighttime and I was
just in the groove andeverything was just right, like
it wasn't too hot in the car.
We were doing really well.
(24:50):
The car was handlingbeautifully.
That was amazing.
Another one was I was doing anendurance race at mid Ohio
earlier this year in WRL and weactually had another woman racer
in the team and we did reallywell.
It was a brand new team We'venever been together, brand new
(25:12):
car and we managed to podiumthird place on Saturday and we
got second place on Sunday,which was outstanding.
So that was really special tosee a brand new team kind of
come together and do so welltogether.
Melinda Russell (25:28):
So I love mid Ohio.
Been there many times to seethe motorcycle races back in the
day.
My husband is a biker and wewould go there and get up at oh
dark 30 to put our blanket downon the key at the keyhole.
Because that was our favoriteplace to sit, so I love that
track and also um road america.
(25:51):
Those are both two of ourfavorite places to go.
For sure, those are greattracks.
So, lena, how about um?
Somebody wants to follow you.
They're like, oh, she races acool series.
I'd like to know, you know whenshe's going to be racing.
Maybe she'll be racing close.
How would somebody follow youor keep track of you in your
(26:12):
racing.
Lena Chin (26:13):
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram that's probably the
easiest at one Lena Chin, thenumber one, and L E N A C
HA-C-H-I-N.
I have a YouTube channel, leenaChin Racing, so you can see my
in-car videos and I'm going totry to get more like bloggish,
(26:43):
bloggish videos up therehopefully sooner than later.
You know, certainly, if you haveFacebook, you can look me up.
It's just Leena Chin.
So yeah, I am certainlyreachable.
Would love, you know, foranyone who listens to your
podcast to come say hi, please.
Please, do not be shy coming upto me.
I love meeting new people.
Okay, If they have anyquestions about how I got to
where I'm at or what they can dowithin motorsports, you know,
because it's not.
(27:03):
You know, I love the racingportion, but I've done the other
parts too.
I've done timing and scoring.
I've done corner working.
I've, you know, been a fan,like I've kind of been around
the ring and love it all.
Melinda Russell (27:16):
Yeah that's awesome and you know, the nice
thing about your series is youwalk right up to the trailer and
look at the car and talk to thepeople, and everybody's willing
to talk to you.
You know they all want to share.
They all want to share abouttheir car and what you know, and
it's such an open and funatmosphere because it's it's
(27:37):
kind of like a party but there'sracing involved, so it's a.
It's a good time, that's forsure, for sure, for sure.
Yeah Well, lena, is thereanything we haven't talked about
that you'd like to share, thatwe missed?
Lena Chin (27:52):
Uh, you know, just uh , maybe future plans.
I'm hoping eventually to um, totake my racing a little more
serious.
Maybe try to.
You know we're always, I'malways shooting to go
professional racing.
I know it.
It is so, so, so difficult.
I've seen very few be able toaccomplish it.
But you know I'm working onhoning my skills.
(28:12):
I do want to take a moment tojust shout out to my sponsors,
asm Motorsports.
They, they helped build the car, they help manage it right now.
You know, thank you, andy,dakota, my parents, for
supporting me in my endeavors.
Thanks mom and dad.
You know I have family thatgets to come out to some races,
(28:35):
so I appreciate that.
And then my sponsors beingSawbell and Hawk Brake Pads.
So I appreciate their help withgetting me out on racing and I
am open for more sponsorships.
Melinda Russell (28:48):
So if anyone is interested, yeah, absolutely,
and they, they, definitely.
I definitely encourage anybodythat is listening.
You know, the thing that's niceis you get a lot of up close
and personal, like I said, andso they see all those stickers
and they can ask you about thosecompanies and you're going to
be able to share with themeasier than a lot of other race
(29:10):
series, and so that's anexcellent way for companies to
get their name out there.
So I encourage, if you'relistening, to reach out and
support Lena and race cardrivers wherever you are,
because it's a very expensivesport and the sponsors are so
important.
They keep you going and none ofus could do anything without
(29:33):
them.
So I'm glad you mentioned those.
That's very, very nice of youto do that.
So, lena, I'm so glad wefinally got to see each other.
I kept missing you at the track.
I'd come and see and you weregone and I'd come back.
Oh no, she left again and so Ikept missing you.
But this is better, becauseit's kind of noisy there to try
(29:55):
to do an interview and this ismuch better anyway.
Lena Chin (29:59):
No, I definitely appreciate it and definitely
appreciate you reaching out.
I am so sorry I forgot one moresponsor, koenig wheel.
Thank you so much for yoursponsorship.
I could not do it withoutrolling on your wheels, so I
just wanted to say that one too.
It'd be hard to race withoutthe wheels, wouldn't it?
It would be very difficult, sothank you.
But yes, thank you so much forreaching out.
I'm sorry we weren't able tomeet at the track, but this was
(30:20):
wonderful yeah.
Melinda Russell (30:21):
And you know I'll be back to Ginger man.
I'll be back next year to watch.
I said to my husband okay, nextyear we have to make a better
plan.
I want to take my lawn chairand sit up on the hill in the
shade and, you know, do theracing, like we used to do at
Mid-Ohio.
So, we've already planned we'llbe back next year, and then
(30:42):
we'll be able to see you face toface.
Lena Chin (30:45):
Excellent, I can't wait for that.
Oh, one other thing I'd like tojust say is we are doing a
women's only track day atGingerman Raceway.
I believe it's in October.
I will send you the detailsbefore this podcast comes out
just so that you can have it forthere.
But yes, in October we areplanning I'm going to help
instruct.
I'm not organizing it, but Iwill absolutely be there and in
(31:08):
full support of all women doinga track day.
So if you're listening to thisand you always want to get on
track, it is such a low pressureway to just enjoy the day,
learn what it's like to be arace car driver and how to
manage driving on the track.
It's really exciting and I hopesome people can join from here.
Melinda Russell (31:28):
Oh, I think they will.
That's a great activity to havefor the women.
So you know, sometimes when Ihad somebody say to me well, I
wanted to start racing, but Iwas intimidated because there
weren't that many women and Ididn't want to ask a bunch of
questions and look stupid, andyou know how that goes on and on
, and so she went to a woman'sonly event and that's how she
(31:51):
got started racing.
So I encourage you, if you'relistening to this, we'll get
some information out there forthem to find out when that is
and we'll promote it so thatthey can go.
If they're here in SouthwestMichigan or Northern Indiana,
anywhere in this area, GingerMan's a great place to go.
Lena Chin (32:09):
Yeah, it's an amazing track.
There's nothing really to hit.
It's very open and it's a great, great place to kind of learn
the ropes.
Melinda Russell (32:16):
Yeah for sure.
Well, Lena, thank you again forbeing on.
I really appreciate it and I'llbe watching how you're doing
this year and and anytime youwant to reach out and share an
update or anything, I'm alwaysalways willing to share it
awesome.
Lena Chin (32:33):
Thank you so much again sure you're welcome.
Melinda Russell (32:36):
All right, promoting a track takes heart,
and now showing appreciation canbe just as easy with send out
cards.
You can thank sponsors,volunteers, drivers and fans
with personalized digital cardssent right from your phone or
(32:57):
laptop.
Add a photo, write a messageand hit send.
It's that simple Unlimitedsends for just $10 a month.
Go to sendoutcardscom forwardslash 53240.
That's sendoutcardscom.
Forward slash 53240.
(33:18):
Because gratitude builds greattracks.
That's it for this episode ofthe Women's Motorsports Network
podcast.
We hope you've been inspired bythe stories I shared today and
feel more connected to theamazing community of women in
motorsports.
Remember, whether you're behindthe wheel, in the pits or
(33:42):
cheering from the stands, yourstory matters, and together
we're driving change andcelebrating.
Every milestone matters, andtogether we're driving change
and celebrating every milestone.
If you enjoyed today's episode,be sure to subscribe, leave us
a review and share it withsomeone who loves motorsports as
much as you do, and don'tforget to follow us on Facebook
and Instagram for updates,behind the scenes content and
(34:06):
more incredible stories.
So until next time, stayinspired, stay connected and
keep racing through life.
This is the Women's MotorsportsNetwork podcast, where every
woman's story is worthcelebrating.
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