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Nationwide vet Mike Wallace will watch from the
spotter's stand when daughter Chrissy Wallace makes
her CTS debut in Martinsville. Like Dad,
19-year-old Chrissy drives for Germain Racing. Yet
Mike insists she earned the seat on
merit: "She didn't bring any money to the deal
and I didn't have any influence." Chrissy, the
first female to win at Hickory Speedway (2007), has
raced for eight years in legends and late models.
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Rusty Wallace has made clear one of his NASCAR
“retirement projects”.Little known fact
is another branch of the Wallace family tree. Mike
Wallace, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series driver,
has a seventeen year old daughter that is tearing
up the tracks around North Carolina.
Seventeen-year-old Chrissy Wallace pulls into
the garage area and yells to her crew, “I
think something broke on the trailing
arm.”
She climbs from a Thunder Roadster car and
examines a broken bolt. She tells a crew member,
“I felt the bolt break on the trailing arm
with two laps to go. I could finish last or keep
racing.”
Wallace kept on racing on this summer night,
showing the determination to finish that comes
naturally to members of her family.
The daughter of Nextel Cup driver Mike Wallace,
and niece of two other Cup drivers – Kenny
Wallace and former Cup champion Rusty Wallace
– Chrissy Wallace is in her third year of
racing and doesn’t hide her desire to someday
drive in NASCAR’s top series.
Tuesday nights in the summer bring the youngest
Wallace driver – with her piercing blue eyes,
long blonde hair, and broad, brace-filled smile
– to Lowe’s Motor Speedway outside
Charlotte to race in two series.
The RACEceiver Legends series features miniature
1930s-style stock cars with Yamaha 1250cc
motorcycle engines. They reach speeds of up to 75
mph on the speedway complex’s quarter-mile
oval.
Thunder Roadsters are open wheel-style cars with
the same engine, but with a longer wheel base and
softer tires. They can reach speeds of up to 90
mph.
When Chrissy Wallace first started racing
Legends cars, she said, she wasn’t welcomed by
the men and boys she competed against.
“Not too many guys are happy (women) are
around here – especially winning” she
said as she stood by her car, covered in stickers
earned for winning feature races. “But
we’re finding more acceptance.”
In addition to driving, Chrissy Wallace plays
basketball and softball, a sport in which she
fielded college scholarship offers. But, she said,
“I realized last year that racing was my true
dream.”
Her dad has never pushed her toward racing.
“I don’t care what she decides to do
– doctor, lawyer, driver, whatever,” Mike
Wallace said. “Just as long as she’s
happy.”
Later this year, she plans to move into a late
model stock car, racing at tracks in Hickory and
Concord. When she turns 18 in May, she intends to
seek sponsorship for a ride in NASCAR’s
Craftsman Truck Series.
“I’d like to race with her,” Mike
Wallace said. “A father-daughter race would be
pretty cool.”
If she’s successful there, that could lead
to the Busch Series and perhaps eventually to the
top-level Nextel Cup.
Wallace said she loves softball, but “my
heart is set on NASCAR and to be the first
successful female driver (in the series).”
Source: cranialcavity.net/fullthrottle/wp/index.php/the-wallace-family-tree
Wallace & McReynolds Among Hardee's
Summer Shootout Winners
Jess Mattox used his front bumper to move leader
Chrissy Wallace out of the way coming out of the
final turn, but it was not quite enough as the two
crossed the stripe in a dead heat Tuesday during
the Cabarrus Family Medicine Legends Car Semi-Pro
division feature on opening night of the 12th
annual Hardee's Summer Shootout at Lowe's Motor
Speedway.
Track officials reviewed digital video of the
finish several times before declaring Mattox of
Waycross, Ga., and Wallace, daughter of NASCAR
veteran Mike Wallace and a Concord, N.C., resident,
co-winners of the race that was shortened to 14
laps due to time constraints.
Source: www.womensracingjournal.com/articles/2005/06-16_shootout.php
www.mikewallace.com
Racin' for a Livin'
Chrissy Wallace has been selected as one of fifty
race car driver's (including 10 other women) for an
upcoming racing reality TV show - Racin' for a
Livin'. The competition starts with fans voting
online to select the top 12 drivers. Only these 12
drivers, selected solely by fan voting, progress to
the TV show. Then they compete in race cars, on
different courses, judged by top drivers, crew
chiefs and broadcasters. The winner receives a
fully-funded and sponsored ride for a limited
number of races in the NASCAR Busch Series. Please
go to www.racinforalivin.com
and show your support! Vote and Vote Often - you
can vote as often as you like!
Chrissy
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WomenInRacing.org
©1996-2007 by of Gordon Clay
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