Annika Carter

Annika Carter - Driver / Influencer for Annika's Racing

Annika Carter has over four years of performance driving experience, both with and without professional instruction. She has driven several race tracks throughout the southern United States including Road Atlanta, Atlanta Motorsports Park, Barber Motorsports Park, Carolina Motorsports Park, Virginia International Raceway and Roebling Road Raceway.

Contact: Annika Carter at Visit Online!

     

• Let’s start off by talking about your Motorsports past. How did you get started? Who/What was your motivation? What attracted you to race?
• What do you do to prepare for an event/race? Do you have a workout routine? How do you mentally prepare? Do you use simulators?
• Do you do any coaching? 
• What does your racing schedule look like? What tracks are you running at? So far, which is your favorite, which is the worst, what’s on your bucket list?
• If a young girl walked up to you today and asked, Why do you race? What would you say? 

and much, much more!

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder How did they get that job or become that person?

The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.

Crew Chief Eric: Our guest tonight has many years of performance driving experience. She has driven racetracks with names like Road Atlanta, AMP, Barber Motorsports Park, Carolina Motorsports Park, VIR, and Roebling Road to name a few. In the summer of 2017, she joined the National Autosport sports associations, high performance driving education program, and rapidly progress from HPD level one to level four, all while completing NASA’s licensing school in a single season.

Fast forward a bit. She began [00:01:00] her racing career in spec Miata campaigning her own car and ultimately hopes to proceed into professional racing, starting with the Mazda MX five cup series, joining Donovan. From Garage Ride and I tonight is Anika Carter. She’s constantly working to better herself behind the wheel.

She believes everything is possible and is fully dedicated to fulfilling her goals on track. And we welcome her to BrakeFix to share her story. So welcome to BrakeFix, Anika. Thank you so much for having me. A pleasure. So let’s start off talking about your motorsports past. How did you get into cars?

Annika Carter: It’s kind of funny how I got into cars.

Cause I didn’t grow up as a car person. My dad is not a car person. My brother is not a car person. I’ve actually made my brother into a car person recently. When I was looking at going to colleges, my parents essentially bribed me to go to school in state by offering to buy me a car. It was just that much cheaper for me to go to school in state.

Cause here in Georgia, we have a state funded scholarship that essentially pays for all of [00:02:00] your tuition at a state school. So my parents were like, Hey, That’s cheaper to buy you a car. Let’s do it. I’ve always liked to, you know, stand out a little bit from the crowd and, you know, drive the same thing that everyone else drives, wear the same thing everyone else wears.

So I didn’t want to just get a Toyota Camry. I wanted something, you know, a little sporty, a little different. Was initially looking at Scion FRSs, didn’t know anything about them, just knew I liked the way they looked. Went back and forth with my parents because they wanted me to have something bigger and finally settled on a V6 Mustang.

Then I didn’t want my Mustang to be like everyone else’s Mustang. So I decided I wanted to modify it. And I am 100 percent YouTube certified in car modifications. I learned everything I know on YouTube. The very first project I ever did on my car was Lowering Springs. Great place to start. Didn’t start easy.

Just dove right into it, you know, just kind of first started getting into cars just by modifying my car. After I’d done a couple of little things to it, I was at school in Athens, Georgia And I went to Home Depot for something and someone from the Athens [00:03:00] Area Mustang Club left a business card on my driver’s side window, like inviting me to go to their next meet.

So I started getting into the car meet scene through the Athens Area Mustang Club there, started making more car friends. Became friends with some people who happened to work at Road Atlanta about a year or two after I bought my car or got my car. I put coilovers on it. All my friends were like, Oh, you can’t put coilovers on your car and not take it to the racetrack.

So I did naturally. That’s, you know, someone says you can’t do it. You got to do it. I just remember that first track day was like the best day of my life. I remember halfway through just thinking that like, this is so much fun and just decided that that was what I wanted to do.

Crew Chief Eric: Was it a manual Mustang?

Annika Carter: My parents didn’t trust that I knew how to drive stick.

It is manual now.

Crew Chief Eric: Good, good. Nothing worse than a V6 Mustang is a V6 Mustang with an automatic, right?

Annika Carter: No, right? I will take the V6 automatic Mustang jokes. I have made them.

Donovan Lara: Nice. I

Annika Carter: will still take the V6 Mustang jokes. I still own one.

Donovan Lara: Having a Mustang, can you tell us if there’s any truth [00:04:00] behind all of the memes that we see about Mustang drivers, uh, not being able to At cars at cars and coffee?

Yeah.

Annika Carter: I would say in some way there is truth to it. Really, it’s it’s starting to become Chargers now, I feel, but really Mustangs, and now Chargers, are like the easiest way to Get a lot of horsepower. And so think like when you’ve got a young kid who can, you know, spend 30, 000 and get 450 horsepower under his right foot, like he’s going to do stupid stuff.

Right. It happens.

Crew Chief Eric: Your first cars would be six Mustang. And then you didn’t make that your race car forever. And you found a couple of cars since then. So what’s the progression and where are you at now? What is, what’s the fleet look like?

Annika Carter: The fleet is larger than it should be. So I started with the V6 Mustang.

That was my first car became my first track car. I started tracking it. It started getting less and less practical for the road, especially because it was lowered. I put on a splitter, it’s scraping over every speed bump. So I decided that I wanted to get myself something practical to drive [00:05:00] every day.

Okay. And naturally my practical car was a 1992 Miata. They’re cheap. You know,

Crew Chief Eric: did you change your mind and go from a Mustang to a Miata because you were passed by one on the track? Is that how it went down? That usually happens.

Annika Carter: Believe it or not. No, it was the cost. Cause spec Miata is a lot, a lot less expensive to run, but I have passed a Corvette in my Miata at Road Atlanta.

And then in my Mustang, I actually, I got a custom plate for my Mustang that says it’s a V6. Because I would pass people on the track and they would think that’d be the thing. It was a GT and I like had to, you know, prove to them that it was a V6. So like that way, when I passed, you know, the Audi R8, which happened or, you know, your Porsche or something like that, I just want them to know immediately that they got passed by a V6 Mustang.

It’s necessary.

Donovan Lara: The flip side of that is I had a Japanese turbo. I’ll spare which one it is back in the day. And my tag said V8 this. Please do that. Do some racing. And it was always, it was, you know, that, Oh, you know, I’ve got a big V8. I can smoke, you kind of thing. Back when I was doing things [00:06:00] I probably shouldn’t have.

Annika Carter: I would love to get my Fiat to that point just because the Fiat is such a cute car. Like you don’t think anything of it. Like it’s just adorable. I actually had like a person come up to me at the post office once and ask me what kind of fuel economy it made because they thought it was like one of those little econo boxes, like a smart car.

And I was like, No, it, it’s not. And then I started it and I saw her like do a double take. He’s like, yeah, it’s so like inauspicious. I like would love to be able to, you know, pull up to a stoplight and when that guy in the V eight muscle car pulls up next to and he’s reving thinking he’s, you know, all cool and everything, just gap him in a fiat.

It would be so great. .

Donovan Lara: I was, I was really surprised. I think you and I talked about the last time I went to the dragon and there was a fiat in front of us and

Annika Carter: yeah.

Donovan Lara: Just through the corners. It was incredible.

Annika Carter: Bought my Miata, his name is Steve. So Steve, I named before I ever bought it. I just thought like a Miata.

It’s got a cute little face. It needs to have like a generic name. So his name is Steve.

Crew Chief Eric: You gotta say it like they did in, what was that? One of those Pixar where it’s like Steve . Right?

Annika Carter: I, I’ve always said it’s spelled with a period at the end. Like it’s just Steve

Crew Chief Eric: full [00:07:00] stop. Yeah. Yes.

Annika Carter: That is my street Miata.

A lot of people get confused. I have two Miatas now I do. So I bought Steve. He became my daily driver slash my project car. And I learned a lot of what I know about cars, about mechanics on cars on that car on Steve, just because the Mustang, a lot of stuff didn’t break. It was like, I was just modifying and making stuff better, but on Steve, I was actually having to fix things at one point, like there was this.

Rhythmic thumping vibration that I couldn’t figure out what it was. So I just replaced everything. I literally did the drive shaft and the axles and the wheel hubs just at the same time, because I was like, yeah, it’s going to be one of them, but yeah. So got Steve had those two for a while, started getting closer to doing competition school, had to buy my first set of track tires for the Mustang.

At that point, I was a college student working at a restaurant and those tires were quite expensive. So I realized I had to find something a little bit more affordable to race. And I also wanted to get into a series where I would have a large group of people to race with. And that’s where I started looking into Spec Miata.

Cool thing about Spec Miata, even though our cars aren’t [00:08:00] very fast, super close racing, all the cars are essentially identical in horsepower and torque, they have the same suspension. They limit you on their tires. I mean, they limit. Pretty much everything you can do to the car. And we’re getting classes of, you know, 20 to 30 cars instead of five.

And it’s fun when you can race someone first through third, or you can race someone fifth through 10th, or you can race someone if you’re in 18th, 19th, and 20th. I

Donovan Lara: heard in spec Miata that essentially you stay in line until an opportunity rises, but if you jump out of line, they’ll. They’ll basically close you off and make you circulate to the back of the pack.

Annika Carter: Yes. In a way it’s kind of like that when you get your group of really evenly matched drivers. So let’s say you’re like places one through seven or something like that. They’re all be really evenly matched. They’re probably all running within a couple of tenths of each other on lap times. So they’ll be running in a line doing what’s called bump drafting.

So close behind someone you’re getting the draft going a little bit faster and you bump them down the straight. And yeah, when you’re in that situation, you just follow and you’re waiting for that car in front of you to make a little mistake. And once you see them make that little [00:09:00] mistake, you go for it.

Sometimes, too, you’ll be in the line and you’re watching for where you might be stronger than the driver in front of you. So you might notice that they’re pulling on you going, you know, out of turn 11, but you’re pulling on them into turn 1. So maybe next time going into turn one, you’re gonna try to outbreak them because you know you’re stronger than them in that corner because the cars are so evenly matched.

It relies very, very heavily on technique and driver skill. Bought my spec Miata out of Ohio, actually sight unseen, had it shipped to me. Started racing that, let’s see, I got that in November of 2017. Started racing that in 2018 I had to get a trailer because I, uh, was initially street driving my race car to the track.

Which like fully stickered, fully caged race car driving it to the track on the street. It’s a miracle I didn’t get a ticket because 500 percent not street legal. I got my trailer and bought a 2011 Ford Expedition as my first tow vehicle because they were cheap and trucks are expensive. So I owned the Expedition and The entire time I owned that car, I was shopping for a diesel truck.

And a year and [00:10:00] a half after I bought it, I found a great deal on a diesel truck, four and a half hours away. Impulse bought that. Kept the Expedition as a daily driver because at that point, Steve was getting his engine rebuilt. And then traded in the Expedition on my Fiat 500. What’s the Fiat

Donovan Lara: called then?

Annika Carter: The Fiat’s name is Bart.

Donovan Lara: Is yours an Abarth?

Annika Carter: Yeah. Oh yeah. So mine has still has the factory turbo on it, but I have a bigger turbo I’m going to be putting on hopefully in the next couple of months, fingers crossed.

Crew Chief Eric: I would blend the two worlds. I’m still after a one 24 spider, which is a Miata with the Abarth power plant.

Right. So it’s the best of both. Turn up the wick on that thing. Make 300 horse and call it a day.

Annika Carter: The Fiat.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s what I call it. The Fiat. Exactly. I’m going to ask this pits up question. Like we always ask, what is. the sexiest car of all time?

Annika Carter: Oh, that is such a difficult question. My first car obsession, when I first got into cars, which was relatively recently, I got into cars as an adult and then got into real estate and had to buy an adult car and bought a 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo.

So I have six cars. But was [00:11:00] the Viper ACR, specifically the ACR and the most recent generation of it. Don’t ask me chassis codes and stuff because I don’t know. But I also have a soft spot for pretty much anything McLaren, especially the Senna. And I had the chance to see a Senna in person when I was in Greenwich, Connecticut last year, along with a bunch of other fantastic cars that I’m never going to see again in my life.

Crew Chief Eric: So we did a Viper episode recently. So I have to ask, you know, there’s the quote unquote classic Viper, which is the blue with the white stripes, which I don’t necessarily agree that is completely classic since the first Viper was red. So what’s the best color combination for a Viper since you said that is the sexiest car of all time?

Annika Carter: Any and all?

Crew Chief Eric: So if you had to buy, if you had to buy one today, what color would it be?

Annika Carter: I mean, the one that first drew my attention was the gray with red and black accents. And probably like if I had to buy one, I would go with that because my theory is always go with a neutral colored car because then you can add bright colored accents.

Or in the future, wrap it. And [00:12:00] if you start with a bright colored car, you can’t add bright colored accents ’cause like your car’s already red or blue or something like that. And then if you do wrap it, your door jambs just really stand out like a sore thumb .

Donovan Lara: So I’m looking at your Instagram over here and now the car’s purple.

Was it purple before

Annika Carter: purple for a couple of weeks?

Donovan Lara: Where do you, so you do that all yourself, right?

Crew Chief Eric: I was going to say the, the color of your Fiat currently is not so neutral. It’s that metallic purple,

Annika Carter: but the car is great. See, so like when I, if I cut it cleanly in the door jams, like it doesn’t hurt your eyes going from the purple to the gray.

You don’t even really notice it. Or like the under of the underside of the hood being gray, you don’t really notice it. Whereas my Miata. is red and I’ve wrapped it black. It bothered me so much in the trunk. I actually painted the trunk black inside of it. And at some point I will be pulling the engine and painting the engine bay black.

Cause I just hate like the car’s black and you open the hood and it’s like red in your face.

Crew Chief Eric: See, that goes back to my theory that everybody should just buy black [00:13:00] cars. And then you paint over top of them or wrap over top and then you don’t have to worry about it. It’s all black,

Annika Carter: black, white or gray.

Yeah. Honestly, black or gray. Cause white would stand out a lot too. Cause white’s pretty bright.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. So if we flip that, we take the inverse of that question. What’s the ugliest car in your opinion?

Annika Carter: Um, the Nissan juke. Interesting. Okay. I jokingly call it the Nissan puke. I’m not a fan of that one. I don’t know why that’s the first one that comes to mind, but it is on cube.

I don’t like the cube either, like the asymmetrical rear window. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: But you know, what’s really funny about the juke that a lot of people don’t realize it’s the closest we’ll ever get. To driving a Renault in this country. It’s a Renault Clio underneath, but the center of gravity is completely wrong because it’s up on stilts and it’s super high as a CUV.

But I’m still like, but, but maybe sort of, but no, unfortunately it’s a joke. Right. But Hey, they stopped making it. So it’s all good.

Annika Carter: I feel like the Duke is very polarizing too. Like I’ve talked [00:14:00] to people, not necessarily car people. I feel most car people who I talked to about the Duke are like, yeah, no, we don’t like it.

But I’ve talked to people who aren’t car people and they’re like, Oh, I love it. And I’m like, how

Crew Chief Eric: are

Annika Carter: we thinking about the

Crew Chief Eric: same car? It’s like the key of soul. And you’re like most car. It’s completely soulless. It’s boring. And somebody else,

Annika Carter: it’s so cute. And I’m like, What

Crew Chief Eric: are you talking about?

Annika Carter: Hey, my friend who has a Kia Soul only still has it because it’s paid off.

That’s literally the only reason he still has that car. Because he doesn’t have a car payment.

Crew Chief Eric: We asked that question recently. Would you buy a Chevy Spark? Would you drive one?

Annika Carter: No.

Crew Chief Eric: Under no circumstances. Absolutely not.

Annika Carter: Throw some race tires on it and some coilovers and you probably could have like a really fun spec race.

Crew Chief Eric: That was my justification was it would make a really cool B spec car with like a Fiesta and a Honda. you because they’re all gutless. So you’re out there just having fun in it. You know, it’s like, who cares? It’s a Chevy spark. So let’s get back to talking about [00:15:00] spec Miata racing for just a second. You go from D E to spec racing and it’s a night and day difference.

The conditioning, the whole process. How did you find the experience? What was it like as somebody coming to motorsport here in the last couple of years and going from, you know, Hey, this Miata on a track day that was, you know, let’s call it street prepared to use an autocross term to a fully caged SSM car.

Annika Carter: It’s different, really any car. Once you go from like your track car to your race car, it’s a very different feeling. Like even my Mustang when I made it full race car. Race cars low key want to kill you, like all the time. They kind of feel like, even a Miata, I know it’s silly to say this with a Miata, it makes 115 horsepower.

I, this is going to sound silly, but like race cars in and of themselves just feel a little wild. They’re just so bare bones. Going from, you know, something that has, and especially with the Miata, right, we’re going from something in the Mustang, I have traction control, I have ABS, I have power steering, to something that has none of that stuff, plus is caged, bare bones, [00:16:00] like, pure race car, it’s just a very different feeling, and it’s really hard to explain, and I think people who haven’t driven race cars have a hard time, like, understanding, too, just how different it can be, because they’re like, oh, my street car’s fast, But race cars just have such a different attitude to them.

And the biggest difference for me is just the difference in how you drive, even a V6 Mustang compared to a Miata. So a Miata is a very momentum based car where you do very little braking, and you’re just trying to carry as much speed as possible. You’re either flat foot on the gas or flat foot on the brake.

It’s one or the other. And you’re not doing a lot of time flat foot on the brake and the Mustang. You’re still having to, even the V6, you’re still having to feather a little bit. Learning that new style of driving was very different to me, but it did ultimately make me a much better driver. The next time I got into my Mustang,

Crew Chief Eric: you mentioned, you know, you didn’t come from a car family.

You weren’t predisposed to it. You didn’t have an auto crossing background or carting. Like some other people that we spoke to, you jumped right into HPDE, which is very similar to a lot of people that are listening to this episodes. Okay. I’ve gone to the track a couple of times. And then you made [00:17:00] that leap into club racing, right?

Let’s What was it like to go through the program? We interview a lot of the organizers sometimes and they, and they talk about it, but you’re the first person to come on here and express what it was like going through the progression. So do you want to take us through what that was like day one to then receiving your license, let’s say a year later,

Annika Carter: for me, I think it was relatively easy because I kind of had a mentor through the whole process.

I got hooked up with NASA because I’m bringing my Mustang to a drag racing shop and when I decided I wanted. To get into road racing. I called the owner just cause I knew he had done racing and said like, Hey, do you have any idea of how we can get started in road racing? I’d been reading through SCCA and NASA rule books.

And just those rule books make absolutely no sense if you haven’t seen them before. And if you’re not familiar with racing. It might as well be in a different language. And he gave me the information of Jerry Mulkey, who’s a coach and instructor with NASA and Jerry lives in North Carolina. And he actually drove down from North Carolina to [00:18:00] Georgia to Atlanta motorsports park for a track day to meet me and instruct me at that track day.

He told me about the NASA program and how it worked. And so he kind of walked me through the whole process. He was my instructor the entire time. He’s a lead instructor. So he was able to sign me off the whole time. So it was very easy for me because of that. So I would say, you know, if you’re coming into NASA or SCCA and you’re deciding you want to get your competition license and get into amateur racing.

If you know someone who already does it, and if you can ask them questions, it really is going to help you. And if you don’t know anyone message me because I get messages all the time. And I make a point to answer, cause I want to share this community with as many people as possible. And if you want to get into racing, I want to help you get into racing.

But I think that’s really the easiest cause it can be a little. confusing. If you sign up for a track day, you don’t know who a lead instructor is. You think you want to be a higher level, but you’re not a higher level. With NASA and SCCA, you have to be signed off by a lead instructor. And then you’re like, well, who do I talk to?

Who is that? I don’t know who this person is. I don’t know [00:19:00] who the race director is. And it gets very confusing.

Crew Chief Eric: The difference between the DE schools And the competition school, did you get a lot out of, you know, the D sessions are sitting here talking about safety and going over the track, things like that.

Did it translate well as you graduated from one program to the other? Or did you see them as kind of two different schools of thought entirely?

Annika Carter: It does translate. pretty well. DE is a lot more just like fundamental based. HPDE1 and HPDE2, the first two levels of DE, the classes to me were incredibly boring and the same stuff over and over again.

Be ready to hear what the flags mean. About 50 million times. I mean, I’m exaggerating 50 million, but maybe not 50. Like you’re going to hear that over and over and over again. And people talking about this isn’t turn in. This is an apex. This is a track out. Make sure you break in a straight line. Make sure you steering wheel straight again.

When you get back on the gas, things like that. And I felt that the classroom for the first two levels was very similar and kind of the same stuff and I tuned out a lot. [00:20:00] But once it got, I got into HBDE3, most of those people are starting to think about going into time trials and racing. So they would talk about fire safety, they talked about like different levels of SFI rating for suits and gloves and helmets and things like that.

I think they did a little bit of talking about trail breaking and string theory and just some more complex techniques. So that was where the classroom actually started getting helpful, but then you only have, I think, one or two classrooms a day. You’re not going as much either competition school. I guess it’s a little bit of a different path because HBD classes fundamentals competition school is really the rules of competition.

They’re not yeah. teaching you how to be a good driver in competition school. It’s just so the school itself is just today. They’re just teaching you how to be a safe driver and how to follow the rules. They literally tell you, at least at the NASA competition school, don’t go off track. Don’t push yourself to the point where you’re going to spin or go off track.

You do that, you fail. Period. Because they don’t care that you’re fast. You could be the slowest driver out there. They just care that you’re paying, you know, watching your mirrors, paying attention to [00:21:00] everyone else around you. And then there’s a written test too, about the rules. And you need to, you know, get those questions right as well.

Crew Chief Eric: So there’s plenty of people I’ve heard stories where they just jumped right into club racing to your point. It’s like, Hey, the point is to be safe, be predictable. You know, these kinds of, they don’t care if you’re fat, the fastest guy or the slowest guy. But do you think, Looking back over your experience that HPDE prepared you to go into club racing.

Maybe you were more predictable and situationally aware and all those things, rather than just coming straight off the street.

Annika Carter: I think yes and no. I think it depends who you run HPDEs with. HPDE is very different from racing in that you always leave courtesy room between you and other cars. And the second you get into competition school, they’re not doing that anymore.

I was bump drafted for the first time in competition school. Immediately, you’ve got cars right up next to your door, and you don’t do that in HPDE because you’re being nice. It’s a different kind of traffic management. It’s much closer driving, but HPDE does still help. You know, if someone’s never been on track before and was thrown into a club race, they would be scared shitless [00:22:00] because from driving on the street to driving in a club race.

Yeah, it would be, it would be a major shock. So HPDE is good to help get you that seat time. But more than anything, I think HPDE exists to improve your personal skill. So they do like weekend schools where it’s three days. They train you during those three days and you have the potential to graduate with your competition license.

And if you go and do one of those, like you can sit there and you can tell me every single rule in the CCR, the club codes and regulations, you can sit there and you can tell me exactly how to go through a corner, but you might not necessarily be able to translate that when you get into the driver’s seat.

So even if you decide to get your license through a school I would still encourage you to just go and choose some of your favorite track day organizations and still do track days just to translate what you know, into what you can actually do in the seat.

Crew Chief Eric: And it’s a good way to learn the tracks and under a lower pressure situation.

You never want to go straight into competition going, this is my first lap at VIR. And you’re like, yeah, you’ll figure it out. I suppose.

Annika Carter: My first lap at VIR was in qualifying. Nice.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s a good way to do it. I mean, [00:23:00] trial by fire.

Annika Carter: No, I did a track day at Daytona before I, okay, no, VIR, I think is the only track that the very first time I drove it was in qualifying.

Yeah. Oh wait, no, that’s a lie. Gingerman, Gingerman in Michigan. Also very first time I drove it was qualifying.

Donovan Lara: Okay. Can I just say the first time I was on VIR, it was getting dark in a car where the front wheels were pointing in at each other and everybody else had already been on the track for about three hours.

That was,

Annika Carter: that sounds like fun.

Donovan Lara: Yeah, came in and gave it off to the next guy and they went from there. But

Crew Chief Eric: Donovan learned the first rule of being a race car driver is making up excuses for why you got to send it, my man, you got to send it. So that being said, did you dabble in time trials at all? I want to get your feelings on, on that discipline of motorsport.

What’d you think of it?

Annika Carter: I have done one time trial event. It was after I started racing Spec Miata. I brought my Mustang and did time trials with it. And it was fun. It’s different from wheel to wheel racing. I think I personally prefer wheel to wheel, but time trial is like safer. [00:24:00] So I felt more comfortable doing that with my Mustang because I didn’t want, you know, to have to buy a new fender for my Mustang.

If you go into wheel to wheel racing, there’s always a chance that, you know, something might happen and you might need to be buying a new body panel.

Crew Chief Eric: You’ve dabbled in different forms of road racing. Do you have any desire to try other disciplines of motorsport like rally or drag race or even autocrossing?

Like what’s your goal? I mean, we mentioned in the intro talking about, you know, MX5 cup and things like that. What’s your long term plan? Do you want to go pro? Do you want to go IMSA? Do you have a desire to drive at Le Mans? Like, what are you thinking about? What are you dreaming about?

Annika Carter: So I have actually done one autocross event and it was in my Mustang and it was fun, but Mustangs aren’t very good autocross cars.

So it probably would be more, have been more fun if I was in a Miata and maybe I would have gone back if I had been in a better autocross car, I have done a couple of drift clinics. I enjoy drifting. I would love to get better at it because it’s made me a better road racer learning how to drift. And I think ultimately, like, if someone were to offer me a seat to drive in Petit Le Mans or Le Mans or something like that, like [00:25:00] I would literally cry because that would be like lifelong dream.

That would be amazing. At the end of the day, professional racing is hard and professional racing is especially hard when you’re self funded and you’re having to find your own funding for it as much as I would love to do that. I think at the end of the day, the most important thing to me is for motorsports to be fun.

So if that means that I stay where I am because it keeps motorsports from being a full time job and makes it so I can, you know, go and enjoy my weekend when I’m actually there and not worry that I’m spending 200, 000 on this weekend and I better not ruin it and yada, yada, yada, then, you know, that’s what matters the most.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s very, very true. So let me ask you this question. If not making it a full time thing, you do have some goals in mind, but is there a goal track, a track that you still want to drive somewhere you fantasize about? This is the dream course, you know, place you want to take your Miata and go run.

Annika Carter: I really want to run Koda.

And I was supposed to run it a couple of years ago, had some issues with the car and wasn’t able to go. And it was so sad. Probably not Koda in the Miata, probably Koda in something [00:26:00] with horsepower.

Crew Chief Eric: I was going to say, cause you mentioned in the Miata, it’s either all on or all off. I think you would be all

Annika Carter: on,

Crew Chief Eric: there is no breaking.

Annika Carter: You’d be sitting there sipping tea on the back straight.

Crew Chief Eric: You’ll read war and peace.

Annika Carter: Yeah. So

Crew Chief Eric: speaking of that, so far of all the tracks you’ve been to, what would you say is your favorite outside of your dream track of Coda? And maybe your least favorite as a driver

Annika Carter: favorites, VIR for the longest time. It was road Atlanta until I went to VIR because VIR is very similar to road Atlanta, but it’s got a little bit more of a technical aspect to it.

Yeah. I guess it was the second time I drove VIR was in my Mustang. It was right after I put the big wing on it. The uphill S’s, when like you actually have more power than a Miata, and you just have your foot flat to the floor. So much fun. So much fun. I love it. Least favorite track? I have a least favorite.

I don’t know if I can have a least favorite. Cause racing’s fun.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s true. But some people will say, you know, maybe, and I want to be careful, you know, cause I don’t want to single out tracks and say, Oh, they’re terrible. But some drivers will say this track [00:27:00] is not fun to compete on, right. Maybe because the way it’s built or the way it’s structured.

So you ever had one where you walked away from the weekend and went, man, that was just. Terrible. I didn’t enjoy it.

Annika Carter: I mean, I’ve had weekends I didn’t enjoy, but not because of the track. If you have, you know, that bad weekend because your car broke down or you made a stupid mistake and ended up in a sand berm on the first lap of qualifying and they’re done that.

Donovan Lara: Nelson ledges.

Crew Chief Eric: I like Nelson. So actually that’s a great segue into how you prepare for a weekend because there’s two sides to this where you need to prepare the car. And as you said, you’re YouTube certified, you’re doing a lot of your own wrench turning. And so you’ve got to get the Miata ready or you got to get the Mustang ready or whatever you’re running that weekend, but you also have to yourself prepared for the weekend.

So let’s talk people through that as a pro am driver. What’s it like? What’s your routine? Do you work out? Do you mentally prepare? Do you use simulators and how are you preparing your car?

Annika Carter: I actually don’t prepare my cars myself anymore. I store them at a shop called Pro Auto in South [00:28:00] Carolina and he gets them ready for me.

So I just pick up my trailer and go. Which is a huge weight off my back, but when I was first getting started and I was prepping on myself because I’m working a full time job and trying to do this, I would take note at the end of my previous event, like what needs to be done? Like, Hey, I know I need new brake pads.

I know I need rotors. I think my wheel hub’s going bad. And then over the next three, four weeks till my next race, I would make a point to get those things. You know, get the parts ordered and get those things done. And then of course, you know, racing, you want to do an oil change pretty much every event. I do them every event because it’s a lot harder on the car than driving on your street on the street.

Please don’t go 7, 000 miles on a race motor.

Crew Chief Eric: Please don’t changing the oil. Yeah.

Annika Carter: Like I have, um, a system of when I do fluid changes. So I do, um, oil every event. I do brake flushes every event as well. Just like a quick bleed, not a full flush. And then trans and diff, I’ll do every three or four events.

Just go ahead and flush them. Make sure those fluids are good too. And of course I have so many cars. I have a [00:29:00] whiteboard in my garage to keep track of it because I can’t, I can’t keep track of that in my head. For getting myself ready. It’s difficult with a job and I wish I could get myself prepared a little bit more.

Not going to lie. There have been times back when I was still working in the restaurant where I would get off my shift at 10 or 11 PM, go get my truck, go pick up my car and drive to the track and get there like four or five, 6 AM and then, you know, sleep. I have done a track day on no sleep as well. I’m like two hours of sleep.

Don’t recommend it. Please don’t do that. Do what you got to do. And then a lot of my prep just comes in my daily routine. Like when you say working out, like I don’t do any sort of special working out for the races. It’s just, you know, trying to stay on top of it every day. The one thing actually that I do on race weekends is I actually focus on staying hydrated, which I don’t do at all in my daily life.

I’m terrible about drinking water, but when I’m going to the track and when I’m at the track, I will drink some damn water.

Crew Chief Eric: Do you also use like, as part of your gear, are you using anything like a cool suit or anything like that? Because it does get [00:30:00] very hot in the car, right?

Annika Carter: Yeah, I have a cool suit and my cool suit decided to break on me in August in Savannah, Georgia, right before my race.

I like put it on, put the, you know, put the ice in the cooler, put it in my car, didn’t think anything of it, plugged in, started my car to go to grid and it wasn’t cooling.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh no. Yep. Yep. To learn these new tracks, some of them you said you dropped in and drove for the first time during qualifying. Other ones you did through DE.

Do you use any simulators to help you learn the tracks or watch other people’s videos or anything like that?

Annika Carter: I wish I had a sim. I want one very badly. When I was supposed to drive Koda, I did borrow a sim that was at ProAuto, the shop that my cars are at, and drove on that a couple times. But usually I don’t use Sims just because I don’t have easy access to one.

My usual go to is videos on YouTube. Major tracks. There’s usually some really good videos. Like Road Atlanta has a fantastic video that literally like points you through where to look and all the different marks on the concrete to like to position your car over and when to start turning in. And so often [00:31:00] you can find videos like that.

And if not that, you can find at least a school line video. And then I’ll just watch that on repeat. Again, when I was prepping for Koda, cause that was the most recent new track that I was prepping for. And I really was so excited to drive there. So of course I did extra prep, but I also I’ve connected through social media with a professional driver who had driven there.

And so I sent him a message and said like, Hey, I know you’ve driven here before. Do you have any pointers? His name’s Simon Tibet. I got, I think I’m, I don’t know if I’m saying his last name, right. I have to give him a shout out because he was amazing and he literally emailed me like an essay. Down to, be careful tracking out in this corner, there’s a really big bump.

If you hit it like this, you’ll go airborne. If you hit it like this, you’ll be fine. Like literally down to those little minute details. It was amazing.

Crew Chief Eric: So how do you find The simulators, you know, the digital world versus the real world. Did it translate well for you? A lot of people say, Hey, I can’t drive with my eyes.

I just got to get in the car and do it. What did you think about all that?

Annika Carter: It took a lot of getting used to. The sim that I drove on for Coda wasn’t one of the full sims [00:32:00] either. It didn’t have the, um, like the seat didn’t move. It had just the steering wheel. I don’t know the technical terms for it, but like where the steering wheel kind of vibrated and gave you some feedback, force

Crew Chief Eric: feedback.

Yeah.

Annika Carter: Yes, that, and it took me a lot of getting used to, but I did get to the point on it where I was running like appropriate track times or lap times for that car. I’ve gone to Andretti’s and driven on their like big giant Sims before. And I think it’s the same thing with that. It just takes a lot of getting used to.

Donovan Lara: You guys are in your element. I’m just enjoying watching the YouTube channel right now. So on the

Annika Carter: subject of driving with your eyes. I am awful at Forza, terrible

Crew Chief Eric: That’s okay. You’re, you’re in good company there. There’s plenty of people that aren’t good at it. We have many virtual racing leagues to prove that.

So in your resume, it also says that you do some coaching and obviously you’ve seen Seeked out private coaching and have had mentors and things like that. So how has the coaching experience been for you as you give back to the NASA community and the other communities that you’ve grown up through?

Annika Carter: I really enjoy it.

So I’ve done track day [00:33:00] instruction with just different track day organizations, and that’s always fun because usually you’re matched up with someone who’s very new to driving, sometimes who’s not. It’s their first time at the track. Sometimes it’s their first ever track day to me. That’s almost the most special just because like I said, I love sharing what I do and getting more people involved in it.

And so if I can take someone who’s never done this before and get them excited about it, I’ve done my job. And then coaching wise, I’ve done some coaching with primal racing school at Atlanta motor sports park. And that was fun because I got to drive a radical, but that’s one of those. Three day racing schools.

So that was, you know, you get to kind of walk people through from honestly their first time ever on track to watching them build their skills and, and get a little bit, you know, get better and get to the point where they might graduate with a competition license.

Crew Chief Eric: So is it true what they say when you first sit in the right seat, you suddenly notice all the mistakes of your student and you become a better driver yourself because of that.

Annika Carter: Yeah, I would say so. I think so. Because you have nothing to do but focus on what they’re doing wrong. Like, you feel like you’re a [00:34:00] terrible instructor if you’re sitting there not saying anything. So you like, you have to find stuff to critique. So, I mean, I would say so. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Looking at the years ahead, you mentioned, you know, racing is tough, especially when you’re self supported, you know, traveling all over the place.

You know, they talk about the starving artist, or you see, you watch those films about the waitress that goes off and she wants to be an actress, and it’s like, It’s the same thing in racing, right? You got to get there somehow. So what does your racing schedule look like over the next couple of years? What tracks are you running at?

You know, things like that.

Annika Carter: It’s kind of a big question mark right now. I underwent a big career change and I’m trying to get my feet under me with that. Last year, I was trying to race and do that at the same time. It was incredibly beyond stressful. I got towards the end of the year. So I go to SEMA to kind of meet with my sponsors and meet new sponsors and try to, you know, work on my budget for the next year, I almost didn’t even go to SEMA because I suddenly looked at my calendar, had two, three weeks until SEMA didn’t have my booklet made.

My deck didn’t have that made. Hadn’t made new [00:35:00] business cards, hadn’t booked a hotel, like literally just had my pass and that was it. Ended up going and then never really ended up following up with anyone from it. Because like, that was the point when I realized I was like, yeah, this is kind of too much, I have no free time and racing is getting not fun.

Racing is becoming a job. So this year it’s calm down, take a break, let it be fun. I know I’m going to be at VIR later in the year with a, um, a charity event actually, so I’ll be posting about that later and I’m going to be doing, um, I did a charity event at Barber. This past December for Children with Special Needs.

That was so much fun. It was it was so wholesome. I absolutely loved it. We were giving rides to special needs children’s and their families around Barber and I’m going to go on a tangent real quick. The first child who I had in my car. He was I think four. The helmet didn’t even fit him, right? Like he could hardly hold his head up because the helmet was so big.

I buckle him in the seatbelts, like almost going across his face because he’s so little. And of course, when we’ve got this kid in the car, like I am not going 10 tenths. I’m going like half [00:36:00] of one 10th. And so I’m going on, you know, I get on track and I go to take the first corner. I’ve been, I’m in my Fiat and I go to take the first corner.

And next thing I know, I feel something hit my shoulder and I look over and the kid, he’s sitting there with his hands under his legs. Yeah. not supporting himself and he’s like falling over and his head’s on my shoulder. So as I’m driving barber, I’m helping this kid sit back upright, grabbing his hand like, Hey, you need to hold on to the door.

Like, make sure you’re holding on. It was so cute. It was adorable. So I did that event this past December. I’m going to be doing that again. I’m going to be focusing a little bit on getting some of the projects in my garage done because I’ve really missed out on the mechanic side of things. Having someone else prep my cars for me and I miss that.

And then we’ll just kind of see where it takes me.

Crew Chief Eric: Let’s talk about that for a minute. So what are you working on? What’s in the garage? That’s actually, that’s Donovan’s question, right? What’s in your garage? What you doing?

Annika Carter: The current project car is the Fiat. I am, like I said, I have the big turbo for it.

I bought that almost a year ago now. So I’ve had it for a while, [00:37:00] but I went from the car being 100 percent stock. To buying a big turbo. And I didn’t want to just do everything in one go. The company that I bought it from Euro compulsion, they create the turbo. It’s a board out stock turbo. Essentially they create the tunes for it and they create a lot of the parts for it.

And they have their tunes are phased. I hate using that word because it feels so like street racer kid. Like my phase tunes, I hate it, but my stage tunes, that’s what it is. So what I’ve been doing is I’ve been going from like phase one, phase two, and then phase three is the big turbo. So, um, let’s see if I can remember everything I did put on coil overs.

And I did do the, uh, the rear sway bar. It didn’t do the front. Cause I want the car to three wheel because that’s necessary. If all four tires are on the ground, you’re not trying hard enough. That’s front wheel drive life. Yes. I love it, but I went ahead and I’ve done massive front mount intercooler. I put in coil packs from the Alfa Romeo four C I’ve done downpipe and full exhaust.

I’ve done the waste gate. I’ve done the blow off valve. Oh, and the clutch, which don’t even get me started on that. That was awful. Don’t ever do a Fiat clutch on [00:38:00] jack stands, rebuilt axles. And so at this point I just need to put in gauges, which I just grabbed from my storage unit today and should be getting started on those soon.

And then the big turbo,

Crew Chief Eric: do you know what your power numbers are going to be? Or do you have a goal

Annika Carter: according to Euro compulsion? Who’s done this on their cars? I should be about two 30 wheel up from one 30.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s significant for a 1. 4 liter. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s good. It’s going to be quick. So then what’s the plan?

What are you going to do with it? Just run around, go into cars and coffee and being a menace?

Annika Carter: I mean, track it. I already have.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, perfect. That’s good.

Annika Carter: That’s almost definitely the car that I’ll be taking to BIR this summer

Crew Chief Eric: because it comes up a lot. We call it fun wheel drive. So do you prefer the front wheel drive Fiat or the Miata?

I mean, granted, dollar for dollar horsepower wise, they’re in totally different categories, especially after you do the big turbo, but driving style wise. They are different, which do you prefer?

Annika Carter: I like front wheel drive better in the wet, but I like rear wheel drive. I think better in the dry. I say, I think just because I’m more comfortable with rear wheel drive in the dry, I feel more comfortable.

So I feel like I’m faster in real driving the dry. [00:39:00] But the first time I drove the Fiat on track, my second session was like soaking wet and I had so much fun. I had the guy who builds my cars in my passenger seat. I scared him, which is always my goal. If you’re in my passenger seat, I’m always trying to scare you.

The liftoff oversteer is just.

Crew Chief Eric: Right. Isn’t that awesome? It’s like, you get somebody in your car and they’re like, it’s not supposed to do that. I’m like, yeah, it is when it’s dialed in right. It sure does. Yeah.

Annika Carter: And then I had to force myself to stop driving before I broke something because I had to drive the car home.

Oh, and, um, when I had it at, uh, so when I had it at Barber for the charity event, I got one of the adults in my car. And of course, when there’s an adult in your car, instantly send it. I don’t know, Barb, the turns at Barber, but some of like the back like S kind of areas. If you take it right in the Fiat, you just like popping it a third, your foot’s flat to the floor.

And it just like the way the front with front wheel drive, you just kind of get that little slide, but because you’re giving it gas, like it’s such a controlled slide, it feels great.

Crew Chief Eric: You know, I, I could sense the enthusiasm as we’re telling these [00:40:00] stories and we’re talking about things and it kind of turns me to get another question that I think is important, especially being a woman in motor sports.

If a young lady walked up to you today and said, Anika, why do you race? What would you say to them?

Annika Carter: Ultimately, I do it because I love it. When I first got into racing, I fell in love with it because it was my escape, because I am a very type A personality. I always have something on my mind. I was in school at the time.

I was always thinking about my next assignment, test, whatever it was, always stressing about something. But when you get on track, you can’t do that. If you’re thinking, Oh, I have a test on Monday. While you’re going through turn one, you’re not going to make it through turn one. That 30 minutes of that HPD session that I was on track, it was just me, the car in the track.

And so that’s why I fell in love with racing in the first place. It’s just that it was my escape.

Donovan Lara: You have 68, 000 followers on Instagram. How has having that kind of following on Instagram affected you and your racing?

Annika Carter: I wouldn’t have an Instagram if it wasn’t for racing or cars, I should at least say I didn’t have an Instagram account until I was a freshman in college.

And one of my friends guilted me into making [00:41:00] one. And then one of my car friends guilted me into making it about cars. So I started doing that and then it just kind of started growing and I would not have one if it wasn’t for racing, but it has definitely helped in the like sponsorship realm, just because it gives me an extra something to provide, you know, as far as, Return on investment for my sponsors.

I mean, I keep saying this, but I really enjoy sharing what I do with everyone else, ultimately, I don’t have it for me. I have it. Cause I want to share with, you know, everyone else out there. And I want to share with hopefully young girls or at least their dads. You can then show it to them to see that, you know, anything is possible.

And it really means a lot to me when I have people reach out to me and I’ve, and I’ve had this, let’s say like, Hey, you’ve inspired my daughter to do this, or you’ve inspired me to go and try to do this. And so that means the world to me when I see that there’s kind of a dark side to social media too, and you get a lot of criticism.

You kind of have to learn to have tough skin and take it with a grain of salt and ignore it. Sally McNulty out in Arizona, we became really close friends through Instagram and kind of became [00:42:00] teammates and everything. And she’s amazing. And I love her, but we will literally, like when we get frustrated about a comment on Instagram, instead of like going, you know, and actually replying to that person and giving them what the attention that they want and all that.

We’ll just send it to each other and say, Oh, look what this dummy said. So, you know, now, now all of, you know, if you follow me and you say something stupid, I will be laughing about it with Sally.

Donovan Lara: Yeah.

Annika Carter: She’s amazing. I love her.

Donovan Lara: Since you’ve been involved in cars, how have you seen the scene change for women?

Annika Carter: It’s become a lot more inviting for women. I’m pretty recently involved in the car scene, involved in racing. So I think really since I started, it has, the change hasn’t been too drastic. But when I talk to people, women who’ve been in the scene for longer than I have, it really used to not be very inviting to women.

It was like, you know, Oh, you’re a woman in the car scene. Like, Oh, you’re doing it for attention. You’re doing it because you think guys are going to pay attention to you if you have a cool car or something like that. And now it’s really getting to the point where we see women in the car scene and we’re like, Oh, wait, that’s really [00:43:00] cool and praise them for what they’re doing instead of criticizing and assuming that they have different motives for doing what they’re doing.

Crew Chief Eric: How would you recommend that? Racing organizations or the motorsports disciplines or even at the grassroots level like HPD, how should they change their programs to make it more inviting for women that are interested in motorsport? I

Annika Carter: don’t think the programs necessarily need to be changed. I think it would be nice to see more female instructors and female coaches.

And female role models, you know, in order to get that, you need to get more women in the sport. So that’s kind of counterintuitive, right? But I don’t necessarily feel that the programs that were in place made it harder for women. I just think maybe showing the women who are already in the sport a little bit more showcasing them a little bit more might help just so, you know, when a woman goes and does a DE and she’s the only female in the entire DE1 class, which will probably happen.

She can see like, Oh, there are women who are doing this. Like I’m not the only one. And I think really it comes down [00:44:00] to not so much the organization, but just the other people in that DE1 class. Right. So there’s the one female, well, the 29 men, like it comes to them to make her feel included in not a weird way to like, don’t make her feel included by going up to her and trying to hit on her.

Like make her feel included by going and talking cars with her.

Crew Chief Eric: And that’s exactly to the point I was driving at pun intended is that maybe the way the marketing is. presented, it needs to change in such a way that it’s not just a flashy car on the cover or some dude looking all, you know, hyper masculine.

It’s like maybe an equal representation to say, Hey, there are women at these events. Like I always find that to be funny when you look at the post weekend photos, it’s always, you know, the same 16 gray Mustangs on track or whatever, but there’s never pictures of the people. So I often sit there and go, well, who was at this event?

Who was driving that Mustang or that came in or that Miata? No. You know, was it Anika or was it Bob or who was it? Right. So I feel like sometimes it’s a missed opportunity in the way we represent the events and that the marketing has to change to be more [00:45:00] inviting to everybody that might be interested.

Donovan Lara: Do you think it should happen sooner than that? Because at the point that somebody is ready to sign up for a D they’ve already found it. And you know, it makes me think about, you know, we try to encourage women in the sport to through garage, right. Right. Getting involved with events and things. And it, and it makes me think about things like the fast and furious movies.

Really? Those are kind of the first time. That we saw women, you know, kind of equal to men and racing and driving cars and things. And it became cool. It wasn’t just kind of a guy thing. So, you know, I wonder, and maybe my, I guess my follow up question to that is prior to getting to the level where somebody would want to get involved in a D how do we raise the awareness, I guess, or the make it more inviting for more women to get into the sport.

And, you know, Get involved.

Annika Carter: That’s a tough one. I was kind of going to go the same direction. I think it’s not only just women for sure, but just kind of everyone. A lot of people until they really dig deep on the internet, have a hard time even seeing track driving, not even just racing, but just track driving as being feasible.

To do like, you know, male or female, and I’ve [00:46:00] actually, I had the honor of being part of a group that kind of went out to try to fix that a little bit called track shaker. And so he made a website that’s supposed to be kind of your one stop shop for getting on track. And I do think, you know, I was happy I was involved in that because they’ve got me and they also have a woman named Tracy who does some of their instructional videos too, right?

So we’ve got women who are doing instructional videos for people who are beginning to think about getting on track. But past that point, as far as like, how do we help more women even consider, maybe I want to do this. I don’t, I don’t really know. That’s, that’s a tough one. Are

Donovan Lara: you doing video stuff? Are you on YouTube at all?

Annika Carter: I am about to be, hopefully it’s not going to be, it’s not going to be racing. It’s going to be more like car review related. I guess I’ll be doing some articles for that too. But so like this week I have a CX5 from Mazda 2022 CX5. I saw that you posted

Crew Chief Eric: about that. Yeah.

Annika Carter: So it’s a group called a girl’s guide to cars and it’s literally just women who review cars and it’s supposed to be, I get, you know, going back into women in motor sports and women with cars, right.

It’s supposed to be a little bit more like comfortable for women [00:47:00] to hear from a woman. And it’s supposed to be a little bit more like, Hey, what’s it like to live with this with my kids or something like that. So I’m going to be doing some reviews with them, but because of that, I was like, yeah, I might as well try doing a YouTube.

Crew Chief Eric: So I often think because I have two daughters, you know, and I want to leave something behind for them. And I want them to obviously be interested in motor sports, but I wonder, you know, as we’ve talked to other folks on this show about like STEM and STEAM programs is catching boys and girls at a younger level, where it’s more of an even playing field for everybody and say, how do we engage them in the education world?

I was even talking with some people about, Hey, do you know about the formula SE program? They’re like, what? Like you guys are in academia. How do you not know about this? Right. These existed different colleges and universities. So I’m wondering if maybe people view cars as too complicated, as too difficult, being super nerdy.

And like, you need to be an engineer to understand how a car works and you’re working on your own stuff. I’m working on my own stuff. I mean, I didn’t go to school to be, you know, to turn wrenches. Would you say it’s really that [00:48:00] hard or is it more of just kind of get over your fear and try it?

Annika Carter: I mean, I would say working on cars is not that hard.

And I’ve had that conversation with a lot of my friends. Like I, I have many friends who will ask me like, Hey, like, will you help me change my brake pads? Will you help me change my oil? And I will not help someone unless they help me help them. If one of my friends asked me, will you help me change my oil?

I’ll say, yeah, I will teach you how to change your oil. But no, I do think a lot of people, you know, they’re like, Oh my gosh, you work on your own car. Like that’s so complicated. At the end of the day, it’s really not, if you take something out, just put it back where you found it.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s how I grew up understanding it too.

If you can take it apart without breaking it, you can put it back together.

Donovan Lara: Okay. Many times I have done things like clutch jobs and ended up with five or six extra bolts that I just kind of hid somewhere. So maybe not for all of

Annika Carter: them. If you throw them away, you can pretend they didn’t exist.

Crew Chief Eric: Nice. I, that doesn’t usually fly in the GTM DIY garage.

There’s usually no leftover parts. We’re usually buying more because we’ve broken something. No, all kidding aside, I think this has been a really great conversation and it is a challenge for all of us. [00:49:00] to engage the younger audiences, to engage both men and women, boys and girls all the way through.

Because as we’ve said many times, there are so many different disciplines to motor sport. It spans the entire gamut, right? From go karting to motocross to drag racing, to road racing and rally and everything in between. It’s bigger than people realize. But the touch points are always the same. They’re always grounded in petrol.

Let’s call it that, you know, even though we have the evolution coming, it’s this brotherhood and sisterhood in motor sport and bringing us all together. And we need to keep that going. We need to keep that torch burning. We need to figure out how to engage more women, more diverse audiences, more kids and things like that, because otherwise it all just.

Kind of dies on the vine. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Vehicles are more than appliances, right? There’s more to it. There’s science, there’s engineering, there’s art, there’s all sorts of different things that you can get passionate about. And we see that in, in you too, Anika, and how you’ve come up and where you’re going and taking things.

And so I really appreciate everything you’ve shared with us and your backstory. So [00:50:00] Anika, I know that we’ve done a bunch of shout outs and promotions throughout the episode. So we probably don’t want to revisit that, but let’s remind people how they can get in touch with you, where they can find you on social and things like that.

Annika Carter: My Instagram is where I’m most active. My Instagram is my name with an underscore. You probably don’t know how to spell it. It’s A N N I K A. C A R T E R underscore. If you send me a message on there, I promise I will answer unless it’s something creepy that I won’t answer. But if you ask me a car question, I will answer.

I always try my best to answer everyone the best I can. You can also reach me if you want to do email. My email is on OnykasRacing at gmail. com. Again, my name is. Spelled A-N-N-I-K-A. There’s gonna be an S on the end of that, and then racing@gmail.com. And I have a website. It is annika’s racing.com, and I have some merch on there too.

So if you want stickers, that’s pretty much what my merch is because stickers are amazing. So if you want some cool stickers, you can go there and see those as well.

Crew Chief Eric: And you’re always looking for new sponsors, right? So if there’s anybody interested in looking to sponsor, um, [00:51:00] spec Miata or whatever you’re racing next year, to reach out to you, right?

We gotta get. We got to get you to petite Lamont somehow. Right. Yeah. Right.

Annika Carter: Is this, is this what I should also say? Oh, and if you’re looking to buy, sell, invest in real estate in Georgia.

Crew Chief Eric: And on that note, Anika, I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show. This has been an absolute pleasure and a great look into an up and coming star.

Right. And getting people interested in pursuing this themselves to say, Hey, I can do it too, right? Look at what she’s done. And I really applaud you for being able to share your story. Engage with people, mentor them as well. That’s super important. You know, I’ve never been a fan of drivers. They’re like, Oh, I’m just in it for the trophy at the end, right?

This is all about community. This is all about sharing and us growing together. So again, thank you for everything you’ve done so far and good luck this season and all the seasons to come.

Donovan Lara: Thanks for being on the show. And you know, we’ve graduated as followed you for a long time on Instagram. So it’s a pleasure to get to talk to you in person.

Annika Carter: so much. I appreciate it.[00:52:00]

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out on www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Motorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, You can call or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.

org. We’d love to hear from you.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization. And our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies, and GTM swag.

For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can keep our developers, writers, editors, casters, and other volunteers fed on their strict diet of Fig Newtons, Gummy Bears, and [00:53:00] Monster. Consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. And remember, without fans, supporters, and members like you, none of this would be possible.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction to Break/Fix Podcast
• 00:27 Meet Annika Carter: From HPDE to Professional Racing Aspirations
• 01:33 Annika’s Journey into Cars and Racing
• 04:30 The Evolution of Annika’s Car Collection
• 07:57 Spec Miata Racing: Close Competition and Techniques
• 15:01 Transitioning from HPDE to Club Racing
• 17:01 Navigating the Path to a Competition License
• 24:12 Exploring Different Motorsports Disciplines
• 25:38 Dream Tracks and Favorite Circuits
• 27:02 Reflecting on Bad Weekends
• 27:26 Preparing for a Race Weekend
• 27:55 Car Maintenance Routine
• 29:40 Staying Hydrated and Cool
• 30:20 Learning New Tracks
• 32:42 Coaching and Mentoring
• 34:06 Future Racing Plans
• 35:21 Charity Events and Projects
• 36:44 Garage Projects
• 39:56 Women in Motorsports
• 45:25 Engaging the Next Generation
• 49:55 Final Thoughts and Contact Info

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