A subject close to Jordaine Penick‘s Virginia residence served as her first race monitor when she was 13 years previous.
That‘s the 12 months she obtained her first race automotive, however since she was nonetheless too younger to actually compete, she took the automotive round a home made dirt-track. It was there the place she earned the nickname “Peach Picker.”
“I had informed dad to video me as I went round my little monitor within the subject, and subsequent factor I knew I used to be in a tree,” Penick stated. “It was a peach tree. All of the peaches have been in my automotive as a result of there was no windshield in it, in order that’s how I obtained the nickname Peach Picker.”
You’ll assume that may be a scary expertise for a younger lady.
“No, it didn’t scare me,” Penick stated. “It was extra of, I blinked and it was there, so I wasn’t actually reacting about it. I used to be extra scared about the truth that my dad was going to be mad at me.”
Three years later, the now 16-year-old Penick continues to be racing that fearlessly.
As one of many youngest opponents and the one lady within the Hornets Division at South Boston Speedway, Penick didn‘t present any concern this season racing in opposition to veterans. She completed within the prime 5 in 9 of 10 races on the best way to her first monitor championship.
Penick grew to become the second girl to win a championship on the NASCAR Advance Auto Components Weekly Sequence monitor in South Boston, Virginia, and the primary since Terri Marks gained a Grand Inventory division championship in 2004.
“It’s actually superior being one of many first ladies in 20 years and the second lady out of the entire lifetime of South Boston Speedway to ever win a championship,” Penick stated.
Penick completed fifth on championship night time to lock up the title by 13 factors. Marks was in attendance on the race that night time to congratulate her, and Penick later obtained to fulfill former NASCAR Cup Sequence driver and South Boston native Ward Burton, who signed her race automotive.
“I don’t actually assume it actually hit me,” she stated of the championship. “Sitting again and really realizing I obtained it. I imply, it was good arising there and seeing how proud my household was of me and every little thing.”
Penick is a 3rd era driver, starting together with her grandfather who raced within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s. He handed the custom on to his daughter — Penick‘s aunt, Cheryl — who competed round Japanese Virginia.
Cheryl taught the game to Penick.
“She actually tries to assist me out, giving me pointers, however it’s an entire lot totally different someone sitting there attempting to inform you methods to drive the automotive versus you truly being behind the steering wheel and driving the automotive,” Penick stated.
Penick‘s brothers all are also in racing, although they‘re all in numerous rides. Her two oldest brothers drive mud vehicles and compete in mud bogging races, and the one closest to her in age drag races.
Penick was the one one in her instant household that gravitated in the direction of circle tracks. She and her dad all the time appreciated going to observe races at South Boston, and she or he needed to do the compete in the identical model of races as her grandfather and aunt.
“I simply informed dad, I wish to get into racing, and he was like, ‘OK, effectively, if that’s what you need, then that’s what we’ll do,‘” she stated.
“My brothers and I, we’ve all the time been tight. We’ve all the time had 4 wheelers rising up, so we all the time raced or no matter, so pace has all the time been one thing I like.”
Penick has grown as a driver since she started racing competitively three seasons in the past. When she started she admits she was a “unhealthy competitor,” she stated, by no means actually racing close to the entrance.
“I used to be simply attempting to get used to the monitor, and I wasn’t driving the quickest automotive on the market,” she stated. “It was only a automotive I may race with and say I used to be getting expertise.”
The second 12 months she began getting extra aggressive, and by the tip of the season she was fairly constantly ending third and fourth each race.
By her third 12 months, she had gotten the grasp of methods to get round South Boston, and was now determining methods to decide up pace.
The enhancements stemmed from Penick, “realizing that it doesn’t actually matter if I tear my automotive up, and to only push as arduous as I may to get the place I used to be,” she stated.
“Studying once I wanted to let off the fuel and when to speed up again after I obtained out the curves, as a result of I’ve all the time raced 4 wheelers and stuff like that across the fields,” she added.
Being in a race automotive as an early teenager had its benefits when it got here to getting her actual driver‘s license, which Penick obtained through the summer season. However she hasn‘t fairly been capable of take the race automotive driver out of her system in the case of the street.
“It was fairly simple, however Dad, when he first obtained within the automobile with me, he stated I held the curves means too quick,” she stated with amusing.
“I truthfully love racing, like simply being on the market and with the ability to go quick with out getting a ticket.”
Penick stated she isn‘t prepared to maneuver up out of South Boston‘s hornets division fairly but, as a result of she nonetheless needs to study just a little extra about methods to be the most effective racer she will be, and get to victory lane.
She‘s spending this offseason persevering with to work on her craft, whereas additionally taking delight in what she achieved through the 2024 season.
“I’m actually happy with myself,” Penick stated. “I’ve come a good distance due to my father, my aunt Cheryl, and all of the sponsors.
“It’s superior. It’s an enormous honor for me. Being a champion, that’s an honor. There’s 4 champions at South Boston, so to be a kind of 4, you‘ve obtained to be actually, actually good, and it’s good.”
