Miranda Scott (née Dotson) took sibling rivalry to a new level during a preseason practice session at Bakersfield Speedway in California. She (pictured on the outside) wasn’t going to let her brother, Ethan Dotson (inside), 2019 IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals champion, get the best of her.
After Ethan bumped his stock car into hers while they waited to head onto the track, it was game on.
“He kidded me earlier in the pits [saying,] ‘Don’t get alongside me or I’ll wreck you,’” Miranda, of Bakersfield, California, said. “I didn’t take the joke too well when he banged on my back bumper.”
Miranda, 27, a veteran racer since age 13, decided to school her little brother Ethan, 21, on the track. (For more about Ethan, “Ethan Dotson: Crisscrossing the Country for Racing.”)
“He goes away and races in Iowa, so he claims to be a better driver,” said Miranda. “I’m back here holding the fort.”
It’s a family affair for the Dotsons. Their father, Wayne Dotson, also races stock cars, steering his ride in front of his warring children. Ethan debuted a brand-new car this past weekend and Miranda helped him break it in.
“I race harder when I see [Ethan] next to me,” Miranda said. “I know I could beat him. I’ve beaten both Ethan and my dad several times. This time, I guess I put a little too much tire to the door panel.”
The resulted in a small fire erupting in the rear end of Ethan’s car. However, more than his car heated up as the result of the contact.
“He drove right back at me,” said Miranda. “Afterward, he was really mad at me.”
Miranda Scott understands his fury.
“Years back, I had a brand-new mini-stock,” said. “Ethan raced me around the outside shop in a street Honda, and then smashed it into my new mini stock. I was pretty mad. Now he knows how I felt back then. We’ll see what happens next week.”
Bakersfield Speedway’s season opens this Saturday, where the Dotson family will assuredly put on a show.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
