"Sprint Car Spotlight: Shayla Waddell"

For This week's "Sprint Car Spotlight" feature, we are going to introduce you to Shayla Waddell!

Shayla Waddell is a 20-year old sprint car driver from Oklahoma City, OK.  Her father got her started racing in mini-sprints at 8 years old at a local track, I-44 Speedway.  Over the following years, the family traveled and she raced at several different tracks, winning quite a few races along with her younger sister, Savannah. 

After moving up to the Restrictor 600 class at I-44 Speedway in 2006 and winning a championship, she moved up to a 360 sprint car in 2008 at age 14.  She competed locally at State Fair Speedway in Oklahoma City and was Rookie of the Year, and won 2 A Features.  After State Fair Speedway shut down at the end of the 2009 season, the team started traveling with the Oil Capital Racing Series, OCRS, which travels around Oklahoma and surrounding states. 

Shayla finished in the top 10 in points with OCRS in 2010, 2011, and 2012, while also becoming the first female to win an OCRS A Main event.  The 2013 season was hit and miss as Shayla was focusing on school.  She attends Oklahoma City University full time as a Junior Business Major with a Chesapeake Presidential Scholarship, and has worked at the Federal Aviation Administration for three years as an Administrative Analyst.  The plans for 88s team in 2014 are to run the complete OCRS schedule, which includes wing and non-wing events.  Shayla has no experience in a non-wing car but is excited for the challenge! 

The racing operation would not be possible without the help of all of the support Shayla receives: her dad - Scott, PM Pro LLC, Nick Newton, Production Engine and Pump, Shores-Lift Solutions, Jaguar of OKC, TS Construction, Red Rock Distributing, and several others that help out every weekend. 

Shayla plans to continue racing as long as possible and to further her education at OCU.