Story Photos
 Photo by Bill Wagner Breanna Lopez, 18, says she wants to ride her success all the way to NASCAR's Nextel Cup. |
Driven to make history
Saturday, May 5, 2007 11:56 PM PDT
By Ben Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleBreanna Lopez snaps the fingers on her right hand at a rate that would exhaust a hummingbird on a sugar high.
"What we deal with out there," she says, snapping faster, "comes up like this. You have cars inside you and outside you at 150 miles per hour. There is a point where you get beyond thinking externally. Things happen so fast, your decisions become second-nature, instinctive, animalistic."
Her hands tell other stories.
At South Sound Speedway near Tenino on April 28, Lopez is standing in the pit next to her No. 25 car, a 900-pound, steel/aluminum-framed machine with a Beast 2500 chassis, an Esslinger (Ford block) engine that throbs with the power of 400 horses, and American Racer shoes.
She has just won the second heat on the opening day of the Washington Midget Racing Association season. Lopez huddles with her grandfather and mentor, former NASCAR legend Dan Press, and discusses the race, the car, the track.
She smooths back her auburn hair and chews on a nail ---- a typical teenager.
Then she rests her hands on her hips. She looks defiant, determined ---- a woman on a mission.
"I did a good job," she tells crew member Joe Hayes.
Lopez sits in the dining room at her grandparents' Victorian mansion in Vader. Her hands are folded together, resting on the table. She talks about growing up and raising her brothers Daniel, now 16, and Jonathan, now 14, in Sylmar, Calif., because her parents "were all over the place."
Her mother is currently in the Clackamas County Jail.
The hands remain folded as Lopez explains how she has overcome two eating disorders.
"I've been a fighter all my life," she says, quietly.
Then she raises a hand, fingers squeezed together, palm facing outward.
"You see this? I was born two months premature. I weighed 1.9 pounds," she says. "I had open-heart surgery."
She looks at her hand.
"I was this big."
Out of the gate
Lopez, 18, has been racing since she was 9 years old. Press introduced Lopez to motorsports, toting her and her brothers to the I-5 Quarter Midget Club at the now-defunct Jackson Prairie Speedway in Chehalis.
"We all fell in love with it," Lopez said, "but I was the only one who stuck with it."
Lopez began racing quarter midgets as a fun hobby and to humor her grandpa, who had retired from NASCAR but "hadn't really retired," she said. "Once it's in you, you can't get rid of it, you know?"
What was true for Press quickly became true for his granddaughter. Lopez was a natural on the track, and began winning immediately.
In 1998, she was the senior novice I-5 Dirt Challenge Series Champion. She was voted I-5 Driver of the Year in 2001. In 2003, she was champion of the junior half Eastern Grands. During a six-year quarter-midget career, she won more than 100 races. Lopez finished second in points in the 2005 WMRA series and was voted Rookie of the Year.
Her ultimate goal is to be the first female to win the Nextel Cup, NASCAR's elite racing series.
Lopez has spent years trying to balance her femininity with racing.
"Girls don't dream of driving race cars when they grow up," she said. "What do they dream of? Not that."
But as she's mastered each successive division of midget racing, and as her dream of becoming the best stock car driver in the world has crystalized, Lopez no longer regards being a woman and being a racer as contradictory.
"I firmly believe the best race car driver ever will be a woman," she said. "To put a car on edge, you have to have no fear. Men have fear, but they don't admit it. Women have fear and they try to think it through."
Balancing act
Lopez goes by "Brea" and sometimes "Grace" ---- a nickname bestowed when she was very young, "a little chunky, a little dorky, wore glasses and tripped over myself."
These days, she is poised, petite and professional. She clings to a stubborn fondness for stereotypical "girl" things that complements a cutthroat, assassin's approach to her sport.
Racing is physically grueling. There are tremendous G-forces "pushing and pulling you," Lopez said. Temperatures can top 100 degrees in the car, and are compounded by layers of fireproof clothing. Hydration is crucial. Cardiovascular fitness and weight training are essential.
But Lopez embraces her feminine side through it all.
"I love to get my toenails painted," she said. "I love having long hair, I love to go shopping, I love to be tailored. I also enjoy being a smart, intelligent businesswoman. And I enjoy kicking middle-aged men's butts."
Lopez is a full-time student at Centralia Community College and works full-time as the office coordinator at United Country Northwest Real Estate. She is working toward her agent's licence and wants to sell and invest in real estate. Lopez spends most of her free time working out and working on her car. Writing and music are hobbies.
"Racing requires a lot of sacrifices, but I never was the type of girl to go to the prom anyway," she said. "I don't have a particularly large social life. I want to get married and have a family some day, but I like being busy."
Bumps and bruises
Lopez's daily commute takes her along the winding, snaking ---- and tempting, for a speed junkie ---- path of State Route 506 to Interstate 5 north. She insists that she is a "very safe" driver on the street.
"I don't like street racing," Lopez added. "But I have terrible road rage."
People who don't know how to merge drive her nuts, she said.
Her racing style is aggressive. She attacks on the track. Lopez described the racing sensation as "out of body."
"The adrenaline is crazy. Your heart is pumping crazy," she said. "I'm always scared. I don't like to admit that. But it is part of the thrill. There is no feeling like it."
Lopez's racing style has landed her in some serious scrapes. The "worst wreck of her life," at South Sound, launched her into the air, totalled her car, and led to her being escorted from the track strapped to a back brace. She broke her hand at the Eastern Grands in 2003, continued racing without a cast, and won her division.
Professional racing success for Lopez will depend on a combination of elements. Driving skill and car quality are only part of the equation.
"Marketing matters as much as skill," she said. "You have to have the total package. You need looks, you must be well-spoken, you have to set a good example. And you have to be able to drive."
Ready to make history
Acceptance from her peers has been difficult to acquire. Lopez said that she was treated with tempered enthusiasm and as a novelty when she began racing.
Winning changed everything.
Immediately after her solid showing at South Sound ---- she was second in the trophy dash, first in her heat, and fifth in the main event ---- the WMRA Web site's message board buzzed with nasty comments about Lopez.
"There are a percentage of fans who don't think I should be out there," she said. "Drivers generally are not happy about me because I kick their butts. But I make them respect me. I'm not afraid to take someone out to teach them a lesson."
She has heard her success excused as a product of her grandfather's racing expertise, or as a function of financial advantage.
"The thing is," said Lopez, "to win, to run well consistently, you need the total package. You need good equipment, a good team and skill."
Lopez acknowledges that motorsports are male-dominated.
"I can't say I don't enjoy breaking down a barrier," she said. "I like blazing a trail. I think it will be part of history. All you can leave behind is a legacy.
"I don't want to be the top girl," Lopez added. "I want to be the top driver."
Ben Zimmerman is a sportswriter for The Daily News. He can be reached at zim@tdn.com or 577-2528.
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