It takes an uncommon amount of discipline to become a race car driver. It’s not an easy sport to break into, requiring access to cars, tracks, specialized crews and money — lots of money.
Complicating matters, Louisiana is not a center of the racing industry. For Louisiana kids who dream of getting into racing, they typically start with dirt tracks and go karts, which is the path that Sarah Montgomery took when she realized her passion for motorsports at the age of 10.
The Lafayette native attended her first IndyCar event, and started racing herself, all before getting her driver’s license. The passion stayed with her through high school and college, and by the time Montgomery graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a marketing degree, she was a professional racer who had finished top-ten in points for her rookie year.
“I just had that drive in me as a young kid to not quit on something,” she said. “When I first started I was the only female in any race I competed in. Now, it’s growing a lot.”…