History Blog: Women at Knoxville Raceway
McKenna Haase
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
By Track Historian Eric Arnold
18 year-old McKenna Haase made history at Knoxville Raceway this past Saturday, winning a feature in the 305 sprint car class! She is the first woman to win a sprint car race at the historic half-mile oval in its 62 year history of hosting weekly sprint car races. We are all proud of McKenna and her #55m team for this historic and memorable accomplishment.
Last year when Haase made her first appearance at Knoxville Raceway, race fans were impressed with her on and off the track. She is talented behind the wheel, has been gracious with fans, and serves as a great ambassador for sprint car racing and Knoxville Raceway. Her popularity has been undeniable. Now it is about to jump to a whole new level.
I first interviewed Haase at the NSCHoF&M for a Sprint Car 101 event. Right away, I was impressed with her determination to race, and to race well. She spoke confidently in front of a crowd and her knowledge of the stock market blew me away. This wasn’t the average 17 year-old kid whose parents spoiled her rotten. In fact, she had to raise her own funds to build a race car to go racing.
Her 2014 rookie season had its ups and downs. One major high was a second place finish at the track. Another night ended with a crash and a concussion, a definite low for the young racer. But Haase came back to the track with no fear. She finished eleventh in 305 points with five “Top Ten” finishes in the nine features she competed in.
A week ago at the season opener, Haase had a fast car and was running in the top five when her car ran out of fuel late in the race. It turns out their new engine likes more fuel than the one from a year ago so they miscalculated and you could feel the disappointment. I saw Haase after the races when most of the fans and teams had left. It seemed she was walking off her frustrations in the pit area. I stopped her and we talked for a few minutes. I offered her some encouragement that she had a fast race car capable of winning. But she had a different look in her eyes, one that I had not seen before. I could see the motivation swelling in her eyes to come back next week to redeem herself and her team. I would say she accomplished that this week. Congratulations to the entire #55m team on a job well done.
Haase’s win is a significant event that will rank among the most important events in the over 100-year history of the track:
• Donny Schatz winning the 2013 Nationals from the 11th row
• Bobby Allen breaking into the 15 second lap time barrier in 1989
• Don Droud Jr. breaking into the 14 second lap time barrier in 1998
• Steve Kinser winning his record 12th Knoxville Nationals in 2002
• Bobby Allen winning the 1990 Nationals with Doug Wolfgang running the alphabet that night
• Dick Gaines passing Jan Opperman on the last lap to win the 1974 Nationals
• Roy Robbins winning the first Nationals in 1961 with an “air-scoop” which introduced us to winged race cars
A woman winning a sprint car feature ranks right up there with all of these historic and memorable moments.
31 women have competed in a sprint car at the Knoxville Raceway by my records. The first female to race at the track was Cheryl Burgard from New Berlin, Pennsylvania in 1978 in a weekly competition.
The first woman to compete in the Knoxville Nationals was Cheryl Glass of Seattle, Washington, who competed in the 1982 event. Glass was also African-American, and she finished 21st in the C-Main that year. Her car is currently on display in the NSCHoF&M.
On June 8, 1991, Melinda Dumesney, the wife of Max Dumesney, entered at Knoxville Raceway, making her the first Australian woman to compete at Knoxville. I remember being very impressed as a 17-year-old kid sitting in the stands when Dumesney ran a 17.0 in time trials, (which was a great lap at the time). Dumesney finished fourth in her heat and ended with an 18th place finish while her husband won the feature that same night, which was the first time that a husband/wife duo competed against each other at Knoxville. Dumesney competed several times during the 1991 and 1992 seasons, but her first night was her best night as far as finishes.
While the 1990’s were known for several things, women’s lib was a movement alive and well in our country’s culture, and racing was no exception. Throughout the 1990’s, women racing at Knoxville Raceway became a regular occurrence, including Lisa French in 1992-1993, Shawna Wilsky from 1994-1995, and Judi Bates in 1996-1997.
One of the most famous drivers to compete with us was Ohio-native Sarah Fisher in 1997 and 1998, who went on to start in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, the women’s racing record.
The trend continued into the new millennium with Christie Passmore, Destiny Hayes, Natalie Sather, Becca Anderson, Jessica Zemken, Stephanie Mockler, Trish Dover, Lauren Densley (Aust.), Kaylene Verville, Kathyrn Minter, Casie Shilling, Haley Arnold, Miranda Arnold, Dakota Carroll, Julee Jamison, Terri O’Connell, Sarena Paul, and Morgan Montgomery. Until last season, Sather held the record for the highest finishing woman with a third place finish.
In 2014, we had a record five women compete on the track for their first time: McKenna Haase, Andee Beierle, Jordan Weaver, Harli White, and Paige Polyak, who won a 305 feature in 2012 at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.
The most successful woman to date in the 410 sprint cars is Erin Crocker-Evernham. Crocker-Evernham has competed in the Knoxville Nationals a record five times, (2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2010) and is the only woman to qualify for the Nationals championship A-Main. Crocker-Evernham finished 22nd in the 2003 Nationals and 18th in 2010 Nationals. Her 2003 car is currently on display in the NSCHoF&M as well.
Sarah McCune is another woman who competed at Knoxville in the 2003 Midget Nationals. And let the record show that the first woman to ever win a race at Knoxville Raceway was Shayna Texter, who won AMA Motorcycle features in both 2011 and 2012. But with Knoxville predominantly known as the “Sprint Car Capital of the World”, McKenna Haase will forever be remembered by fans in sprint car racing folklore. I can’t wait to see what is next for this gifted racer and person.
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