Motorsports Opportunities

Maureen McVail - Founder & CIO for MORacing

MORacing is Driving Connections through Motorsport Opportunities for women and girls (and men). MORacing.net

Contact: Maureen McVail at mmcvail@gmail.com | N/A | Visit Online!

           

• There is a lot more to the MORacing story than meets the eye, so we think it’s fair that we start with Maureen “ the Petrol head” – how did you get into motorsports? And how did that lead up to the foundation of MORacing?
• As we know there are so many different forms of Motorsports to choose from, which disciplines does MORacing focus on, and what types of services do you provide to aspiring female driver?
• Let’s talk about some of the work you’ve done with Drivers like Pippa Mann, etc.
• Persuading men to view you as a peer and to take your interests seriously, has to be challenging – what steps did you take to overcome these obstacles?
• Some folks often confuse the need to be in STEM programs or “Hard Sciences” as a requirement to get involved in, have an interest, or learn about racing. Is it really that geeky?

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motorsports podcast, break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motorsports related.

Michelle Mutton, Janet Guthrie, Lynn St. James Danica, Patrick Simona de Silvestro, and the late Sabine Schmidt. These are names many of us recognize in the racing hall of fame and without women like our guest tonight, a woman who avidly promotes the empowerment of women in Motorsport with boundless enthusiasm, encouraging women’s participation in all roles of auto racing.

Countless new names would be left off this list. Motorsports opportunities or MO racing for short was created to inspire, mentor and amplify opportunities to drive crew or avidly spectate at the racetrack. Joining us on Break Fixx to tell us all about her Motorsports journey and how she built MO Racing is Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Maureen McPhail.

Right Tanya. And as Maureen has mentioned to us behind the scenes, this story is 22 years in the making and we [00:01:00] welcome her to Break Fix, to share that story with everyone. So welcome Maureen. Thank you so much, both of you, for a wonderful invitation. Normally we would just jump right into the who, what, where, or when of whatever or whoever we’re we’re talking to or about.

But we realize there’s a lot more to the mo racing story than meets the eye. So we think it’s fair that we start with Maureen, the. Petrol head and see how she got into motor sports. In 1999, I had a newborn, my second son, and instead of getting a minivan, I got a 1984 Porsche Carrera and knew that it belonged on a racetrack and not on the streets.

But what drove you to that? Pun intended. I love it. The honest story is I was married at the time and now have a wonderful co-parent. We divorced and I will not say it was over the driving stuff, but might have had something to do with it. Instead of getting an engagement ring, I wanted a Black Wrangler Jeep to show that my true [00:02:00] love wanted to marry me.

He promised the Black Wrangler Jeep. Then after our second child was born, I didn’t see the Black Wrangler Jeep yet. So I changed it and I said, now I want a black Porsche. And so we went out searching and looked around and found a beautiful 1984 Carrera, which I brought my then seven month old home in one of those baby carriers in the backseat.

And I did not think that was terribly unsafe because. Porsches are made of steel up. I’m gonna say that a car is way more practical than the ring. I like where your head was at. Yeah, so again, having a toddler and mommys and mes expecting me to show them my new van. I took my 1984 Carrera and got addicted driving in high performance driver’s ed at Pocono Raceway.

After that first time around driving, I knew I was hooked. Then in 2000 through 2005, I drove [00:03:00] that same Porsche, and of course it got more and more modified, and I did some of the work myself, including changing the brakes at the track, changing out brake pads. So Maureen, were you all a petrol head? Because this is already into your adult life where you go, I want a Porsche.

What drove you to a sports car? I come from a family of educators. My dad was a classical music professor, my mom a teacher, and I always mention cuz I’m so proud, she had her masters from Harvard. So she was no shrinking violet because I did not have any automotive background. I swear that this is just natural.

I used to joke that Mario Andretti was my real father and that did bother my real biological father who sent me a Christmas card once. Loved Mario. But anyway, that aside. In 1972, my father was on sabbatical with the entire family and we bought, we noticed I was probably 11. I still think I had something to do with it.

Bought a Mercedes-Benz two 20 [00:04:00] diesel oil, and that is what, five years later, I learned how to drive in. Stick shift, which I believe and Tanya maybe can help me with this, is I’m trying to find out what percentage of women drive manual transmission so we can figure that out together in the future. It’s a very small percentage.

Yes, very small. A single digit. I think the number is increasing though, because I know a lot of women that have said as they’ve gotten older, they’re like, I wish I learned, or I just Bond day, bought a manual and I learned, and I’m like, wait, you drive a manual? Really? I’m always pleasantly surprised, but I’m always like, yes, another person driving a manual.

I get excited about that. I think it’s a good thing. Your enthusiasm for them driving the stick is the same as my enthusiasm. I know that I’ve personally had an impact on at least 15 people joining high performance driving and some of them buying amata, which is fine with me. I don’t care what it is.

Just so you enjoy driving it. People who borrowed my car are now H P D E addicts. [00:05:00] Then a big time move. I sold that highly modified 84 Carrera, and I bought a friend’s modified cup car. Yes, that is a cup car with a very tall first gear, which I stalled out several times. It’s my first time driving it after I went sideways and turned nine at Watkins Glen, after a year of driving the cup car, I said, okay, it’s for sale so that I don’t sell it all.

Crumpled up. Sold that and went to a RS America, which I drove, and also we campaigned in Porsche Club racing. So my co-owner of that car is a guy, but he’s one of the girls. Anyway, we’ll get to that later. Then in 2011, I bought a 9 96 for myself for street driving and then started loaning that car out for de events.

Two women drove it at Sebring in uh, driver’s ed. I had it shipped down and shipped back. I’m in the Philadelphia area, so that was quite a [00:06:00] feat. 2011, I mentioned the 9 96, but it also, a key time in that date is I had a co-ed event for the women’s round table, which had only had women gatherings and I had that at the semi museum, which you should look up if you have not been in the Philadelphia area is a premier car collection.

And Dr. Fred Simeon is wonderful, so I’m very proud of that. I had a gathering there. We had an opera singer and people bring in Porsche’s and of course the 50 some cars there on display. So that brings us to 2012 through 2019. Of course, I’m selling the other ones out from under me. My Cayman S was co-owned and we ran that in GTB one Porsche Club racing.

When I say we ran it, I did not drive. I was semi-retired by now. My reaction time is not as great as it used to be. I still enjoy driving, but I find it, it’s much more competitive now. So I have never raced myself. I have [00:07:00] co-owned a race car and ran a racing team, so that brings us to 2020. After selling the GTB one, I got a Ford Mustang for a women’s.

She leads road rally. Say that 10 times fast. She leads Road Rally, which I was the Pace car. We had a police escort in and out of Philadelphia and in and out of Scranton where we had a pit stop going to Seneca Falls, please look up Seneca Falls and see what it means as far as women’s development. And it was the first Women’s Rights Convention back in 1870 something.

The road rally was a huge success, even considering it was done during Covid. We had 25 cars and about 55 people. Probably without Covid it would’ve had busloads of people. There was a lot of interest in it. I also wanna add to my resume. I bought in 1998, M three, which was one of my favorite cars, which I lent out to have women drive in.

DE had [00:08:00] 200,000 miles on it and it was a wonderful car and I really regret selling it. And finally it brings us to 2022. I just purchased a 2008 9 97, and I am learning about it. And my goal with this car is that I will do personally all of the work on it. Of course. Using a friend’s lift. So that brings us to the present.

Looking at your driving history over the last 20 plus years, somewhere in there, the idea for mo racing was born. So what was the driving factor? What was the catalyst that suddenly you woke up one day and say, I need to do this, and why? Well, I’m into Palindromes because I’m a linguist and I have a bachelor’s in Russian.

And no, that doesn’t help anything and it’s coming in helpful. Now I can read what’s going on in the news. The palindrome that I use kind of as my motto is so many dynamos. You can read it both directions. So many dynamos is the same both ways. And back to the percentages [00:09:00] again. I know that more than 50% of the world is occupied by women and they are driving force, quote unquote.

I wanted to see more women around at the track, and so basically I’m admitting to you I’m a sexist. I believe that there should be more women. I. And men who treat them just as drivers, which is what led me to want to do MO racing because I had male allies and the male allies to me is the best part of what I’m doing because I get men who say I have daughters or I have sisters, or I, my mother, or petrol heads as you call them, or car enthusiasts.

So that’s what got me going. I wanna ask you one that normally I think we would ma almost consider it a pit stop question, but this is important to the story that we’re telling here today, and that’s the development of these alternate motorsports events like the W F1 W series, there’s all these Yeah, the [00:10:00] W series.

I wanted to get your take on that construct, that idea, and how you feel about the future of that or, or where it should be going. And now I’m going to tread very gently because there are different opinions on the W series and my personal opinion is I don’t wanna piss anybody off. My thrust of what I’m saying is that men and women can compete on the same level.

Therefore, the Women’s Series is not a great thing because it’s kind of a showcase. Now, I will say that my male allies who bring articles to me and constantly are saying, you should meet so and so and such and such. Bringing it back to Don Cox, he believes that the Women’s series is a great thing because it’s spotlighting.

The women drivers, not that they’re women, but that they’re drivers who are women. So that’s my take on the Women’s W Series. And Pippa man got really involved in [00:11:00] arguing. The other side of that, meaning I think she’s with me, that men and women should be able to compete using the great neutralizer called a car, the machine that propels us all to fast.

In the same way, regardless of who’s behind the steering wheel. So what exactly did MO racing start? What are you guys into? Are you strictly H P D E? Are you doing all branches of Motorsport Mo racing started 2016. We shipped the 9 96 down to Sebring, where I had a coach ready for two friends that flew down.

So that’s when Mo Racing started, but it was under a different name. If you’re familiar with Shift Up now. Shift up was originated between Lynn Keho and myself. In fact, I’m very proud to have designed the logo. But anyway, shift up was then renamed to shift up. Now, when Lynn and I separated my interest being H P D E and Lynn’s interest being the athletes that she has, And I [00:12:00] believe Lynn has now given shift up over to Pippa, man, who I wanted to mention should be in your lineup of women that you mentioned early on.

Plus again, so many other dynamos, Catherine Leg, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There’s so many, it’s hard to keep track of, but Pippa Man is now heading up, shift up now. So Mo racing started then. I just didn’t name it yet. Still don’t love the name because I’m not a racer. I am a race car and race team manager and crew chief and many bottle washer, whatever you wanna call it.

It’s still going on. And you asked what we are involved in and we is, there are two women that help with the website and communications. And this really is just growing now, I swear it’s manifesting itself as we speak because I just met and spent some time with Beth Perretta last Tuesday, a week ago today in Indianapolis, where she was a keynote speaker, speaking of which, [00:13:00] I do some speaking engagements, which.

Is not my forte, but I am really good at giving clinics and workshops to the likes of Girl Scouts. All girls schools, girls can do anything. Group religious groups, I don’t care who it is, young kids who drag their feet and they’re like, okay, what are we doing now? And then when they get to sit in the race car and change the lug nuts on a race car, they definitely have a smile and a grin on their face.

And I know. That somebody out of that group is going to pursue a STEM career, whether they know it or not. And that’s my goal. So our audience might be surprised to know that you’re actually friends with one of our previous guests on Break Fix, a lady by the name of Ms. Mary Haggy, who was on here talking about her STEM program known as Moon Mark, where they’re doing a lunar race.

And Tanya was on that episode as well. Mary and I go back, she’s. Friends we met at the track and uh, always a delight to have on the show. But you’re personal friends with her, obviously coming up through the Philadelphia area. So [00:14:00] in the vein of that episode that we did, we talked a lot about STEM and a lot about inclusion and diversity and things like that.

Well, you mentioned your prior podcast. With Mary Haggy and I happened to just go to the auto show with her last Friday, so we were hanging out and I brought my 26 year old son along and the two of them met that evening and chatted for hours. It seemed like Mary is the best. She’s another dynamo of so many dynamos.

A lot of folks often confuse. Getting into racing with having to have some sort of engineering or technical background. I wanted to get your opinion as you’re working on these clinics as to what are some of the barriers to entry into racing? Is it really as difficult as people make it seem? Is it really that geeky?

Do you need a background in hard sciences to get involved in racing? I. It’s not difficult to get involved cuz I use myself as an example. I was a mother of two toddlers and have a bachelor’s in Russian and do not speak English [00:15:00] terribly well. And I registered, showed up and my first event happened to be with the B M W Club even though I had a Porsche.

People are welcoming into this. And it is not at all necessary to be mechanically knowledgeable or anything geek like you can just show up and have some fun. And the impetus for me to do it was to go fast. I’ll circle back to the clinics thing cause I find that very interesting. You mentioned it, you, I guess, from the Philadelphia area.

So are you across the United States having impact, or if right now you’re localized in the northeast, mid-Atlantic region, or what’s the goal there? The goal is to have worldwide, let alone nationwide. I’m dating myself here by having home economics. We learned how to sew, hems and cook. So instead, I think there should be car maintenance class, maybe a three to four series, workshop or class.

And along with check balancing, yes, um, that’s called race car budgeting. Call that Porsche [00:16:00] dollars. Get it. Porsche. There’s a Porsche tax. Don’t forget. Oh yes. Trust me. I just went through that. I think your clinic aspect is really great. So what are you doing there specifically? Like what are some of the activities?

Is it you got your race car there and you’re doing demonstrations or you doing even mini STEM type? Activities, they’re building something or I have a handout that, number one, I let them try on fire suits and helmets. And again, this was all pre covid because with Covid I haven’t done any workshops or clinics, which makes perfect sense to me.

Prior to that, just engaging the kids in safety and asking me questions and you know, saying, oh, the guy’s being macho. I’m sorry, I’m being sexist again. But the young men are always showing off and saying, oh, I would be able to really race really fast. I always say to them, you can race really fast in a straight line, but what if you have to turn right?

You know, like at Watkins Glen [00:17:00] in the bus stop. So I don’t use that term terminology with them. It comes more naturally in flows when there’s a bunch of kids around me. Revving the engine. Talking about safety first. Put your seat belts on no matter what. At any point in the car, I get them to sign my helmet and pledge that they will in fact tell all of their friends and family members to put their seat belts on the second there, but hits the seat.

And sometimes I bring in Lori Johnson again. Somebody else I’m giving a shout out to. Laurie Johnson’s of Lady Start Your Engines, does workshops and clinics and sometimes I let her take over and do the clinic, and she is wonderful. She’s a mechanic. Right now I’m located in the Philadelphia area, and of course we went to Sebring in 2016, but this is obviously something.

That should be offered. I don’t care whether it’s under the auspices of MO racing or just becomes part of the curriculum for middle school and lower education [00:18:00] so that we can get some petrol heads developed by age 10 if we need more of that. And not even just for, you know, no offense to the men out there, but there’s a lot of guys that don’t know how to change their own, uh, wheel or tire either.

So, exactly. And that brings us to the male allies. Again, I have a. Personal story about that for the people who are behind the scenes of MO racing. My co-owner of the car is a coach and eraser, and without him I would not be doing this. He and my pals that we do two-wheeled Tuesdays, which is we hang out in the garage and have beers and work on cars.

And the personal side of the story is one of the guys that I hang out with actually had breast cancer. So how’s that for non-traditional and stereotypes and breaking the biases? There you go. I have somebody on my team who does a lot of work on radio with me and such day of event who had breast cancer and survived and it happened to be a male.

It’s rare, but it, it can happen [00:19:00] unfortunately. Yes. I mean, it sounds like you’ve been very fortunate with all the male allies as you’ve gone through this journey. Have you had the opposite, because I’ve been doing H P D events for years now, and even before that you non-competitive go-karting events where you’re just going to the, you know, indoor.

Tracks for fun and, and unfortunately I’ve been the recipient of the not ally side of things where I had a guy on the go-kart track try to take me out. He t-boned me and his cart was about two inches from hitting my helmet cuz that’s how far he rode up out of anger that I was. Faster than him in a non-competitive event.

Oh, and I’ve gotten, and that’s something unfortunate. Fortunately, the male friends of mine and family members may or may not have spun him out later. All right. Payback is, you know, what, in retaliation of having witnessed it, you know, firsthand. I’m sorry that happened to you. It’s unfortunate, you know, and I, and I go to the track and I get the guys that are really [00:20:00] excited when they see you and they’re like, wow, you’re changing your tires yourself.

That’s so cool. And they stare at you like they’ve seen, I don’t know, some foreign animal they’ve never seen before. Or I’ve gotten the people that kind of laugh at me, you’re going on the track. And that really, and then after I’ve done a session, they, they come back up and they’re like, wow, you’re really fast out there.

I’m like, thank you. Okay, good to me. That’s great. Thank you for your bias. I mean, have you been lucky and been on the fortunate side of the allies or have you experienced some of the, the negative stereotyping? Well, you just reminded me of one of my favorite stories. I was at Summit Point. Changing out my own brake pads at the track and everybody wanted to help.

And I said, absolutely not. I wanted to do this myself so that I know that I can do it. And I actually had one of my male allies stood there as I was working, turned people away who were offering their help. Hmm. Because I had it covered. If we’re gonna name drop now, I’m gonna [00:21:00] name drop. Don Cox was my instructor.

At Pocono and Don Cox should mean something if you follow Penske Racing at all. He was the chief engineer for seven Indie wins and many, many, many other inventions and things like that. He was my instructor and has Ben, my Bo and Powell and Buddy, whatever you wanna call it, for the last almost 20 years.

Do I ever get the sexist garbage of, where’s your husband? Are your sons here? What are you doing here? Kind of thing. You ask if I had luck. I think I created my luck in that. I don’t have any tolerance for being treated any differently, and my passion and dream is to someday have an all women’s racing team.

And have nobody know that it’s on our women’s racing team until everybody takes their helmets and gear off at the end. You know, slowing hair of whatever color. Preferably not blonde, but yes, us brunettes need our time in the light. [00:22:00] Damn straight. So I have to ask this question. Because both of you have probably similar experiences, but on different ends of the pendulum swing.

And what I mean by that is a couple of years ago, Tanya stepped out of doing DE and became a coach. And Maureen, you’ve been a coach for many, many years. What I mean by sharing in the experiences, probably being the only female coach in the room and then dealing with that come game day, you know, being in the right seat.

So maybe you guys wanna discuss what that was like from both sides and compare swap stories. Well, let me clarify. This is particularly important that I am not an instructor. I loan out my car and I’m an advocate for women, and I’m well known as a pest, but I have never sat right seat because I thought that people were crazy to do that.

Tanya, nothing against you, but I had two sons that I was bringing up. I always said, we are wearing helmets. We have the harnesses. We’re all [00:23:00] going one direction, so we’re safer, but I just never felt comfortable. I think I could have been an instructor, but I never went that route. I went more the route of running a car.

We campaigned, like I mentioned, a couple cars in Porsche Club. Right. So Tanya, tell me about your instructing. That’s fantastic to me again. Small percentage. It is a small percentage. I’m honestly getting more accolades than I deserve cuz I really haven’t had a chance to do much. In terms of instructing, thanks to Covid, I was able to get out at a few events and then, you know, we all locked down and haven’t done anything for a couple years.

So maybe this year come out of hibernation. Even so, I mean, not even being a coach, just attending H P D events, it’s usually me, and maybe you see two other women in the paddock that aren’t there supporting somebody else. They’re actually getting in the car and, and running. They say that you are the culmination of all of your previous instructors, especially in H P D, right?

You everybody has a natural driving style for the [00:24:00] street. When you come to the track, you are this homologation to use a racing term of all of your instructors. Good, bad, or indifferent. You’ve learned something from everybody to the point that you guys are making. It’s very rare to see a woman in the classroom.

They’re teaching amongst the men, and I’ve had the privilege of having several female coaches over the years, and I’ve taken a lot more away from those coaches than I did. Even some of the men, one, especially Ms. Ellen Gutar, I have to thank her because. Her teaching style, especially when I was running with P C a many years ago, was so different that it opened my eyes up and I borrowed some of her techniques that I still use today when I’m teaching my students.

It’s different, but again, I have to give her a big shout out. And I think Tanya too, there was a Canadian coach that she had running a Mustang convertible many years ago at an event we went to that you had an awesome experience with. Yeah. When you said that, I had to think, I was like, I haven’t had very many women coaches, and now as I’m.

Think back, I’ve had three in the early days when I was still being [00:25:00] instructed and whatnot. Sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t because they were basically each, the only woman there at that event and they partnered you up because you know, it’s like, oh, you drive a front wheel drive, we’re gonna put you in a front wheel drive car.

There you go. Yeah, there are three different events, but basically, yeah, they were each the only woman instructor at. Any of those events in a sea of, I don’t know, whatever, there’ll be 20, 30 male instructors. So yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a different perspective when you’re in the seats with a female. I, I don’t know, their style is just slightly different.

You know nothing against the men and it’s. I don’t even know if it’s necessarily, you just have a different understanding cuz you both are female. You, you know, in the back of your minds this is like a big deal that you’re here both doing it together and you’re in the see of other men and it feels really good and empowering when you’re passing, you know?

Yes. The guys and their, you know, no offense, their Porsches and I’m in this low horsepower car, bye. And it’s like you got that girl power moment going on [00:26:00] that you don’t quite get the same thrill or empowerment if there’s a male instructor in the car. Not that it’s not exciting to still pass people, but I’ll flip that coin around and I’ll openly admit, we men can be hyper aggressive sometimes, and I actually found that the female coaches that I had.

You kind of check that at the door, and I will admit that they were actually more technical. As much as we pride ourselves as men, as being super technical and knowing all about, you know, it’s a 13 millimeter and you turn it into this torque spec. That’s all just nerd Wikipedia stuff. But when it came down to the finesse part, the really technical aspects of driving it was more like learning how to dance.

There was a rhythm to it, and there was just a different way of teaching that. Again, I’ve embraced that and I loved it, and it was one of those. Things that it was just so refreshing and, and yet so rare at the same time, I hate to say with, I can get in cars with other guys and I, I kind of know what I’m gonna get.

It’s written right on the packaging. I’m making a gross generality here. But every once in a while there’s that bluebird that just appears in. You’re like, wow, that was amazing. I totally blew my [00:27:00] mind. And those are the types of experiences that I’ve had over the years with female coaches. So again, I wanna encourage more women to step up and get out of intermediate.

Group, you know, we do see women out there on the track and, and take the chance, get in the right seat and become a coach. I was gonna say, you’ve just talked about my mission at MO Racing. In order to be an instructor, you have to be an advanced student, and in order to be an instructor, you could potentially be a racer.

Hint. Tanya, you would be welcome anytime. Thank you. To come struck or guest drive my new used 9 97. Seriously, that’s an open invitation. You just gave me a flashback. I am in the reason Toter region, which is Philadelphia. Greater area. Yeah, and I think it means. Monster Slayer in German. Recent toter has a lot of female instructors, of which I really learned a lot, and you just gave me a flashback at Summit Point, her saying, come on, why are you lifting a little, you, you know, you’ve got this, you’ve [00:28:00] got this, and you can pass these guys.

They’re not as good as you. And to have that voice in my head was incredible and so empowering. And then there are several. Women coaches, and I mentioned that Pippa Ma, I had her come and instruct two female drivers. She jumped in with our chief instructor and he absolutely was in heaven because she can really instruct and I think she has the record for the fastest time in the 500 for a woman.

Wow. So she, she’s quite a instructor and coach. There’s a lot of things you’ll hear. They actually say that. Not to toot our horn, that women tend to actually be, you mentioned they’re more technical giving the instructions, but they also, there’s a lot of evidence that women can tend to be a little more technical in their driving style too.

They’re a little more consistent. They’re a little more precise. They don’t quite get that red mist as easily as the men folk do sometimes. And I remember many years ago, our father was very big into DER Cross. [00:29:00] Chair of autocross and he set up the courses and, and did all that stuff. And he even did pro solos.

He was competitive, you know, top of game and things like that. And he would host the driver’s clinics. So were always at the beginning of the autocross season where you’d, you’d have, like, for people who aren’t unfamiliar, they’d set up. Little skid pads and slalom and late braking and threshold braking, miniature exercises, and you kind of go around to each of these stations all day long.

You would practice the techniques and then it would culminate in an actual alto cross where they’d set up the big course and then, you know, go do laps. And I participated in one of these, and this was. Very early in my general driving career, I don’t even remember if I was licensed yet, or I, I might have had to have been to participate.

I forget the name of the guy. He had the Green nine 14. One of my instructors for one of the, uh, Ken Noro. Yes, Ken. He, Ken Ken is my instructor for some of the, the late breaking exercises, and I remember him telling me that I actually had an advantage over the men because. The way we depress the pedals on the balls of [00:30:00] our feet versus not is something of an advantage to us as women, cuz of the, basically the shoes we wear and the way we’re used to walking.

And so we actually have a little more finesse and control than, than guys generally do. So that’s kind of always stuck with me too and found it funny, the differences between men and women. But at the end of the day, the machines that perel us can make us all equally fast, right? So, love it. Yep. You’re stealing all my lines.

Sorry, Maureen. What can I do? Right. If you could change something about racing, even on the local level to make it more inviting, especially to women, what is that thing that needs to change to just drop the wall down to make it even easier? I know you’re doing a lot of work, but as you assess all these organizations, if you could give them one recommendation, one piece of consulting to make it more inviting, what would that be?

Make it into kind of like golf outings. Instead of having golf outings, we should have country clubs. At racetracks, you become [00:31:00] a member for a nominal fee, not some crazy country club fee. Come out on a Wednesday night or Tuesday night, Saturday or Sunday, and you bring your family and they spectate or come along with you sons or daughters or whatever, and drive.

I would like to normalize it. That’s what I would like to see happen. The more women there. Would be would be nice just to show that, you know, we belong there too, right? I mean it, I think it’s stereotypes that get built from when we’re young that the girl gets handed the Barbie doll and the the boy gets handed Matchbox car and the tous on that cross when who cares, everybody can do or play with.

You know what they want and there’s nothing. They should hold women back from something like a car. We can all learn this stuff. So I think it’s great. When you talked about the clinics of introducing that early on to young girls, or even if eventually young boys are in the program too. Yes. Um, but specifically, you know, young girls so that they know that they don’t need to be afraid of this [00:32:00] stuff because it.

In the long run, it’s detrimental to women because as they get older and they haven’t been exposed to this, they’re taken advantage of. We know this. You bought your first car and you needed to go to the dealer, the auto body shop or the auto repair shop and get your car worked on, and the guy sees the woman walking in and he just sits back and he is ready for the ride cuz he knows he is gonna sell blinker fluid.

Unfortunately to her or something. I love it. Right. I love it. And you know, I’m, I’m not trying to put our gender down. I mean, it happens to the men folk too. Let’s be real. There’s plenty that don’t know a lug nut from the windshield wiper blade either, but. Seems to be forced or perpetuated on women a lot more.

Maureen, in 2019, you left your job at Drexel Institute’s, uh, women’s health to become a mechanics apprentice. What led you to do that? What, what made you make that decision? I actually left the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership where I was the event [00:33:00] specialist for 16 and a half years Loving. My job every single day because of what I got to do, making a difference in women’s lives.

I had this dream that I had reached my pinnacle there and wanted to start mo racing as a true initiative, and then had life events with my father being ill and then passing away, et cetera, real life things. And then Covid. It really started taking off and manifesting itself, so to speak. I knew that this was my passion, and then I would certainly not have a lot more time in my life that I could resign from a job and pursue it.

So again, my timing was a little off With a pandemic starting now, I feel it’s picking up again and it’s going to come to fruition. What’s the hardest thing about being a mechanic that is? The true physicality of it. I am no spring chicken. I just rotated tires this morning and I balance tires, and I did my own rear brakes on my B M [00:34:00] W.

I can do almost anything that I’ve been taught in the last year plus, but lifting is something that I find to be a challenge, but if I really want to, I use my tools. In other words, I can change out tires not high up on the lift, lower down, I can do it. It’s just, I wish I had the rock. I wish I had his muscles and my brain power.

I, I understand that part. I often am, uh, get foiled in my endeavors when I don’t have enough strength to unloosen some bolts that I can’t get off, and then it’s like deflated and defeated. Can you come help me? They need your help too. Yeah. I’ll bet you you’ve helped somebody else out. It’s not that I didn’t know what I was doing, it’s just I need to go to the gym more.

My answer to her usually is, do you have a longer cheater bar? And normally I don’t. Trust me, I’ve thought of it. You had mentioned women walking into the dealer, et cetera. [00:35:00] Also women being told that they need a new air filter. And a new battery being taken advantage of that they had a new air filter six weeks ago.

Mm-hmm. So that price gouging, I love to teach to be aware of that and simple things like if you’re going out in high heeled shoes in your car, that you should have an old pair of sneakers in the trunk. To, to be realistic, I don’t wear high heel shoes anymore. I’m old. So for those of you out there, male and female who wear high heel shoes, make sure you have some sneakers in the back of your car.

There’s nothing more exciting when you go to put the clutch in in your foot slides straight off because you’ve got no traction underneath that high heel shoe. Exactly. Exactly. You only gotta do that once. And you realize, yeah, look, flip flops in the car is a good idea barefoot. Sorry. But racing shoes are my preferred way to go all the time.

I wear Pilates as my daily shoes, so it’s all good. But, well, I, I, I can’t wear Pilates to work, you know, [00:36:00] but that’s, it’s all good. Mine are pink, by the way. My daughter’s bought them for me for Christmas, so I’m very proud of that fact. I love it. Love it. Maureen, let’s dive a little deeper into some of the drivers you’ve worked with.

You’ve name dropped Pippa man a few times. Is there anybody else of note that’s working with you on the program or have you worked with on other programs as well that men folk might recognize? Men folk would recognize Don Cox because for the last 20 years we’ve been hanging out, so to speak. The amount of knowledge that he has imparted on me and the fact that these other drivers are like.

Do you realize how smart he is, et cetera, et cetera. So I actually have crewed for him where he actually has depended on me, and this is a former Penske chief engineer, so that’s a lot of pressure. I could take any named race car driver and they’re probably not as picky as he is. So names. Of race car drivers?

No. Pippa’s, probably the most recognizable. And Christina Lamb [00:37:00] is a hell of a driver and she was down at Sebring and we entered A B M W into the Enduro race and they actually won in their class. Amy Dikes, Christina Lamb, you know Sue Bam, who is a banker and another person who is an attorney. And then I had somebody come out with their son, a mom and son.

Team names are not big because I’m trying to really do this on the grassroots level. Those are the type of people I’m after. And then I’ll pass whomever along to shift up now, or now you guys. So for the named drivers, there’s not a lot other than Pippa. But a lot of potential good drivers. You have to start somewhere.

The work you’re trying to do is incredibly important because without the representation, it, it’s critical for every gender or, you know, race or et cetera, is if you don’t see others like you in that profession or in that area or in that whatever, then you have a hard time [00:38:00] seeing yourself there. And so having that representation and getting people to realize it has nothing to do with gender or anything.

It’s just if you try and you apply yourself, you have the capability and capacity to do these things. Now, you might find that you don’t like them, and that’s perfectly fine, but don’t limit yourself. To, oh, boys play with matchbox cars, so I couldn’t possibly, so I think it’s wonderful what you’re doing.

Keep, keep going. Well, we, we call that you have to see it to be it that if you just take it for granted that Lynn St. James was driving her pinto. Yes. She drove a Pinto and her famous story is she drove it into a lake or a pond or something. For real. If you can see these other women doing it, Then you can be it.

And I’m also not just women, I believe that any minority or unrepresented group should also be involved. So I am very excited when I see somebody of color, you know, either over the wall tire changer, I [00:39:00] can’t think of a name right now, but NASCAR Tire Changer and numerous other people. A good friend of mine is the safety steward for Reason Toter.

She’s out there in the pits telling everybody what the hell to do on grid. She is a powerhouse and her name is VARs Ovia Fernandez. Yeah. So in this vein of, you know, getting the representation out there and, and you know, having other young women or other women see, Women behind the pit wall or in the car, or either side of the pit wall.

What obstacles are you facing and, and how are you overcoming them in regards to getting men on board and really truly seeing these women that are changing the tires or helping read the data, having those guys see them as true peers and really taking them seriously. Seeing somebody in action is the best way to get things done.

So I am trained in Motech data acquisition and I also, I dabble with AIM data acquisitions, [00:40:00] getting guys to believe in me when I can say, here’s where you are, not full on the throttle. Here’s where you are breaking early. Here’s where you’re breaking late. Here’s your fuel consumption. Your whole suit is broken.

It’s 110 degrees. Now what are we gonna do about it? Et cetera, et cetera. All kinds of things that, again, action is the best example I think. Um, the proof is in the pudding. Thank you. So that actually leads into another great conversation we’ve had many times before. There’s this fallacy that you need a race car to go racing.

So when you’re talking to young ladies that might be interested in motorsport, how do you get them to overcome that and realize they can just show up with their daily driver? Well, that’s exactly what I say is you can show up with your daily driver and in fact, that is a much better experience. What I find in the high performance driver’s ed, is people showing up in twin turbos and crazy, crazy fast cars that they should not be driving.

Yes, that’s the mother in me. As novices that we learned with Momentum [00:41:00] cars. Porsche Cup car is a beautiful race car and I was really lucky to be able to purchase that and drive it for a year. And my mentioned before my race car engineer had something to do with that car. He had modified it completely, so it was like a go-kart wrapped around me.

Now I went to that extreme of the cup car. The other thing for daily drivers is I’ve taken and lent my B M W 3 28 xxi to some women drivers and my son to do hooked on driving. I actually more enjoy a street car and learning how it can perform. To driving an all out race car because you have to start as a novice anyway.

And so again, I would love to have a driving school. I was lucky enough to do Skip Barber, which they gave me buy one get one free because of their belief in my MO racing. There should be a MO racing school that brings your street car, have it teched, and go out and drive [00:42:00] with instructors like Tanya. I mean, it’s a very intimidating sport.

A lot of people, you know, they find out, you know, I kind of do this, and they’re not necessarily car enthusiasts at all, so they’re unaware that these type of activities can even happen. And you know, they have that wow moment. It’s like, really? Well, what do you drive? I’m like, well, I drive X, Y, Z, or I’ve driven X, Y, Z.

And they’re like, wow. I’m like, you could take your Toyota Corolla if that’s what you drive, or your Honda Civic, your Honda Accord. I’ve seen it. I was like, I told ’em, I’ve seen a Honda Accord out there, plain Jane. And you know, that person wasn’t passing the Porsches down the straits, but they were having a good time and they were learning something, and that’s all that matters.

So there’s also that intimidation that people have that they think they can’t get into it. When you’re exactly right, just take your street car. All you gotta do is make sure you have some decent tires with some tread on them. You know, your brake pads and your fluids all fresh and go out there and you’re not trying to be tip a man and all, and [00:43:00] all the, the great women that are out there right now.

You can be that person. Also just in your regular car, just get out there and learn the basics and then, you know, if you find it’s for you, you can step up to the cup car or you know, whatever. See where life takes you. Well, Tanya, you’re gonna have to come and visit because I’ve been trying to get New Jersey Motorsport Park to have a Wednesday night open trap and have that exact same thing happen.

And of course, I. Think the biggest obstacle there is good old insurance concerns about somebody getting hurt, et cetera, et cetera. To me, my dream would be instead of going golfing, you go on a weekend and you have open track for half a day or full day. It doesn’t have to be for the whole weekend. I mean, sometimes it’s exhausting.

In the summer it is just go and have. Talk to me in a year or year and a half and we’ll be talking about that happening. Awesome. Some group out there was doing a women’s track day. PCA down here has been advertising like so far all year that in [00:44:00] October there’s a women’s only like H P D event. I think it’s like.

Mid late October, which, yeah, I don’t wanna discourage them from doing those things, but that to me kind of goes in the category of W racing. Right, exactly. Um, I want there to be blended so that women don’t get treated any differently. Like in their regard. I could see it maybe as being attractive to least pull them in at first.

Maybe some women that are intimidated, so. Okay. Agreed. Agreed. Hopefully it could it be positive in that respect and then they start realizing and then coming out to the blended events. I completely agree. And so if a young lady walks up to you today, let’s say, you know, around about 10 years old and asks you the question, Maureen, why do you race?

I. What would you tell her? Because it’s the slowest that I go in my life. I’m multitasking at all times doing various projects. Being a mom, being a employee, being a mechanic, being all kinds of things. When I’m racing, [00:45:00] I’m going so fast that I cannot be managing, thinking of I have to pick up the dry cleaning or I have to cook something, which by the way, I don’t cook the going fast.

In a safe environment and the fact that you, whoever that person is, you can do it too. Maureen, as we wrap up here, are there any shout outs, promotions, upcoming events, or anything else you’d like to share? My goal is to make sure everybody knows, even if I’m repeating myself. That everybody knows these fabulous things are going on.

First off, I think you might have noticed that NASCAR was going to give 10 million through Bud Light as a sponsor for Women in Motorsport and Chip Genasi and PNC Bank just announced on International Women’s Day a Women in Motorsport campaign. They didn’t give a dollar amount with it, but I’m sure it’s significant.

And I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Chip Genasi and Roger Penske and Roger help Beth Perretta out, and Simone Destro is her driver at Indy 500. [00:46:00] She, again, is stealing some of what I would like to do with the women race car team. But remember, I want them to be, Known as women after they win? Yes. No need to beforehand.

Maureen, you actually bring up a really good point and because I want to talk about something that happened a while ago, you know, international Women’s Day. We do a lot of social media posting and things like that, and I sat on it all day and sometimes there’s events like that where I’m like, you know what?

We’re not gonna say anything. We’re just gonna let it go. Moment of silence. But it took me all day because I just had these thoughts ruminating in my mind and I didn’t know. Exactly what I wanted to say, and then it sort of hit me later in the day. I remember as a kid, and I’ve said this many times on this show, I always wanted to be a rally driver.

I grew up in the group B era. It was one of those things that has stuck with me. It’s what got me hooked on motorsports. Even though I know rally’s not a big deal in the United States. It’s, you know, very huge everywhere else. But here. And at that time as a kid, you know you’re looking up to your idols, you know?

Yeah. You had names like Volta Rural and [00:47:00] Ola Ari Vaan and people like that. But then there was Michelle Mutton. When I posted on International Women’s Day, I made it a point to be very direct about what I wanted to say and to highlight her because you see all this other stuff and I’m like looking back at the eighties and the late seventies, cuz she ran for Renault and other teams as well.

She was a pioneer. In motor sports as a female being out there. I mean, the other names that we listed, you know, there were a few that came before many that came after, but I looked at her going, of all the motorsport that there is, rallies one of the most difficult, requires some of the most just risk taking.

But also finesse at the same time. And it, it is a ballet. And so I’ve always looked up to her as one of my motor sports heroes. And if asked me to line up three, five people that I wanna shake their hand and meet them, Sabine Schmidt would’ve been one of them. And Michelle Mat right next to her, right? So, I wish there were more people like that, that want to be like her and do that and be rally drivers too.

Uh, so I just [00:48:00] wanted to bring that up because that hits close to home for me. I know it hits close to home for my family and those are the kinds of stories I’m trying to pass down like yours to my daughters as they look to the future and, and go into driving and hopefully into motorsport and or if not, if they want to take a ballet, that’s fine too.

But what we’re doing is combining the two. Absolutely. Uh, the whole idea of dancing with a car is at a technical track like Shenandoah, which is a small track near summit on the same grounds. That’s where one of my favorite instructors taught me how to dance with the car. That’s exactly what he said, and how to apply the brakes to get more steering input, all kinds of technical stuff that I won’t.

Bore you with, I would invite everybody to visit mo racing.net. Leave your comments there. Email me, contact me. Love to hear your feedback. Other than mo racing.net, I want to shout out to Vet Motorsports. I think you’ve had [00:49:00] Pete on the show, Mary Haggy of Moon Mark we had mentioned earlier, and again, that’s Lori Johnson of Lady.

Start Your Engines. Little plug there, commercial for her. Shout out to all the male allies out there. Again, without them I wouldn’t be able to do it. And the Red Cross for any of those drivers out there, I am a transportation specialist. We pick up the blood and plasma and take it from the central lab out to hospitals, and some of it is stats.

In other words, you can’t be caught speeding, but you can certainly utilize the fact that you have a Red Cross van. So I pull it right into the front of the hospital, put my flashers on, and I’m able to take in the cases of blood platelets. So shout out to Red Cross and any other car enthusiasts that’s out there.

So stay tuned and if you have any suggestions, I’m open to them. Watch out for what we’re doing because hopefully in a year or so it’ll be standard. [00:50:00] Get it standard manual. Save the manual. Yeah. So we thank Maureen for sharing her journey and the great work she is doing with MO racing to empower women in all facets of motorsports.

Mo Racing provides the concierge service partnering with established high performance driving programs, and they would love to get you on the track. So if you are interested or want to learn more, be sure to check out their website at www.moracing.net or follow Maureen on Twitter at mcil maureen, or on Instagram at Maureen McPhail.

Maureen, we cannot thank you enough for coming on Break Fix. This has been an awesome chat that we’ve had tonight and we look forward to the MO racing success and getting more women in the paddock and behind the wheel out there coaching all the things that we talked about. So again, we can’t thank you enough for the work that you’re doing, and we wish you the best of success here in the 22 and Beyond Seasons.

And thank you. It’s been a pleasure speaking with [00:51:00] you. Thanks so much for the invitation. Thank you, Maureen.

If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to check us out on www.gt motorsports.org. You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour 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 crew chief gt motorsports.org.

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