Dirt late model racer Jordan Yawn works as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit. When she goes racing, her crew will have up to six nurses who work with her at Memorial Health in Savannah, Georgia.
“I’ve introduced my nursing friends to dirt tracks,” said Yawn, of Eden, Georgia. “I told them, ‘If you want to be on my pit crew, there will be no fancy boots, no furry coats.’ They’ve learned to love racing.
“For me, to have support from women is important. They’re changing tires, beating out body panels, and moving my car around. They’re not scared to be there. It’s something you don’t see at the track, which has always been a young man’s world.”
Yawn grew up in a racing family. Her grandmother, Kim Morris, and mother, April Annas, both raced at the now-defunct Oglethorpe Speedway Park. Yawn’s personal history includes a track championship at The Historic 441 Speedway in Dublin, Georgia. Other members of her family help, too, including her grandfather, Dennis Morris, and husband, Branden Yawn, who races street stocks.
“Going from nurse to race driver, it is hard to shut down being a nurse after 12 to 14 hours of work,” Yawn said. “When I get home, turning wrenches is a great stress reliever.”
Yawn works three to four shifts a week, hopefully getting the weekend off to race. When nursing calls, she devotes her entire attention to it.
“Last year was a tough year for my racing — the workload at the hospital was heavy,” said Yawn. “Taking care of very, very sick babies in the hospital demands focusing on every detail, every sign that they give you. Infants can’t talk. The nurse has to know her baby, and know every detail to take great care of that baby. I tend to carry that over to the shop — I notice every little thing on my race car.”
Jordan Yawn ended the season with the XR 604 Nationals at All-Tech Raceway in Lake City, Florida. Out of 101 entries, she worked her way to the C feature, and finished 15th in the non-qualifier race.
“This coming year, we should have better weekend coverage at the hospital,” Yawn said. “We have big plans, and I’m excited. We are going to be competing in super late models. There will be a lot to learn, and I will have twice the horsepower I’m used to.”
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.
