As a child Toni Breidinger was painfully shy and without any predisposition to sports, much as her parents nudged her.
“I played soccer at one point — I was terrible,” Breidinger told the Orlando Sentinel. “I was just, like, running in the opposite direction. My parents had me try karate; that didn’t go well. I tried all these different sports.
“None of it really clicked.”
Then one day her father, Charles, took 9-year-old Toni and twin sister, Annie, to the go-kart track at nearby Sonoma Raceway in Southern California.
Behind the wheel, Breidinger came out of her shell. A daredevil and fiery competitor with fierce independent streak emerged.
“When you’re behind the wheel, you make up your mind, you know what you want to do and you’re out there by yourself,” Breidinger said. “That sense of freedom I thought was super cool when I was driving.”
Breidinger’s driving skill and force of personality eventually carried her to Daytona International Speedway, where on Thursday the 22-year-old stole the show during a practice session for Saturday’s 200-mile ARCA Menards Series opener.
Breidinger posted the fastest lap with a time of 49.170 and speed of 183.038 mph around the 2.5-mile oval as she pushes to make her way in a male-dominated sport.
“I’m really happy with my No. 25 Toyota team. They put together a rocket for me,” Breidinger said following her run. “I’m looking forward to the race. We have a lot of confidence going into it.”
As Breidinger’s Camry exited the track for the garage, Hailie Deegan set ablaze the iconic speedway. The 20-year-old Californian’s time of 48.215 was fifth among 41 drivers and less than hundredth of a second behind leader Grant Enfinger (48.117).
The effort showed how much Deegan has learned after bumpy 2021 season following her jump from ARCA amid a pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions.
“What I lacked was experience, experience on these new tracks and being able to get in the seat — no practice, nothing like that,” Deegan told the Sentinel. “That was the hardest part for me. This year I’m much more confident in my abilities and what I’m able to do on the track because I got that experience.
“It’s going to be a lot better.”
Thursday shapes up to be just the beginning for Breidinger and Deegan, along with several other women drivers chasing a career in car racing.
Longtime NASCAR sponsor Busch Light recently launched its “Accelerate Her Program” to help fund the expensive pursuit. The company is making a three-year, $10 million commitment to provide more racing opportunities, training and media exposure for female drivers age 21 or older.
“It’s cool to be part of a brand that believes in female athletes and believes that we can do it and they just don’t say it,” Breidinger said. “I really feel like they’re not just doing it to look good or for the PR, but they genuinely want to help us, which is really exciting.”
Deegan is ineligible to participate until her July 18 birthday. But while Busch’s initiative is significant resources go fast in a sport rooted in speed.
The first Arab-American female professional driver, Briedinger, whose mother is Lebanese, begins her first full season in the ARCA series anticipating the cost to race the 20-event schedule to be $2 million.
When she turned professional at 17, Deegan benefitted from her father, Brian, being a freestyle motocross legend with resources and connections. Deegan since has evolved as much a businesswoman as a driver.
“You have to be in this sport,” Deegan said with a laugh, while chatting in her trailer Thursday. “No one knows how much [it costs]. That’s the hard part of getting fans to understand.”
Those inside the garage are well familiar with the steep price tag to field a quality race team.
To break into the sport becomes a lifelong struggle for many drivers. For a woman the stakes can get even higher.
Amber Balcaen’s appearance during Saturday’s ARCA race will be eight years in the making for the 29-year-old Canadian whose father and grandfather were dirt track legends north of the border.
“I’ve been going to the track since I was in my mom’s belly,” Balcaen told the Sentinel, while her crew worked on her No. 30 Ford Fusion. “She met my dad at the racetrack.”
Balcaen began racing when she was 10. Eight years ago, she test drove at Daytona International Speedway, but until a sponsorship with IconDirect.com ― an RV replacement parts company — never had the financing to get back to Florida’s Surf Coast.
“That just show how big of a struggle it’s a been,” she said. “But it makes me that much more grateful knowing I never gave up and being here today is now a reality.”
But Balcaen’s practice time ranked a disappointing 28th of 35 cars.
Meanwhile, Breidinger was the belle of the ball on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
The ultimate goal for every driver and Busch Light’s initiative is to usher a female driver all the way to the Daytona 500.
Danica Patrick’s eighth-place finish in 2013 remains the gold standard for women in NASCAR. Yet, Patrick’s branding and beauty ultimately overshadowed her racing résumé.
The photogenic Deegan and Breidinger have active and robust presences on social media and massive followings of more than a million each. Both push to attract sponsors.
“Racing is the easy part of motorsports,” Breidinger said. “Getting sponsors is difficult.”
In an effort to get noticed, a film crew followed Breidinger on Thursday. Deegan’s boyfriend, Chase Cabre, uses his creative talents to promote her.
Each young woman aims to strike a balance between showcasing her driving skills with leaning into fashion and glamour interests.
“I built my social media platform on racing,” Deegan said. “I didn’t build it on being a trendy girl with trendy outfits. I built my platform on going out there and battling. There’s a million girls out there that can post cute Instagram pictures with cool clothes on.
“But there’s not many girls out there and go race a car with a bunch of guys.”
Once so shy and unsure, Breidinger never imagined she’d now be in this position.
“My life revolves around racing,” she said. “That’s my biggest priority.”
