Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: You're listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast.
Hey, it's Mark from Motorsport Prospects and welcome to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. This is where we dive into the world of motorsport with the people who live and breathe it. From driver coaches and sponsorship experts to team owners, pro drivers and more. You'll hear real stories, practical advice and insights you can actually use, whether you're just starting out or already chasing success on the track.
Now, I've quite often actually been asked why I started Motorsport Prospects and I founded Motorsport Prospects for the main reason that I continuously hear the same question from drivers, aspiring drivers, their families and advisors. And that is, I always say, a simple question, yet quite complex. Who can I trust?
They are not sure who they can trust. So what I did is I created Motorsport Prospects and the Verified by Motorsport Prospects designation to help people make informed decisions. I do the due diligence for the people that are verified on the site and that gives you kind of a little heads up as to whether they're truly professionals or not.
The professionals I feature on this podcast represent that trust. These are the people that you can trust because they are truly professionals.
So I always tell people, if you work with drivers or racing teams, building trust is one of the most important things you can do. As I said that people constantly ask, who can I trust?
So over the years I found that being clear about what you offer, following through on your promises and genuinely caring about your clients goals makes all the difference.
So kind of to give you a little bit of a boost, I put together some practical advice in a free white paper that I call the Three Essentials for Motorsport Business Owners which share simple ways to strengthen relationships, how to attract the right clients and grow your motorsport business naturally. So if you're interested in that, it's link will be in the show notes and Also on Motorsport Prospects.com so let's get started.
My guest today is Michelle Dellapena. Michelle is the founder of the Dellapena Foundation. The foundation aims to provide girls aged 5 to 18 with the knowledge, skills and mentorship to fuel their future in motorsports. With a mission to increase female representation in the industry, the foundation recognizes the importance of providing opportunities for girls to pursue their passion.
Welcome to the podcast, Michelle. Thanks so much for taking the time out for me.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: So, as I mentioned and everybody who gets interviewed on the podcast, I have one simple question and yet simple. And then every time I ask it people say, oh, that's a, that's a good question. So I'm going to throw this one to you, and it is based on your experience and expertise as a motorsport professional.
What would be the one most important piece of advice you could offer a current or aspiring race driver?
[00:03:15] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, I thought about this question and I have to say I think the most important thing, especially for drivers up and coming currently, is to know the car.
One thing I've noticed working with kids over these last many years is there are a lot of drivers who don't know how the car works.
I grew up in a time where with my father and my uncle, they were putting the cars together and then they were racing them. They were their own pit crew and they were the drivers.
And then when my dad moved to team ownership, he was still deeply integrated in the car and how it ran, and he would be talking to the mechanics and the crew chief daily about what's happening, what's going on, and along with his drivers as well. So one of my. I think the biggest piece of advice is you don't have to be a full fledged mechanic. I understand that putting a car together from total scratch is a stretch and it's really not something that's really offered anymore with like shop classes in high school and stuff that are kind of falling by the wayside. Not everybody grows up with access to mechanics or a mechanic shop. But I think as a driver, the best way to learn how to modify and, you know, kind of finesse your own driving is to know what the car is doing. So to have some basic understanding of how the car works that will, I think, benefit you, because then you will know what you need to do for the car, what your car needs to do for you, and you will have a better communication with your crew as well, because you'll be able to tell them what the car is doing, what it's not doing, what you need it to do, and then you will all be able to work together to make sure that the car is performing optimally so that you can perform optimally. Right. So just having some understanding, basic, the basic kind of understanding of how the car works, how it's basically put together.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: That's a really good point. And it actually leads into something that I've always recommend drivers, no matter the age, is you'll get two types of drivers. One that will stick around in the garage after qualifying, after the race, after practice, and will actually be. Will help, will want to help. And then you'll get the other ones that as soon as, you know, whatever, their session is over and their debrief is done, they're gone. They're off to the hotel, wherever it is.
And I always say not only. And that's a really good point, because I've always said that's a great way, first of all, to get to know your. To. To get to know the crew, for them to get to know you. And I think it builds a level of trust. But going to your point, it's also a great way to learn how the car actually runs.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not, you know, it's not just about going fast. Right. I mean, it is. There. There is. And. And part of, you know, what we offer in the foundation, right. Is we do offer exposure to racing. Right. And to karting and that. That component. But we also have a whole stem component. Right. I mean, that is what racing is. Racing is stem. It's all science, it's all technology. And as we are moving into a different era where cars are more technologically savvy, you know, I mean, you have to kind of keep up to date with that. So even if your dream is to become the next Indy 500 driver, your. Your dream is not to become a mechanic or a car designer. That's okay. You still have to have some understanding of what is happening with the physics of the car in order to be able to optimally drive it, you know, because anybody can just push the pedal all the way down. Right. But there needs to be an understanding of the physics and what kind of track are you on and what are the degrees of turning and, you know, and all of these things.
So it's not just driving. There are so many other things. When you look at the greatest drivers, they had a real sort of holistic understanding of, like, what racing was. Right. And so I think the more that you can educate yourself and.
And also, you know, sticking around like you just said, and sort of understanding what's happening under the hood of your car, you know, what's happening with the tires, what are the compounds of the tires.
You know, the chemistry of tires is constantly changing. Right. And it's so precise. And just having even just a basic understanding of that, I think will. Will help you. Because what I've noticed in the. In the carding world, when my kids were carting and the girls that we've worked with, there are not a lot of kids that know that anymore. They're not necessarily even expected to. Right. Like, they have a team, they have a crew chief, they go in, they drive, and then they leave. And so you're having kids who are 8, 9, 10, 12, on and on, who don't really understand how to put a go kart together anymore. So the buy in and sort of the not commitment per se, but sort of that, that real sort of like where you put your prongs in it and you really have a deep vested interest in making sure that the cart or the car, whatever you're running, is running well and understanding that.
Because it's really easy for a driver to say, oh, this car sucks, fix it for me. But if you don't understand what's going on and how you might be playing into it, then, you know, you're working together. It's not just the mechanics and then the driver, everything is integrated. Right. And so, you know, if, even if you look at the highest level in F1, right, if they are not integrated together and communicating, you know, max versus happen can't be like, the car sucks, I'm out of here. Everybody has to sort of work together and make sure they're communicating and there's an understanding of what's happening for the driver. There's an understanding of what's happening in the, you know, in the garage. And how do we meld these together?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: You know, that's a. Yeah, that's a really good point.
You mentioned the foundation, so tell me a little bit about the foundation.
I mentioned in my intro to you that it's mission, but just give me and the people listening a little bit idea of how it works and then obviously how they can get involved.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Brilliant. Sure. I mean, I grew up in motorsports, right. So I'm not a race car driver, but my dad was a race car driver and a team owner. So I grew up in India. I grew up at the tracks. I grew up all over the place traveling with him and the team.
And it's an amazing sport. I love it.
I have three sons and they all go karted with him before he passed. And so it's just a family affair. And I sort of realized about five years ago, around the time that he passed, that there just still weren't a lot of girls in go karting when my son was driving at the track. And so I got to thinking about why there weren't more girls and how could we maybe make this more approachable and accessible for young ladies to kind of dip their toe in this industry. And so the foundation was born. And so basically, you know, we focus on elementary, middle and high school. Right. Those are our, those are our ages. And the whole goal of the foundation is just to expose them to motorsports. So we have karting component where we have partnered with nxg in Indianapolis that runs a karting program and we have karting scholarships. So girls who are interested in development in that and interested in running a Grand Prix season, we provide scholarships for them.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Oh, great.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: But we also know that not everybody wants to be a driver. Some people are really interested in the mechanics or the physics or the chemistry of it.
We have a whole STEM component where we have these weekends.
We've had 13 years in Indianapolis called our Indy Inspire weekend, where we bring out a group of high school students from the surrounding Indianapolis areas and we give them a deep dive into all things motorsports. So it corresponds with the Indy 500 qualifying weekend. We take them go karting, we take them to the track, and they get to walk the path paddock, we let them watch the qualifying, we take them to shops and they get tours. In the past, we've taken them to Purdue so they can meet women in the motorsports engineering program, and they get to have a meet and greet with just women in the industry across all vocations.
And then we have partnerships with Sonoma Raceway and Laguna Seca here in Northern California. And we get to bring the girls out to the track. They get to meet drivers, they get to watch races, they get to talk to mechanics and sort of see all the things that are involved in motorsports because it's not a myopic sport. Right. I mean, anything that is pretty much any career is somewhere in motorsports. There's communication, there's finance, there's pr, there's physics, there's chemistry. I mean, anything. And then obviously there's the driving component, there's media.
There's so many different areas that you can really kind of get involved in. And so we're just trying to show that, you know, motorsports is a really robust industry. And if there's something that you're interested in, there's likely a job for you here. Right. And I think, you know, having more diversity, whatever that means, more women, more people of color, more just more brains that are coming with different perspectives always makes things better, right?
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: So if we want motorsports, and particularly open wheel motorsports to thrive in this country, we need to kind of mix it up. We need to bring people in that maybe are from communities that wouldn't otherwise be involved or feel like they have a place. And so we just want to say and show that there's a place.
Racing is fricking awesome. It's so much fun and, you know, you can be involved in some way. And if not, if they walk away with nothing, hopefully they become a lifelong fan and they'll, you know, help with viewership and they'll show up at tracks and, you know, it will continue to perpetuate the passion for this sport that we all love so much.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Absolutely. I love it. I love it. And I, and I agree that there is a place. I mean, look, I'm not a driver and yet I love the business of motorsport and just the business of motorsport alone, because it is a big business. There are so many opportunities for anybody that's interested in marketing, legal, insurance, you name it. I mean, there's all kinds of opportunities that, and anything they learn, even if they only participate for a couple of years, it would be. Yeah, first of all, we want them to be a fan, but whatever they learn, they'll take with them in life. And, and it's a high octane, you know, environment which is, you know, it's, it's a lot of. It's, it's. Everybody is, is kind of going 100% and that they'll take that and that'll help them wherever they go.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we've had young ladies who have been with our program in a variety of capacities and whatever programs we've run for the last few years. And we currently have two students, alumni we call them, who've gone through our programs, who are at the Purdue Motorsports Engineering program. And so, I mean, to us, that is the testament of what we are doing and why we are doing it.
We're a nonprofit. Right. So we're not getting kickbacks from any of this. This is just purely my love of the sport and my executive director, Susan, she's a mom of four girls who all played collegiate sports. We just have a deeply vested interest in making this sport continue to thrive and representative of the world we live in. And so we're so excited now in a few years when these young ladies graduate to see where they go, you know, and so it's just, it's really gratifying. And you know, every day is we are reminded why we are doing what we are doing. But yeah, there's certainly we, we are continually surprised and thrilled at the response we're getting and the feedback we're getting from parents and from the young ladies who go through our programs and, you know, there's a need for it.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: No, absolutely.
Great. So anybody wants to find out about the foundation, where do they go?
[00:15:08] Speaker A: They can go to our website. It's the, it's della pennafoundation.org we have all the socials, we have YouTube, we have calendars of events.
We also hold fellowships every summer. So they're for high school students. They are not internships. They are one week shadow opportunities.
And basically you can apply and be partnered with a fellowship in your city if there is one and you get to shadow women in the industry.
One of our advisor at one of our advisors as a woman named Tajon Robinson and she works at GM and she's an incredible engineer and she's amazing.
And so she took a couple of fellows last year and then the year before and they got to follow her around GM and she got to like sit in on meetings and I think she did like a wind tunnel test and they went all over and they got to do all these amazing things. We've also had fellowships at IMS Dalara, Brian Herta. We've had fellowships in California at Sonoma Raceway.
So you know, just follow us, sign up for the newsletter because all of the things and opportunities come out when we send emails and all of our announcements obviously are on all our social channels. But if you're interested in attending an event or interested in applying for something, everything will be on the website.
And also there's a way to email us. So if you have a question that isn't answered or concerned, just shoot us an email or small enough see them.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Well, perfect. And I will put the, the website address in the show notes as well so that anybody who wants to connect will be able to connect.
I think this always, you know, the fellowships, I think it's a great idea because as the famous saying, you can't be it if you can't see it. It is a perfect testament to that. So I really love what you're doing and for sure I've mentioned some of your initiatives and in both my driver development column so and the usually in the actually in the business motorsport column. So yeah, by all means, keep going. I love what you're doing. I really appreciate you taking the time out to speak with me. I have one final question.
What is your favorite racetrack? It could be current or historical.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: It has got to be Laguna Seca. I'm sorry but I grew up here. That's my favorite track my dad raced on is a beautiful track. It's. I mean you really can't beat Monterey Carmel Valley. You just can't beat it. It's just a beautiful track. It's a fun track, it's exciting. There's plenty of cool vantage points to watch for different turns.
So Laguna Seca for me, always, always, always if I have the chance to go to that race, I'LL always go.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: And it's got the corkscrew.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: It's got the corkscrew. It's so good. And there was one race where my dad was up in the hills with a walkie talkie, listening to the car and giving the crew chief feedback. I mean, there's just a lot of history there. It's a special track for us and I've seen a variety of different cars on that track and it always wows every time.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: So, yeah. Oh, no, Great choice. Thanks so much for Michelle for being on the show. I really appreciate taking the time.
I will, I will put all the links into the show notes.
Definitely. Sign up for Della Pena Foundation's newsletter.
You get all the, all the details of what they're up to and it's, it's, it's quite amazing that such a small foundation packs such a big punch, which I love.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we're doing the best we can, but thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be on. Nice.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: All right, so this is Mark from Motorsport Prospects. And don't forget that, reminding you to stay fast, stay focused and keep chasing that checkered flag. Cheers.
Thanks for listening to the Motorsport Prospects podcast. For insights, advice and the latest news racers can use, visit motorsportprospects.com.
