The Racing Report: The Mazzagatti family

The Racing Report is a five-part photo essay shot at short tracks in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania that will run in Farm and Dairy through the summer. Each month we will feature a different driver from around the region. For the fourth installment, photojournalist Matthew Chasney went to Norton Raceway Park, in Summit County, Ohio, on Aug. 2 to follow the Mazzagatti family.

“I’m telling you, something is either broken or it’s about to break”, insists 13-year-old super late model racer Chloe Mazzagatti. The Mazzagatti Racing crew is gathered around her in the team’s hauler. The car isn’t rolling through the corners correctly. The crew thinks it’s a setup issue, but she’s certain that something has been damaged. Chloe finished in sixth place at New Paris Speedway in Indiana the previous night. The car wasn’t handling well there either, but she chalked it up to getting the setup wrong at an unfamiliar track. However, here at her home track, Norton Raceway Park (formerly Barberton Speedway), she knows that it’s something deeper than a simple setup issue. She knows Norton well. After all, her father, two-time late model track champion Mike Mazzagatti, used to own it.

Chloe first showed an interest in racing at the age of 3. She especially enjoyed working on the cars and learning about what makes them go fast. She earned 15 wins racing in the legends class last year. In her first year in late models, she has notched one win and nine top-five finishes. She learned car setup and racecraft from her dad, and she learned patience from her mom, Lisa…

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