Charlotte Racing News - Charlotte, NC - The Folice Blotter

The Folice Blotter

Jody Folice definitely comes from solid racing stock.

Her father, Joe, was a short track racer in Connecticut and the day he married her mother, he took his bride to a race in which he would be competing that night at Middletown.

"Mom told me that they announced over the PA. 'Congratulations to Joe and Gloria Folice, who just got married today." and that Joe would be competing in the Sportsman Class, or whatever, that night," Jody said.

"Mom was in the stands and said that some guy leaned over to her and said, "What kind of an a**hole would bring his wife to a race track on their wedding night?'

"She turned to him and said, 'I married that a**hole."

Folice began racing kart in the Wilton Go-Kart Club in Connecticut.

"It was a school parking lot," she said.

She has faced resistance from the very beginning because she is female, "Especially when I go where people don't know me," she said.

"Someone shoved their shoulder into me and tried to intimidate me at one race track," Folice said. "That was really the worst. But I go to race just like they do. If I were there to prance around, it would be a different story. But they know that I'm there to race and that I'm serious."

Serious she is when it comes to her racing career and she has the credentials to prove it.

She's won the 1982 Karting Grand National Championship in Canada, Empire State Championships in New York, a WKA Gold Cup Series Championship in 1986, a Modified Series Championship in 1988 and countless track championships.

"I won more when I was younger because I raced more," she said. "As I got older, I needed to be more self supporting so the funds haven't been there."

Folice supports herself through managing T & J's Deli in downtown Concord, a family-owned operation which is a popular lunch spot for Winston Cup drivers and team members.

She eventually hopes to go racing full time in a full-bodied car and has a Late Model Stock Car being built by RBR Racecars to run at Concord.

"I'm also talking with a guy about running a NASCAR Dash Series car for him next year," she said. "I'm going to finish the car (the Late Model Stock) and then if the Dash deal goes through, I'm going to run it whenever I can. I want to get as much experience as I can."