Four cylinder driver Gracie Duggan showed them how’s it done at I-75 Raceway outside of Sweetwater, Tennessee. At 14 years old, she took home eight wins and the track championship in her first full season of racing. Duggan credits her father, Derik, as the force behind her success.
“I wanted to be a driver when I was 13, because it is something my dad and [late] papaw Gary did and did well,” Duggan, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, said. “They were top drivers at the former Atomic Speedway. I wanted to carry on the family tradition. So, my dad gave me his car and his advice.”
Duggan’s two brothers did not want to race. So, she took up the torch and raced half of the 2020 season. Despite the partial schedule, she earned the top rookie honors in the four cylinder class.
“[My father] gave me great advice, ‘Always be patient. It takes time to learn. You might not be the best one week, but you can come back and be the better than ever the next week,’” said Duggan. “Those were two of the most important things he taught me.”
Her father came back out to race with his daughter this season.
“What stands out to me about her is that she listens very well,” Duggan’s father, Derik, said. “When we are on the road, I am always trying to cram my 30 years of driving knowledge into her brain. She listens and applies what I told her when she is on the track.”
Gracie Duggan, a freshman in high school, still has time to choose her path after school. Whatever that may be, she wants to make sure racing remains in her life.
“My goal this season is to experience new tracks and race against other drivers — that is how I can improve as a driver,” said Duggan. “No matter where I race, being successful will take confidence and the right mindset, which is what I focus on.”
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.
