There are many things
that a person would think about, when it comes to trying to figure out what
makes these race car drivers tick these days. When you watch them lay it on the
line every week, and you see some of the crazy things that go on at the track,
during the heat of competition. You see cars driving on the ragged edge, nearly
out of control at every turn. What it can be that drives these people to do
what they do, and what is it, that makes up the “Heart of a Racer”.
From the first time
she crawled in a go kart, and took to the dirt tracks of East Texas, she’s run
fast against boys and girls older and more experienced than her, and eventually
grown men that had been racing longer than she’d been alive. The first thing on
her mind was to gain their respect, and then take home their check. Win big and
win often. There are a lot of them still scratching their heads, wondering what
just happened, and who was in the number twenty-four kart that just blew by
them.
Soon Brandie had to
take the next step and get into something faster, and Mini-Sprints were just
the ticket. Her Dad sold the kart operation and put in enough overtime at the
power plant, and with the help of another old sprint car racer, Nolan Wren, he
was able to get her in her first Mini-Sprinter, and the race was on. She got
out there and mixed it up with grown men racing every weekend, and she barely
being a teenager, there were some hard knocks she had to learn, because she was
traveling a lot more, and further, also she was now driving cars that were
twice as fast, and have a staggering weight to horsepower ratio. But being the
racer she is, she just got up on the wheel, elbows out, and earned her stripes.
The first time she flipped end over end, she thought, her dad was going to have
a heart attack, but she jumped out of that car, and was just mad that she’d
torn her car up, and was upset that she’d scared everyone, taking no time to
think about herself, and what she’d just gone through. That’s just Brandie,
always worried about the other persons first.
Two short years
later, she was holding the championship trophy over her head, and the laughing
was gone and it wasn’t very funny anymore. Then came the opportunities that
came with winning. Lyn St. James “Women in the Winners Circle.” The Bob
Bondurant driving school. And one of her biggest accomplishments to date, being
selected into the Project Podium Program, where a lot of avenues were opened up
for her, and she was then exposed to professionals, that helped her get to the
next level, consistency. The trophies stacked up, and it looked like it may be
time for that next move……………Full size Sprint Cars oh boy!
In 2009, Brandie took a shot and
applied for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Combine in North Carolina. She knew it
would be a long shot getting selected, seeing as there are thousands of tough
applicants each year. However, a few weeks late she got a phone call from the
President of D4D Max Segal offering her a chance to try for The Driver for
Diversity program and to be on the reality T.V. show Changing Lanes on BET.
Even though Brandie did not make the top 5 drivers she still had an amazing
experience. She made a bunch of new friends including Alissa Geving, Natalie
Sather, Ryan Gifford, Darrel Wallace Jr, and Sergio Pena.
Brandie decided asphalt wasn’t where
she wanted to be, her heart was in sprint car racing. So once again, the race
cars were sold, to buy newer, bigger and faster equipment. And sponsorship came
around to ease the pain of growth. Barnes Motorsports joined forces with her
father, to put together a sponsorship with Tiremax of North America, along with
several others, to help field a fast car that not only looked good, it ran
good, and with time, the wins will start coming like before. With only a few
races into the season, she is already catching the eye of the other drivers
that are amazed at how well she’s been doing. Several top fives that year were
the norm, after a rough start of the season, with some engine woes to get
through.
Brandie didn’t start a full season of
sprint car racing until 2012 were she stepped up to run with The American
Sprint Car Series Gulf South Region. She knew she had a lot of information to
learn but she was ready. At the end of 2012 she finished 11
th in
ASCS points which was a huge accomplishment to be racing which such top notch
guys. Brandie also came out 5
th in ASCS Gulf South’s hard charger
award, and most importantly she received the ASCS Gulf South’s Most Improved
Driver award.
This year Brandie is half way through
her 2
nd full season of sprint car racing and she is currently 10th in ASCS Gulf South Points. Our team is confident we can have a top 10 finish
this year, if we work hard enough. We’ve had tons of help from other teams we
race with and couldn’t be happier with how much the team has learned. They’re
hoping the last half of the season goes as well as the beginning.
For more information, please check out
www.brandiejass.com or find her on
Facebook at
www.facebook.com/BrandieJassRacing!
Sprint Car Girls is very happy to feature Brandie!
My name is Morgan Turpen. I am 20 years old from Cordova,
Tennessee. I started racing go-karts in 2003 when I was ten years old. I won 2
championships and had 20+ wins. In 2008, I started racing 305 wingless sprints.
I had one win and 10 top 5's. I only did that for a year and moved on up to
360's in 2009. 
I race against names Terry Gray and Tim Crawley every weekend;
so I am racing with the best in the business. Over the winter, I was ranked top
female sprint car driver in America.
