Mini stock driver Ryanne Keesling hopped into a race car after watching how much fun her father, Dennis, had while racing. Although she regularly competes at Sheridan Speedway in Wyoming, she recently won her first feature at Casper Speedway in Wyoming. Now, she hopes other females will join her in her favorite pastime.
“I thought it would be fun to race, so my dad taught me how to drive with a clutch and shifter,” Keesling, 15, of Sheridan, Wyoming, said. “Then, he taught me how to take an engine apart and reassemble it. It was a great feeling to do that. It’s something that not many girls have experienced.”
In fact, Keesling enjoys working on cars as much as driving them.
“I am interested in a whole bunch of mechanical stuff, not just race cars,” said Keesling. “At Sheridan High School, I took robot classes, learning how to build robots. I also took a coding class, and I want to take machine shop and welding next. I want to be a professional driver and have a full-time career in racing.”
Keesling encourages other females to participate in the sport. She shares that passion with two other schoolmates, Taylor and Hanna Harmon, who race mini stocks and mod fours, respectively. The three are part of a group of women who have a Facebook Messenger chat. (For more on that, read “Ladies of Dirt Team: Women Supporting Women”.)
“Other girls should be involved — racing is fun, and you learn a lot while having fun,” Keesling said. “In my own experience, I felt accomplished to be able to win against boys. Racing is a level playing field — boys and girls are equal while playing in the same sport.”
If you’re looking for proof, take a look at the track record of Ryanne Keesling.
“If I can race and win at 15, so can they,” said Keesling. “We have found there a lot of girls who want to get into racing. I tell them how much I love racing. It is part of my life now and forever, and I am so thankful for my dad teaching me to race.”
Working and driving race cars also has real-world applications.
“Most girls have no idea how a car works,” Keesling said. “It is important for girls to learn about cars because we drive them every day. They can learn by racing. You learn to better analyze car problems — and learn that you could probably fix it on your own. Help is good, but it is a feeling of accomplishment when you can fix something on your own.”
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.
