In the fall of 1993, Jody was contacted by Action Packed Race
Cards to offer her an opportunity to drive their '37 Ford
Coupe Legends Car. For Action Packed, it was a choice between
Jody Folice and Dale Earnhardt's daughter.
"They
had heard of me from recommendations people had made based
on my success in karting. They knew a female driver would
generate publicity, but they also knew that they needed a
competitive female driver to maintain the publicity."
"Before
Mom died, Humpy Wheeler (CEO of Lowe's
Motor Speedway in Concord, NC), introduced the Legends
car and Mom said, 'If Humpy Wheeler is behind it, there is
something to it.'"
| In
her debut performances at Lowe's
Motor Speedway, she had three top five finishes in
three starts, a 3rd, 4th and 5th, and became the first
woman in history to drive a Legends car in a competitive
race.
Jody
drove the car again in the 10 week racing series 'Legends
of the West' at Canyon Raceway in Arizona, which was
broadcast live on The Nashville Network.
|
 |
As predicted,
she generated a lot of publicity. But to everyone's surprise,
the publicity was fueled, not by the idea of seeing a female
race car driver, but by her performance.
Every
week she was in contention to win, never finishing out of
the top ten, and when the series was finished, Jody came within
three points of winning the championship.
 |
While
Action Packed sponsored Jody, they ran a promotion whereby
a person sent in 10 card wrappers and had a choice of
2 special edition 24k gold collectors cards. When the
promotion was over, Action tallied up the results and
found that they had sent out more of Jody's cards.
|
Who was
on the other card? None other than country music legend Hank
Williams Jr.
She has
also received other accolades for her performance at Canyon
Raceway. Stock Car Racing Magazine, the premier professional
racing magazine in the industry, featured Jody in a two page
photo spread spotlighting the growing popularity of Legends
Car racing. Click here to see the
photo.
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