April 8, 2025 • 44 mins
On this episode of Throttle Therapy, Katherine is joined by team owner of Kelly Moss Racing, Victoria Thomas, to talk about racing Porsches, the story behind the “Be Your Own Hero” program, and supporting women in motorsports. Victoria shares how she’s handled the team’s success and introduces their four female drivers for 2025.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:22):
week's episode of Throstle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg. And
this week has been another scramble. There's been so much
going on behind the scenes, so many pivots that we've
had to make, and I've learned some really big lessons
as to who's in Team Catherine camp and how we're
(00:44):
going to move forward, and I can't wait to share
that with you guys. You'll probably hear about it very soon.
I just I obviously need to go through things in
the right order, like I have to honor the people
who have supported me and the way that they want
to do the announcement of what comes next and the
life of Catherine's racing career. So we've got some big
(01:05):
things coming and I am beyond excited for it, Like
I'm super duper over the moon excited for it. We've
all worked incredibly hard, like you wouldn't believe the emotional
highs and lows and ups and downs and everything else
that's gone into it, and how many people have been
affected by what's going on at the moment. And I know,
I hate when people are like, hey, coming soon or
(01:26):
watch this space. I think that's rubbish and I'm really
sorry to have to do that to you guys. But
it will be soon enough, and yeah, exciting things are coming.
It's been a lot of work. So having said that,
I have some bright lights in my life, and those
bright lights, like, I really think the relationships and the
people that you meet along the way are so important.
(01:48):
And I have made so many great friends and acquaintances
through this journey. There's been some good ones, there's been
some not so good ones, and there's been some forgettable ones.
And quite frankly, so, I think the good ones that
stand out, you know, let you click with some people.
You don't click with everybody. If everybody was the same,
it would be boring. And I think that the people
(02:10):
who you can trust to be there alongside you through
this crazy journey called life and this crazy journey called
motor racing are the ones that you keep close. And
I am honored to announce that good friend of mine
is joining me on the podcast this week. She's been
through some of the similar battles that I've been through.
She comes at it from a slightly different angle, being
(02:32):
a team owner instead of a driver. But we have
shared some wine and some stories, and we have bonded,
and I'm very proud to announce that she's my friend
as well as somebody who I'm very much looking forward
to working with at some point down the road in
the future. We keep saying it will happen, and then
we keep going off in separate directions and making making
(02:53):
our own destiny. So I'm really happy to say that
Victoria Thomas, team owner of Kelly Moss Racing Push, a
fishing and good friend of mine, will join us on
the podcast this week. I'm joined by the wonderful Victoria Thomas.
Victoria and I are relatively new friends. We've bonded over
(03:14):
the last couple of years, and as is always a
case in racing, there are not that many women in
the paddock that you feel that you can relate to,
and Victoria is definitely one of those for me, and
so I'm very proud toicaler a friend. We actually bonded
over her starting a driver search for a female driver
(03:35):
because she runs Kelly Moss Racing along with her husband,
and they were looking for the next female GT Star
for one of her better terms, and I'll let her
go into more detail on it, but we were talking
about who there was out there, and I was helping
her in a way to narrow that search down and
interview some of the drivers. So through that we got
(03:57):
to know each other and now she's definitely one of
my go to people for just a general moaning session,
some advice or a glass of wine. So welcome to
the show, Victoria. How are you.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I'm wonderful, Thank you so much for having me. You're
absolutely correct in that our beautiful introduction to a friendship
was you being willing to help lend a hand so
that when we made an effort to bring a female
driver to a program, we could do it the right way,
(04:30):
shall we say, And it was just a wonderful way
to get to know you by working together on that mission.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, I really appreciate from a personal standpoint, everything you
do for women in racing, and we'll get into that,
but I wanted to stop by introducing the listeners to
who you are at your core, because you are a
very successful team owner Kelly Moss is famous throughout the
racing world and outside of the racing world as well,
because you also build cars, right, Porsches predominantly or is
(05:04):
there other things.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
To Kelli Moss is just Porsches.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Just so well renowned in both of those spaces. But
I want to know firstly how you came to racing
and then secondly, how you developed your passion for helping
other women in the sport, because that is special.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, my introduction to racing was probably the least sexy
introduction to racing that anyone has ever had. I am
an accountant by nature, so I was hired by this company,
Kelly Moss, to help them determine the profitability of their
different divisions, Like is there a more bland story for
(05:44):
the entry into the sport?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I didn't know that about you. That's fascinating. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So I owned an accounting firm and they brought me
in as a consultant and one of the first deep
dives I had with the owners was sharing, do you
know that your highest producing technician is your lowest paid technician?
And They're like, how in the world could you know that?
These are the things that a counting gives you. So
we started to do a deep dive about Kelly Moss,
(06:10):
a team that had incredible pedigree, but as with a
lot of motorsports teams, they were so passionate about getting
the cars on track that there were things like, we
never build for that engine, we dropped in the car.
You know, it was very difficult to get people that
are of the mindset of racing to care about paperwork
(06:32):
and numbers and profitability. Yeah, so I came on board
and put my head down and did a deep dive
into how to make the company more successful as their CFO.
And you know, at first, I really fell in love
with the investment tool of porschees, particularly Airquol porsches that
go up five to twenty five percent year over year.
(06:55):
As a numbers person, it was like, you mean that
I can buy this car and drive it and it
appreciates twenty five percent, and I can't do anything like
that with my mutual funds. So I art right, I
fell in love with the investment tool of the vehicles,
and then eventually went to the racetrack and like you
(07:17):
can't smell the fuel and feel the visceral feel of
the engines going by and not fall in love.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, so you fell in love with racing and then
you decided that you were going to help the next
generation of women also be successful. So you are a
girl's girl through and through, which I love about you.
We could spend all day put in the world to
rights about all things female and racing, but you put
your money where your mouth is, so to speak, and
you have, over the course of a few short years
(07:48):
gone out, found money, invested in young female talent and
helped and supported them on their journey. And that has
not been an easy journey for you either, No.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Not at all. Sort of what happened in terms of
my awareness and my career has been in largely male
dominated industries, so it wasn't unusual. And I'm certainly somebody
that feels comfortable holding my own I think that when
you're faced with situations that you have a choice of
(08:18):
how you frame them, and you either use it to
be a victim and be knocked down, or you use
it to fuel you, to make you stronger, to make
you better, and to make more of yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And that's a choice. I love it. Someone that's so
perfectly Petwell done.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Thank you so that part wasn't concerning to me at all.
I'm very comfortable proving myself. I'm very comfortable being cognizant
of how I show my worth, So that was not
a concern to me. But I was working really hard
to grow the business. It was important to me that
we have the best business we could possibly have, and
(08:56):
that had me very head down working with our incredible
team to be the best version of Callie Moss we
could be. As it turned out, I got a phone
call from a woman named Lynn Saint James and she said,
why in the hell did I have to dig three
pages deep into your website to find out that this
company has a woman owner? Yeah? Valid point, Yeah, And
(09:21):
I really really took pause in that moment and realized
there's just not women in this industry. And I have
an opportunity, because there's so few female team owners in
the world, to use that voice to make a difference.
My experience, and I'm very curious about yours, because you're
(09:43):
in a totally different seat than me. My experience was
there weren't men out there saying don't let women in racing.
It was an awareness, right, women didn't think of it.
Men didn't think of it. Nobody thought of it. So
I wanted to use my voice and do the most
visible position in the team, which would be to place
(10:03):
a female driver. But you have to tell me, did
you feel like there were just a world of men
trying to prevent you from I mean, certainly there's challenges,
but I did you feel like there was a world
of men that said you don't get to enter this space?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
No? Not really. There was men who questioned ability. And
you know, they see, for want of a better term,
this circus than the hoopla that goes on around it,
and they think it's a gimmick or a publicity stunt
or whatever it may be. But in general, what I've
come to realize, relatively recently is that the people who
(10:45):
try and knock you down and the people who judge
you for what you're trying to achieve are not successful people.
So they are not the people that are making the decisions.
They're not the people involved in racing, they're not the
team owners at this level. They are fans, and they're
not successful within their own right. And I went through
this whole stage, and I spoke to Andy Zally, a
(11:05):
good friend of mine, about it because I looked at
some of the comments online and he said, don't read
the comments, so I'm not reading the cook But I
was like, but there are women out there who are
trying to tear me down, Like I don't get that.
Shouldn't we be trying to build each other up? And
he's like, the only women out there that are trying
to tear you down are ones that are not successful
in their own right, and they're doing it to make
(11:25):
themselves feel better. So I think it's one hundred percent
a valid point. I don't feel like it's gone against
me in the people that matter and the people's whose
opinion I respect, right, So no, I think that it's
just been you have to see it to be it.
(11:46):
You have to I think it's very much the same experience,
different respective, different seats, you say, but it's just proving
that you can do it, and until somebody goes out
there and does actually prove it, you know, like I
know we'll get to it. But Lonely had the win
and the success Seabring recently, and so that's solidifying people
seeing women on the podium, people seeing us you going
(12:08):
out there and winning as a team owner, and people
like Michelle Muton and Linda and James and people who
have been competitive Danica. It makes it less of a
weird anomaly and more of the norm, and so we
need more and more of that to solidify the fact
that it's not strange and it's not a gimmick. So yeah,
I'm very much of the same mindset as you are.
(12:30):
And so circling back to what you started with your
driver search for was the Porsche Cup I believe, right,
and then GD four as well. Yeah, by the way,
when you get the bit between your teeth and decide
to do something, you do it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And I like it about you.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I am very tenacious, for sure. But besides it absolutely
being the right thing to do, and besides my being
poised to do it in a way that I thought would
set us up for success, which is and I have
all the respect in the world for anybody that has
a mission towards this end. But I do believe that
(13:10):
the fact that we had more championships in Porsche Cup
racing than any other team in the world gave us
a better opportunity to set a female driver up for success.
Having people that are experienced on the nine nine to
two car, having coaches that have driven the nine nine two,
(13:32):
having technicians that have worked on them for years. It's
very different when you have a whole team that is
trained for success in this and then you find a
female driver and help her in the seat. So we
did the shootout. We had four amazing women that were
involved in the shootout, three of which actually to date
(13:52):
have driven for our team. And what was wonderful about
that was we involved you, Catherine, we involved Jeremy Shaw,
we involved Lynne Saint James, and we tested all kinds
of different areas and ended up putting a female driver
(14:12):
the first ever in Portia Career Cup North America, and
I was really proud of being able to do that.
Racing is just insanely expensive and the real question is
how do we make the sport more affordable. That's the
real question. We're bandating it with getting more female drivers. Ultimately,
what we need is a much bigger fan base so
(14:34):
the drivers do not have to pay an insane amount
of money to participate in the sport. That's my end
zone is to grow the sport big enough that we
have sponsorship that supports being able to have the best
talent in the car and not the wealthiest talent in
the car.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And give them a springboard for success in everything else
as well.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Absolutely, In twenty twenty three, we ran first female driver.
In twenty twenty four, we ran the first African American driver,
a male, And ultimately all of that is to show visibility.
In twenty twenty five, we're running for female drivers. In
(15:17):
twenty twenty five, our c suite of our corporation is
over fifty percent females.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No way, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I have female truck drivers, I have female technicians,
I have female engineers, I have female hire people. Like,
there's a lot that's actually happening with just being able
to be a little bit louder about what we're doing
and help people see this as a possibility. You've done
(15:47):
a lot of that. As a matter of fact, I
think that you've done more than any woman in the industry,
and you continue to be out there everywhere and that's
just an incredible way to motivate peace people and inspire people.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I mean there's a slight difference, though, let's be honest.
You're doing it from a really good person standpoint selflessly
to help other women. I'm doing it from a very
selfish standpoint in that I'm doing it to help my
own career and try and be the best race car
driver that I can be, and as successful as I
(16:22):
can be, I will transition into helping you know, us
talking to lyn St James about it as well, and
I will transition into helping the next generation. It's something
that I'm very passionate about and I want to do
when I do where I can currently, but it's just
time constraints, right, Like I am too busy to put
too much of my focus into doing that. But for sure,
(16:42):
as I transition out of driving myself, that will become
a focus and I will definitely help, and no doubt
we'll be in touch with you about that when the
time comes. But you do it from a helping everybody
else standpoint, because as far as I can see, unless
you're hoping to sell a bunch of Porsches to women,
(17:04):
which I mean maybe that that happens, maybe women get
you know, this passion for portion and the cause. But
you're literally doing it to help the cause, which I
think is it's amazing you have daughters too, right.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I do, yes, But I think that it's both right,
I think that what you're doing helps you, but the
fact that you're doing this podcast is a wonderful way
to reach more females and raise awareness about the sport.
So it does both at the same time. I care
very much about the cause, but I'm also a business
(17:40):
owner that sees a business model potential in the future
where I'm engaging another fifty percent of the population as drivers,
as employees of the company, and pollees as fans for
this incredible sport. So it is also self serving in
that way, right. I want to ensure that this sport
(18:02):
is around for a very long time, and we need
to be particularly intentional about that, in my opinion, because
if you were to throw a blanket over Daytona, for example,
I would have to say there's an enormous percent of
that population that when they turned sixteen, the automobile represented
the first freedom they experienced in their life. They tinkered
(18:26):
in the garage with their dads, they did the Pinewood
Derby as boys and boy scouts. There's a lot of
those tap root moments that make people passionate about our
industry that simply don't exist anymore. And if we're not
really intentional about engaging the youth like I have the
Girl Scouts program. We're bringing the car and female drivers
(18:49):
to middle schools to engage the youth. We need to
make sure to be helping people understand what kids now
have a thousand options of things they can do and
waste that they can spend their time, that our sport
remains relevant.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Back to your Female Driver program, I want to tell
our listeners a little bit about your be your Own
Hero program as well. Yeah, so you have Lennianza and
you have Ashley Fryberry both driving with you. Tell us
about the be your Own Hero program and how that
came about.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, So what we wanted to do is we wanted
to have a program that people could really get behind
the representation. So what we did is we came up
with caricatures.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
They're amazing. I love them so much. You guys have
to go and google them. You happy because the car
just looks it looks amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, the caricatures are fantastic. I was just working on
their the driver suits today to match the whole theme
of be your Own Hero. So what we did is
we made our two drivers into superheroes. The theme of
be your Own Hero comes from a fundamental belief that
I have, which is not needing people to complete you
(20:17):
or save you or make you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
If you.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Decide to take full responsibility for your life, and you
take full control of your life, you can be your
own hero. Right. Don't the little girls getting little princesses
being saved? Right, Just none of that. Save yourself, be
your own hero is the point of it. And we're
(20:44):
doing STEM education taking the car and the female driver
to middle schools and doing a little bit of STEM education,
a little bit of empowerment about how important it is
to along with being able to be your own hero,
that comes with taking full responsibility for everything in your life.
As you know, because we've talked about it, I have
no patience for anybody coming off the track and talking
(21:06):
about how they're the victim. If you don't use every
opportunity to learn, you're not growing. Why would you give
your power to someone else? You have to figure out,
and you're exceptional at that. We've talked quite a bit
about that process of even when it feels like it's
not your fault, when you figure out how to get
your mind around taking responsibility, you begin to learn and grow.
(21:30):
And that's in every aspect of life. And so yeah,
we made our female two of our four female drivers
into superheroes, and we have stickers and hydroflasks and T
shirts and we'll be inviting girls to the track and
it's going to be a fun program.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think it's amazing. Honestly, I love it so much.
I didn't know the story behind it, but obviously I've
seen the cars and I think that they will garner
a lot of attention, and deservedly so. And just seeing
Loney as a superhero in the front of car, I mean,
she's amazing anyway. You know, she's lucky that she has
the family that she does, because I think her mom
(22:09):
and dad are amazing, and so they've taught her how
to be the human that she is, and as a person,
she's making the most of the opportunity that she's got,
which is what you love to see. Yeah, and I
want to have a Catherine caricature a superhero. I think
it's so neat. And then I also want Prince Charming
to come and rescue me as well. But spent my
(22:32):
whole life up until this point being my own hero, so.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You sure have. I don't know, I mean, one of
the first introductions that I got to you was hearing
the story of you just showing up here and figuring
out that they were doing a test and knocking on
some doors. And I don't know if you've shared that story,
(22:56):
but wow, talk about when you get something in your mind.
You have been incredibly tenacious and it's beautiful to see
you know some of that payoff with all of the
recognition that you're getting now.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Thank you firstly, and yeah, I think when I heard
you say the word tenacious earlier, it made me think, well,
I was speaking to Lindsea and James and she had
the same thing, and you have the same thing, and
I have the same thing. And I think maybe that
is the key in racing, is the never give up.
Just keep believing in yourself and never ever ever give up.
And you have to make the things happen for yourself.
(23:34):
Right like again, be your own hero. I love it
so much. Embodies everything that we stand for. Yes, you know,
Roger Penske's not going to call me and be like, hey, Kat,
do you want to come drive for me? I wish
you would, but it's one of those things you have
to make those calls yourself. You have to open the
doors yourself. You have to keep trying. You have to
pick yourself up when you're down. You know, I had
(23:56):
a rough weekend and there's no give up in me.
There's no give up in you. Like honestly, sometimes some
of the harder things make you tougher and make you
stick your heels in the sam war and decide to
dig in and keep going for it. And I think
that that's the difference. I think to be a woman
(24:19):
in this sport, it's already tough enough, just because we
have to fight for every opportunity and we have to
explain ourselves we have and there's you know, there's not
much support. There's not many people with the same life
experiences that we've had, and so yeah, I think that
that is fantastic. I touched on Lonely and Ashley a
little bit, but why don't you give us a rundown
(24:40):
of the for what series they're driving in and one
fact about each of them that you saw something special
in them and that's why you decided that you were
going to.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Support Sure, So let's start with Ashlee Freiburg. I was
introduced to Ashley through the Female Driver's SHOOTO that we
worked on together. The study of Ashley was, Oh, you
said one thing, I'm going to go on forever. The
study of Ashley's history was so impressive and probably the
(25:12):
proudest moment in my professional career because with my job,
I assemble great people. Right, My job is to hire
the best of the best and to make sure that
they're treated well enough to want to stay and to
be passionate about what we do. So although I'm incredibly
proud of forty eight championships that we've won in Portia Racing,
(25:36):
there's a part of me that doesn't feel quite as responsible.
I was so responsible for what happened with Ashley she
was with the team. Last year she won a scholarship
that was based on a sponsor that was not allowed
by the series because of what the sponsor represented. Ashley
(25:58):
called me in tears because she was terrified of losing
all of her sponsors when she won a scholarship with
this team. The person that they brought to the table
was not something that she was proud of or thought
her other sponsors would be proud of.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Rightly so, in my opinion, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And what a predicament. Right. She wanted to drive, but
this is her brand and her life and her name,
and it was a tough predicament and we talked through
it and had a lot of conversation about it. Eventually,
that team pulled their support of her in the middle
of the season and she called me devastated and I said,
(26:39):
we're going to figure out how to do this. Let's
just do it. And we were racing. We were racing
in Montreal on a Saturday. The cars were rolling out
the following Tuesday for VIR. By the time we got
to VIR for that next race weekend, we had her
in a car with a sponsor and she passed thirty
(27:00):
three cars during the course of that race weekend to
be on the podium twice. And I was so proud
because the team said, if you really want to do this,
we'll get behind it. But you have to say that
you really want to do it, and I said, let's
do it. It's it's not just that there's a sacrifice
for the company. Every driver that we've supported, Andy and
(27:22):
I personally have put in an insane amount of money,
like more than put your kids through college money to
personally to make it happen, and then professionally as well.
There's a match on the Kelly was side and finding
them sponsors. So Ashley has given me my proudest moment
in motorsports with that success, knowing she's worth that investment.
(27:46):
Lannie Unser is the sweetest, most incredible girl, Like store
is it?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
She She's just the Kita.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
She's darling and you know she's racing Pike's Peak. And
I just did an interview with her and asked a
whole bunch of questions, And one of the questions that
I had asked her was how do you feel racing
knowing that your grandfather passed away on a racetrack? Like,
are you do you have trepidation? And her response completely
(28:17):
blew me away. She said, I don't have trepidation because
safety has come such a long way. And did you
know that fire suits are what they are today because
of my grandfather's death? That's great And I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like, wow, just wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, I got a lesson. They used to be dipped
in lie and that's how they that was how they
provided their safety. That was clearly not enough. So she's
just amazing. And talk about being able to reach in
and find the lessons. Right, there are people that are
very very faith based that say, oh, it's meant to
(28:55):
be or if this is in the bigger plan. And
I think there's a little bit difference between giving that
up to something and saying when something goes wrong, I
dig in and I find the gold in it, and
I use that for my next step. And I'm a
big fan of finding the gold. Lonnie's amazing at that.
(29:27):
In addition, we have Erica Hoffman. She is a Canadian woman.
She is running in Portia Sprint Challenge. And Erica was
in her late teens and somebody had asked her about
registering for a racing program and she's like, ooh, I
want to go racing. She is very well put together,
(29:51):
she's very well spoken, and she has an insane natural talent.
She's absolutely going to be one to watch because she
was brand new to the car and she qualified. She
finished p four and both of her races and she was, yeah,
she's going to be one to watch. And then we
have Nicole Robashaw who's running in PCA. She and her
(30:15):
dad raced together in Porsche Club and she even took
a break for a year to have a baby and
then came back.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I will keep my eye on her too, then send
her my support too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And I love the father daughter racing.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, I mean that's what I spied you too, because
my dad is very close to my racing and I
love that. That's amazing. Yeah, So it's like twenty percent,
let's say, of your drivers are that's Amazing's that's incredible.
I don't know any other team or team owner that's
doing anything even remotely like you're doing because you're giving
(30:51):
these girls, women the opportunity in top flight equipment. I mean,
there is no better team than Kelly Moss Racing and
in Porsia Racing right right. And it's not making an
all female team, it's not doing it as a gimmick.
You're literally giving them the opportunity to go out there
and succeed. And like I say, make a springboard for
the future. Is your hope rolling straight into the next thing?
(31:13):
Is your hope for them that they can then progress
into something like GT three Racing and go go to
EMSER and become successful professional drivers.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
At some point, I would love to take a driver
from GT four and Sprint, put them in a Cup
Current Sprint, take them to Porsche Carrera Cup, take them
to Michelin Pilot and then IMS weather Tech.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's amazing, a total dream and as you know, being
in a situation where I'm in an opportunity to run
you in weather Tech also just absolutely on the dream board, right,
I just that I would love that so much.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I'll mentor them.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, well, of course, can you do so much of
that just innately, But ultimately, what I really want is
to help people with what their passion and their desires are.
There's a lot of sacrifice in the lifestyle of racing, right,
There's a lot of sacrifice. So my ambition, although it
(32:16):
would certainly be a beautiful story to tell, ultimately, for
all of the clients that we have, my hope is
to help them achieve their dreams, whatever they are. And
so for some I think that that's just making a
splash and showing the world that they can do this
thing that the world shouldn't have told them they can't.
(32:37):
And for some it is to work their way up
the ladder, and I absolutely want to be a part
of that. If that's part of their.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Dream, that's really cool of you. As an ancilliary role
to your Kelley most responsibilities running a world class motor
sport organization. You also put your money away your mouth
is in terms of being part of women in most
sports north of made America and helping that organization too.
(33:04):
I see you all over the place with them. So
you're obviously very close to Len and Cindy, And what
do you see your role as over there?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So I am the treasurer. I'm on the board of
directors as the.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Treasurer with your accounting background.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And I'm also the chairman of the finance committee. So
in part, basically, boards are like, oh, you know, numbers,
come on over here, we got a little something for you, right.
But it's amazing to be a part of an organization
that sole focus is to grow the number of women
(33:43):
in all areas of motorsports. Again, the driver is the
most visible. I think that we did the biggest bang
for our book when we focus on the driver. There's
a lot of positions in motorsports, though, I mean, it's crazy.
There are motorsports ornees, there's physio. There's just between the
(34:05):
not just social media but graphics and the technicians and
the engineers and data and there's a lot of opportunity
and the beautiful thing for me in my position is
one of the most difficult things that you can do
as an owner is figuring out how to motivate a team.
(34:27):
I cannot fathom how difficult of a job it is
to try to motivate someone to come in and clean
a hotel room. You're going to clean a hotel room
ten of them today, and tomorrow you're going to come
in and clean another ten and the next day you're
going to come in and Like, what we get to
(34:48):
do is to we in Porscha Career Cup. Last year
we had a total sweep of the Pro Championship, the
Pro Am Championship, and the Am Championship. Eleven championships last year.
We give our team an opportunity to struggle and to
(35:09):
work together and to overcome adversity and challenges and stay
up all night and be sore and tired and hungry
and crabby, and then win. And there is nothing that
builds esteem and teamwork and family like being emotionally depleted
(35:29):
and then watching your driver take the checkered flag.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah, but it's also like it gives you such an
incredible sense of achievement and self respect and all the things,
because you know how hard it was to get there.
I don't. I always think because it's always changing, and
it's changing at such a fast pace that keeps me
motivated and keeps me sharp and for the teams as well.
(35:54):
Like it is hard work, Like those guys are there
first in the morning, they're there until last thing at night.
They're working all day. They don't get a break. It
is a hard slog in the heat a lot of
the time. Oh, they don't get days off because they
have to go home and then prepare the car again.
Like it is not an easy job to have, but
it's like they don't see it as a job. You know,
(36:16):
they are so passionate about it. They're as passionate about
it as we are. And I think it's the constantly evolving,
constantly changing competition aspect and everything else that challenges them
to such a level of effort in every way physically, mentally,
emotionally challenges you. But then once you succeed, like that
(36:38):
with all those championships, like the enormity of what you've
done and how successful you've been, and it gives you
a huge element of pride, like you must be so
proud of everything that you have achieved and so proud
of everything that the team have achieved and individually they're
proud of themselves and so they have a great amount
of self respect and belief in themselves, and that confidence,
(36:58):
by the way, then it's more success. So it's like
it's like a spiral, you know how you have down
with spirals when things are going wrong, and then everything
goes wrong. It's the same in reverse with the team.
And then that also lifts everybody else up around you,
which is continually spiraling upwards, which I think is interesting.
(37:19):
And in racing you have to be you have to
somehow get it going in that direction, because once it
starts going in the other direction, it's really hard.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, it is a game of momentum, for sure.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
And that's the best way of putting it. Momentum. But
it's also krudos to you and Andy for choosing the
right people. Yeah, because the people make our sport one
hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah. It is so relationship based. It is so relationship based.
And it's funny because two years ago, at the end
of twenty twenty three, we were sitting at the banquet
for Portia Carrera Cup and we were running Riley Dickinson
and he won everything there, I mean most polls most
(38:04):
fastest laps the championship, he really cleaned up. And I
was sitting at the table and it's the end of
the season. Like the thing that stinks about the banquet
is at the end of season, you're just tired and depleted.
And there were people that were drunk sitting across from me,
and I was growing irritated, and I was like, you
(38:25):
need to stop. We won four championships. This is probably
the pinnacle of your career. Stop focusing on the negative
and appreciate this moment. Like appreciate this moment over and
over in my head. As that would get, you know,
I'd get irritated and I'd pull myself back out of it.
In twenty twenty three, we had one hundred podiums and
(38:46):
four championships. I thought, absolutely can't we can't get better, Like,
we can't do more. Eventually, we're going to slide backwards
and come to terms with that. A year later, I
was sitting at the same banquet. We'd won eleven champion
chips and we had one hundred and sixty one podiums
in the year, and I did the same thing, like, ooh,
(39:08):
there's you know, once you do that there's like, I
don't think that this year is going to be easy
for us. I think that we're going to really struggle
because there's a lot of incredible talent out there, but
it's not it's the fight. It's fighting and winning that's
so wonderful. So we'll have a lot of really high
(39:30):
highs as well, but we get pretty poudy with a
P two who are like, you.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Know, I'd be pretty pleased with the P two robout now.
I know it's the challenge, and it's like everybody says, oh,
the sacrifices you make, because you do make a lot
of sacrifices, but you don't see them as sacrifices when
you're doing what you love and you're winning. And that
brings me on to my final point. Actually, so you
run the team with your husband?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, does that bring because you're traveling with him a
lot of the time, racing all the time. You're you're
running your world class team with him. Is that a
challenge in itself? Or is that good for your relationship?
Because you literally do you ever not talk racing because
I think if it were me, I'd be making dinner
and I'd be like, so these new shock obsorbers that
(40:17):
we bought. But is that what it's like.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Back It's exactly what it's like, just to step back
to speaking to your sacrifice. You know, I've had people
talk about it. We're on the road all of the time.
We're on the road all of the time, and we work.
I get up between two and three seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
You can't see my face right now, but I just
threw up on the inside.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I get twenty eight hours of uninterrupted work done every
week between when I wake up and between six thirty
and seven when the rest of the world starts chiming
in and adding to my to do list.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Crazy. That's that is so much level dedication.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
I love it because I get so much done in
that time period. And people will say you sacrifice so much.
And for people that have children, you would think going
into having kids that like having this little nagging person
that refuses to watch what you want to watch on
TV would be ridiculous. You know, Like you're a child,
(41:29):
you don't get to choose. When you become a parent,
you're like, oh, yeah, I want to watch you watch
Teletubbies like it brings so much joy. I think that
racing is sort of the same, Like you just don't
realize if you aren't in that situation, what else is better.
We really do struggle. We we live and breathe, and
(41:50):
we go out with friends and will notice that we're like, oh,
we're back to talking about racing and we have to
work so hard. But it is, it's what we do
and it's we are. And I think that we're very,
very blessed to have so much joy in what we do.
But you're absolutely right twenty four to seven. It's all
(42:11):
we do is talk racing, we talk work.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah, I can think it's either good or bad. Like
I could talk about racing forever and I literally just
do talk about racing for the most part with everybody.
So for me it wouldn't be bad. But I don't
know whether it's just we're just not normal, are we?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
No? And I think that in relationships it just depends
on compatibility. Me being as meticulous about things as I
am is a huge negative for some people. It's a
huge positive for Andy for sure. My obsessive compulsion to
push business forward and you know, to be so obsessed
(42:50):
with what we do because it's not just the racing,
like I'm I live and breathe to grow our sport
every day, you know, the Girl Scout program and the
b or Hero program and the Pinewood Derbies and all
of that stuff, which I just I'm obsessed about growing
our sport. And if you have the right person, then
that's a bonus. If you have the wrong person, it's
(43:11):
just sandpaper.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. I think obviously you guys
are doing something right because you are winning literally everything,
and you're an inspiration to so many and a really
good friend and sounding board for me, which I appreciate.
And I really do look forward to one day working
with you on all of this because I think I
(43:34):
would make a great team.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I think we would make a great team. I can't wait.
I am absolutely positive. But it'll come somedate.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
No, it was lovely speaking to you, Victoria. Thank you
so much for being on the show, Thanks for having me,
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes. We want to
hear from you. Leave us a review in apple Poodcasts
and tell us what you want to talk about. It
might just be the topic for our next show. Throttle
(44:04):
Therapy is hosted by Katherine Legg. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer is Grace Fus. Listen
to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart,
open your free iHeart app, and search Throttle Therapy with
Katherine Legg and start listening.
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:22):
week's episode of Throstle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg. And
this week has been another scramble. There's been so much
going on behind the scenes, so many pivots that we've
had to make, and I've learned some really big lessons
as to who's in Team Catherine camp and how we're
(00:44):
going to move forward, and I can't wait to share
that with you guys. You'll probably hear about it very soon.
I just I obviously need to go through things in
the right order, like I have to honor the people
who have supported me and the way that they want
to do the announcement of what comes next and the
life of Catherine's racing career. So we've got some big
(01:05):
things coming and I am beyond excited for it, Like
I'm super duper over the moon excited for it. We've
all worked incredibly hard, like you wouldn't believe the emotional
highs and lows and ups and downs and everything else
that's gone into it, and how many people have been
affected by what's going on at the moment. And I know,
I hate when people are like, hey, coming soon or
(01:26):
watch this space. I think that's rubbish and I'm really
sorry to have to do that to you guys. But
it will be soon enough, and yeah, exciting things are coming.
It's been a lot of work. So having said that,
I have some bright lights in my life, and those
bright lights, like, I really think the relationships and the
people that you meet along the way are so important.
(01:48):
And I have made so many great friends and acquaintances
through this journey. There's been some good ones, there's been
some not so good ones, and there's been some forgettable ones.
And quite frankly, so, I think the good ones that
stand out, you know, let you click with some people.
You don't click with everybody. If everybody was the same,
it would be boring. And I think that the people
(02:10):
who you can trust to be there alongside you through
this crazy journey called life and this crazy journey called
motor racing are the ones that you keep close. And
I am honored to announce that good friend of mine
is joining me on the podcast this week. She's been
through some of the similar battles that I've been through.
She comes at it from a slightly different angle, being
(02:32):
a team owner instead of a driver. But we have
shared some wine and some stories, and we have bonded,
and I'm very proud to announce that she's my friend
as well as somebody who I'm very much looking forward
to working with at some point down the road in
the future. We keep saying it will happen, and then
we keep going off in separate directions and making making
(02:53):
our own destiny. So I'm really happy to say that
Victoria Thomas, team owner of Kelly Moss Racing Push, a
fishing and good friend of mine, will join us on
the podcast this week. I'm joined by the wonderful Victoria Thomas.
Victoria and I are relatively new friends. We've bonded over
(03:14):
the last couple of years, and as is always a
case in racing, there are not that many women in
the paddock that you feel that you can relate to,
and Victoria is definitely one of those for me, and
so I'm very proud toicaler a friend. We actually bonded
over her starting a driver search for a female driver
(03:35):
because she runs Kelly Moss Racing along with her husband,
and they were looking for the next female GT Star
for one of her better terms, and I'll let her
go into more detail on it, but we were talking
about who there was out there, and I was helping
her in a way to narrow that search down and
interview some of the drivers. So through that we got
(03:57):
to know each other and now she's definitely one of
my go to people for just a general moaning session,
some advice or a glass of wine. So welcome to
the show, Victoria. How are you.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I'm wonderful, Thank you so much for having me. You're
absolutely correct in that our beautiful introduction to a friendship
was you being willing to help lend a hand so
that when we made an effort to bring a female
driver to a program, we could do it the right way,
(04:30):
shall we say, And it was just a wonderful way
to get to know you by working together on that mission.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, I really appreciate from a personal standpoint, everything you
do for women in racing, and we'll get into that,
but I wanted to stop by introducing the listeners to
who you are at your core, because you are a
very successful team owner Kelly Moss is famous throughout the
racing world and outside of the racing world as well,
because you also build cars, right, Porsches predominantly or is
(05:04):
there other things.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
To Kelli Moss is just Porsches.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Just so well renowned in both of those spaces. But
I want to know firstly how you came to racing
and then secondly, how you developed your passion for helping
other women in the sport, because that is special.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, my introduction to racing was probably the least sexy
introduction to racing that anyone has ever had. I am
an accountant by nature, so I was hired by this company,
Kelly Moss, to help them determine the profitability of their
different divisions, Like is there a more bland story for
(05:44):
the entry into the sport?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I didn't know that about you. That's fascinating. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So I owned an accounting firm and they brought me
in as a consultant and one of the first deep
dives I had with the owners was sharing, do you
know that your highest producing technician is your lowest paid technician?
And They're like, how in the world could you know that?
These are the things that a counting gives you. So
we started to do a deep dive about Kelly Moss,
(06:10):
a team that had incredible pedigree, but as with a
lot of motorsports teams, they were so passionate about getting
the cars on track that there were things like, we
never build for that engine, we dropped in the car.
You know, it was very difficult to get people that
are of the mindset of racing to care about paperwork
(06:32):
and numbers and profitability. Yeah, so I came on board
and put my head down and did a deep dive
into how to make the company more successful as their CFO.
And you know, at first, I really fell in love
with the investment tool of porschees, particularly Airquol porsches that
go up five to twenty five percent year over year.
(06:55):
As a numbers person, it was like, you mean that
I can buy this car and drive it and it
appreciates twenty five percent, and I can't do anything like
that with my mutual funds. So I art right, I
fell in love with the investment tool of the vehicles,
and then eventually went to the racetrack and like you
(07:17):
can't smell the fuel and feel the visceral feel of
the engines going by and not fall in love.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, so you fell in love with racing and then
you decided that you were going to help the next
generation of women also be successful. So you are a
girl's girl through and through, which I love about you.
We could spend all day put in the world to
rights about all things female and racing, but you put
your money where your mouth is, so to speak, and
you have, over the course of a few short years
(07:48):
gone out, found money, invested in young female talent and
helped and supported them on their journey. And that has
not been an easy journey for you either, No.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Not at all. Sort of what happened in terms of
my awareness and my career has been in largely male
dominated industries, so it wasn't unusual. And I'm certainly somebody
that feels comfortable holding my own I think that when
you're faced with situations that you have a choice of
(08:18):
how you frame them, and you either use it to
be a victim and be knocked down, or you use
it to fuel you, to make you stronger, to make
you better, and to make more of yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And that's a choice. I love it. Someone that's so
perfectly Petwell done.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Thank you so that part wasn't concerning to me at all.
I'm very comfortable proving myself. I'm very comfortable being cognizant
of how I show my worth, So that was not
a concern to me. But I was working really hard
to grow the business. It was important to me that
we have the best business we could possibly have, and
(08:56):
that had me very head down working with our incredible
team to be the best version of Callie Moss we
could be. As it turned out, I got a phone
call from a woman named Lynn Saint James and she said,
why in the hell did I have to dig three
pages deep into your website to find out that this
company has a woman owner? Yeah? Valid point, Yeah, And
(09:21):
I really really took pause in that moment and realized
there's just not women in this industry. And I have
an opportunity, because there's so few female team owners in
the world, to use that voice to make a difference.
My experience, and I'm very curious about yours, because you're
(09:43):
in a totally different seat than me. My experience was
there weren't men out there saying don't let women in racing.
It was an awareness, right, women didn't think of it.
Men didn't think of it. Nobody thought of it. So
I wanted to use my voice and do the most
visible position in the team, which would be to place
(10:03):
a female driver. But you have to tell me, did
you feel like there were just a world of men
trying to prevent you from I mean, certainly there's challenges,
but I did you feel like there was a world
of men that said you don't get to enter this space?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
No? Not really. There was men who questioned ability. And
you know, they see, for want of a better term,
this circus than the hoopla that goes on around it,
and they think it's a gimmick or a publicity stunt
or whatever it may be. But in general, what I've
come to realize, relatively recently is that the people who
(10:45):
try and knock you down and the people who judge
you for what you're trying to achieve are not successful people.
So they are not the people that are making the decisions.
They're not the people involved in racing, they're not the
team owners at this level. They are fans, and they're
not successful within their own right. And I went through
this whole stage, and I spoke to Andy Zally, a
(11:05):
good friend of mine, about it because I looked at
some of the comments online and he said, don't read
the comments, so I'm not reading the cook But I
was like, but there are women out there who are
trying to tear me down, Like I don't get that.
Shouldn't we be trying to build each other up? And
he's like, the only women out there that are trying
to tear you down are ones that are not successful
in their own right, and they're doing it to make
(11:25):
themselves feel better. So I think it's one hundred percent
a valid point. I don't feel like it's gone against
me in the people that matter and the people's whose
opinion I respect, right, So no, I think that it's
just been you have to see it to be it.
(11:46):
You have to I think it's very much the same experience,
different respective, different seats, you say, but it's just proving
that you can do it, and until somebody goes out
there and does actually prove it, you know, like I
know we'll get to it. But Lonely had the win
and the success Seabring recently, and so that's solidifying people
seeing women on the podium, people seeing us you going
(12:08):
out there and winning as a team owner, and people
like Michelle Muton and Linda and James and people who
have been competitive Danica. It makes it less of a
weird anomaly and more of the norm, and so we
need more and more of that to solidify the fact
that it's not strange and it's not a gimmick. So yeah,
I'm very much of the same mindset as you are.
(12:30):
And so circling back to what you started with your
driver search for was the Porsche Cup I believe, right,
and then GD four as well. Yeah, by the way,
when you get the bit between your teeth and decide
to do something, you do it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And I like it about you.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I am very tenacious, for sure. But besides it absolutely
being the right thing to do, and besides my being
poised to do it in a way that I thought would
set us up for success, which is and I have
all the respect in the world for anybody that has
a mission towards this end. But I do believe that
(13:10):
the fact that we had more championships in Porsche Cup
racing than any other team in the world gave us
a better opportunity to set a female driver up for success.
Having people that are experienced on the nine nine to
two car, having coaches that have driven the nine nine two,
(13:32):
having technicians that have worked on them for years. It's
very different when you have a whole team that is
trained for success in this and then you find a
female driver and help her in the seat. So we
did the shootout. We had four amazing women that were
involved in the shootout, three of which actually to date
(13:52):
have driven for our team. And what was wonderful about
that was we involved you, Catherine, we involved Jeremy Shaw,
we involved Lynne Saint James, and we tested all kinds
of different areas and ended up putting a female driver
(14:12):
the first ever in Portia Career Cup North America, and
I was really proud of being able to do that.
Racing is just insanely expensive and the real question is
how do we make the sport more affordable. That's the
real question. We're bandating it with getting more female drivers. Ultimately,
what we need is a much bigger fan base so
(14:34):
the drivers do not have to pay an insane amount
of money to participate in the sport. That's my end
zone is to grow the sport big enough that we
have sponsorship that supports being able to have the best
talent in the car and not the wealthiest talent in
the car.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
And give them a springboard for success in everything else
as well.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Absolutely, In twenty twenty three, we ran first female driver.
In twenty twenty four, we ran the first African American driver,
a male, And ultimately all of that is to show visibility.
In twenty twenty five, we're running for female drivers. In
(15:17):
twenty twenty five, our c suite of our corporation is
over fifty percent females.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No way, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I have female truck drivers, I have female technicians,
I have female engineers, I have female hire people. Like,
there's a lot that's actually happening with just being able
to be a little bit louder about what we're doing
and help people see this as a possibility. You've done
(15:47):
a lot of that. As a matter of fact, I
think that you've done more than any woman in the industry,
and you continue to be out there everywhere and that's
just an incredible way to motivate peace people and inspire people.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
I mean there's a slight difference, though, let's be honest.
You're doing it from a really good person standpoint selflessly
to help other women. I'm doing it from a very
selfish standpoint in that I'm doing it to help my
own career and try and be the best race car
driver that I can be, and as successful as I
(16:22):
can be, I will transition into helping you know, us
talking to lyn St James about it as well, and
I will transition into helping the next generation. It's something
that I'm very passionate about and I want to do
when I do where I can currently, but it's just
time constraints, right, Like I am too busy to put
too much of my focus into doing that. But for sure,
(16:42):
as I transition out of driving myself, that will become
a focus and I will definitely help, and no doubt
we'll be in touch with you about that when the
time comes. But you do it from a helping everybody
else standpoint, because as far as I can see, unless
you're hoping to sell a bunch of Porsches to women,
(17:04):
which I mean maybe that that happens, maybe women get
you know, this passion for portion and the cause. But
you're literally doing it to help the cause, which I
think is it's amazing you have daughters too, right.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I do, yes, But I think that it's both right,
I think that what you're doing helps you, but the
fact that you're doing this podcast is a wonderful way
to reach more females and raise awareness about the sport.
So it does both at the same time. I care
very much about the cause, but I'm also a business
(17:40):
owner that sees a business model potential in the future
where I'm engaging another fifty percent of the population as drivers,
as employees of the company, and pollees as fans for
this incredible sport. So it is also self serving in
that way, right. I want to ensure that this sport
(18:02):
is around for a very long time, and we need
to be particularly intentional about that, in my opinion, because
if you were to throw a blanket over Daytona, for example,
I would have to say there's an enormous percent of
that population that when they turned sixteen, the automobile represented
the first freedom they experienced in their life. They tinkered
(18:26):
in the garage with their dads, they did the Pinewood
Derby as boys and boy scouts. There's a lot of
those tap root moments that make people passionate about our
industry that simply don't exist anymore. And if we're not
really intentional about engaging the youth like I have the
Girl Scouts program. We're bringing the car and female drivers
(18:49):
to middle schools to engage the youth. We need to
make sure to be helping people understand what kids now
have a thousand options of things they can do and
waste that they can spend their time, that our sport
remains relevant.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Back to your Female Driver program, I want to tell
our listeners a little bit about your be your Own
Hero program as well. Yeah, so you have Lennianza and
you have Ashley Fryberry both driving with you. Tell us
about the be your Own Hero program and how that
came about.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, So what we wanted to do is we wanted
to have a program that people could really get behind
the representation. So what we did is we came up
with caricatures.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
They're amazing. I love them so much. You guys have
to go and google them. You happy because the car
just looks it looks amazing.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, the caricatures are fantastic. I was just working on
their the driver suits today to match the whole theme
of be your Own Hero. So what we did is
we made our two drivers into superheroes. The theme of
be your Own Hero comes from a fundamental belief that
I have, which is not needing people to complete you
(20:17):
or save you or make you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
If you.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Decide to take full responsibility for your life, and you
take full control of your life, you can be your
own hero. Right. Don't the little girls getting little princesses
being saved? Right, Just none of that. Save yourself, be
your own hero is the point of it. And we're
(20:44):
doing STEM education taking the car and the female driver
to middle schools and doing a little bit of STEM education,
a little bit of empowerment about how important it is
to along with being able to be your own hero,
that comes with taking full responsibility for everything in your life.
As you know, because we've talked about it, I have
no patience for anybody coming off the track and talking
(21:06):
about how they're the victim. If you don't use every
opportunity to learn, you're not growing. Why would you give
your power to someone else? You have to figure out,
and you're exceptional at that. We've talked quite a bit
about that process of even when it feels like it's
not your fault, when you figure out how to get
your mind around taking responsibility, you begin to learn and grow.
(21:30):
And that's in every aspect of life. And so yeah,
we made our female two of our four female drivers
into superheroes, and we have stickers and hydroflasks and T
shirts and we'll be inviting girls to the track and
it's going to be a fun program.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I think it's amazing. Honestly, I love it so much.
I didn't know the story behind it, but obviously I've
seen the cars and I think that they will garner
a lot of attention, and deservedly so. And just seeing
Loney as a superhero in the front of car, I mean,
she's amazing anyway. You know, she's lucky that she has
the family that she does, because I think her mom
(22:09):
and dad are amazing, and so they've taught her how
to be the human that she is, and as a person,
she's making the most of the opportunity that she's got,
which is what you love to see. Yeah, and I
want to have a Catherine caricature a superhero. I think
it's so neat. And then I also want Prince Charming
to come and rescue me as well. But spent my
(22:32):
whole life up until this point being my own hero, so.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You sure have. I don't know, I mean, one of
the first introductions that I got to you was hearing
the story of you just showing up here and figuring
out that they were doing a test and knocking on
some doors. And I don't know if you've shared that story,
(22:56):
but wow, talk about when you get something in your mind.
You have been incredibly tenacious and it's beautiful to see
you know some of that payoff with all of the
recognition that you're getting now.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Thank you firstly, and yeah, I think when I heard
you say the word tenacious earlier, it made me think, well,
I was speaking to Lindsea and James and she had
the same thing, and you have the same thing, and
I have the same thing. And I think maybe that
is the key in racing, is the never give up.
Just keep believing in yourself and never ever ever give up.
And you have to make the things happen for yourself.
(23:34):
Right like again, be your own hero. I love it
so much. Embodies everything that we stand for. Yes, you know,
Roger Penske's not going to call me and be like, hey, Kat,
do you want to come drive for me? I wish
you would, but it's one of those things you have
to make those calls yourself. You have to open the
doors yourself. You have to keep trying. You have to
pick yourself up when you're down. You know, I had
(23:56):
a rough weekend and there's no give up in me.
There's no give up in you. Like honestly, sometimes some
of the harder things make you tougher and make you
stick your heels in the sam war and decide to
dig in and keep going for it. And I think
that that's the difference. I think to be a woman
(24:19):
in this sport, it's already tough enough, just because we
have to fight for every opportunity and we have to
explain ourselves we have and there's you know, there's not
much support. There's not many people with the same life
experiences that we've had, and so yeah, I think that
that is fantastic. I touched on Lonely and Ashley a
little bit, but why don't you give us a rundown
(24:40):
of the for what series they're driving in and one
fact about each of them that you saw something special
in them and that's why you decided that you were
going to.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Support Sure, So let's start with Ashlee Freiburg. I was
introduced to Ashley through the Female Driver's SHOOTO that we
worked on together. The study of Ashley was, Oh, you
said one thing, I'm going to go on forever. The
study of Ashley's history was so impressive and probably the
(25:12):
proudest moment in my professional career because with my job,
I assemble great people. Right, My job is to hire
the best of the best and to make sure that
they're treated well enough to want to stay and to
be passionate about what we do. So although I'm incredibly
proud of forty eight championships that we've won in Portia Racing,
(25:36):
there's a part of me that doesn't feel quite as responsible.
I was so responsible for what happened with Ashley she
was with the team. Last year she won a scholarship
that was based on a sponsor that was not allowed
by the series because of what the sponsor represented. Ashley
(25:58):
called me in tears because she was terrified of losing
all of her sponsors when she won a scholarship with
this team. The person that they brought to the table
was not something that she was proud of or thought
her other sponsors would be proud of.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Rightly so, in my opinion, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And what a predicament. Right. She wanted to drive, but
this is her brand and her life and her name,
and it was a tough predicament and we talked through
it and had a lot of conversation about it. Eventually,
that team pulled their support of her in the middle
of the season and she called me devastated and I said,
(26:39):
we're going to figure out how to do this. Let's
just do it. And we were racing. We were racing
in Montreal on a Saturday. The cars were rolling out
the following Tuesday for VIR. By the time we got
to VIR for that next race weekend, we had her
in a car with a sponsor and she passed thirty
(27:00):
three cars during the course of that race weekend to
be on the podium twice. And I was so proud
because the team said, if you really want to do this,
we'll get behind it. But you have to say that
you really want to do it, and I said, let's
do it. It's it's not just that there's a sacrifice
for the company. Every driver that we've supported, Andy and
(27:22):
I personally have put in an insane amount of money,
like more than put your kids through college money to
personally to make it happen, and then professionally as well.
There's a match on the Kelly was side and finding
them sponsors. So Ashley has given me my proudest moment
in motorsports with that success, knowing she's worth that investment.
(27:46):
Lannie Unser is the sweetest, most incredible girl, Like store
is it?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
She She's just the Kita.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
She's darling and you know she's racing Pike's Peak. And
I just did an interview with her and asked a
whole bunch of questions, And one of the questions that
I had asked her was how do you feel racing
knowing that your grandfather passed away on a racetrack? Like,
are you do you have trepidation? And her response completely
(28:17):
blew me away. She said, I don't have trepidation because
safety has come such a long way. And did you
know that fire suits are what they are today because
of my grandfather's death? That's great And I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Like, wow, just wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, I got a lesson. They used to be dipped
in lie and that's how they that was how they
provided their safety. That was clearly not enough. So she's
just amazing. And talk about being able to reach in
and find the lessons. Right, there are people that are
very very faith based that say, oh, it's meant to
(28:55):
be or if this is in the bigger plan. And
I think there's a little bit difference between giving that
up to something and saying when something goes wrong, I
dig in and I find the gold in it, and
I use that for my next step. And I'm a
big fan of finding the gold. Lonnie's amazing at that.
(29:27):
In addition, we have Erica Hoffman. She is a Canadian woman.
She is running in Portia Sprint Challenge. And Erica was
in her late teens and somebody had asked her about
registering for a racing program and she's like, ooh, I
want to go racing. She is very well put together,
(29:51):
she's very well spoken, and she has an insane natural talent.
She's absolutely going to be one to watch because she
was brand new to the car and she qualified. She
finished p four and both of her races and she was, yeah,
she's going to be one to watch. And then we
have Nicole Robashaw who's running in PCA. She and her
(30:15):
dad raced together in Porsche Club and she even took
a break for a year to have a baby and
then came back.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I will keep my eye on her too, then send
her my support too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And I love the father daughter racing.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, I mean that's what I spied you too, because
my dad is very close to my racing and I
love that. That's amazing. Yeah, So it's like twenty percent,
let's say, of your drivers are that's Amazing's that's incredible.
I don't know any other team or team owner that's
doing anything even remotely like you're doing because you're giving
(30:51):
these girls, women the opportunity in top flight equipment. I mean,
there is no better team than Kelly Moss Racing and
in Porsia Racing right right. And it's not making an
all female team, it's not doing it as a gimmick.
You're literally giving them the opportunity to go out there
and succeed. And like I say, make a springboard for
the future. Is your hope rolling straight into the next thing?
(31:13):
Is your hope for them that they can then progress
into something like GT three Racing and go go to
EMSER and become successful professional drivers.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
At some point, I would love to take a driver
from GT four and Sprint, put them in a Cup
Current Sprint, take them to Porsche Carrera Cup, take them
to Michelin Pilot and then IMS weather Tech.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's amazing, a total dream and as you know, being
in a situation where I'm in an opportunity to run
you in weather Tech also just absolutely on the dream board, right,
I just that I would love that so much.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I'll mentor them.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, well, of course, can you do so much of
that just innately, But ultimately, what I really want is
to help people with what their passion and their desires are.
There's a lot of sacrifice in the lifestyle of racing, right,
There's a lot of sacrifice. So my ambition, although it
(32:16):
would certainly be a beautiful story to tell, ultimately, for
all of the clients that we have, my hope is
to help them achieve their dreams, whatever they are. And
so for some I think that that's just making a
splash and showing the world that they can do this
thing that the world shouldn't have told them they can't.
(32:37):
And for some it is to work their way up
the ladder, and I absolutely want to be a part
of that. If that's part of their.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Dream, that's really cool of you. As an ancilliary role
to your Kelley most responsibilities running a world class motor
sport organization. You also put your money away your mouth
is in terms of being part of women in most
sports north of made America and helping that organization too.
(33:04):
I see you all over the place with them. So
you're obviously very close to Len and Cindy, And what
do you see your role as over there?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So I am the treasurer. I'm on the board of
directors as the.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Treasurer with your accounting background.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
And I'm also the chairman of the finance committee. So
in part, basically, boards are like, oh, you know, numbers,
come on over here, we got a little something for you, right.
But it's amazing to be a part of an organization
that sole focus is to grow the number of women
(33:43):
in all areas of motorsports. Again, the driver is the
most visible. I think that we did the biggest bang
for our book when we focus on the driver. There's
a lot of positions in motorsports, though, I mean, it's crazy.
There are motorsports ornees, there's physio. There's just between the
(34:05):
not just social media but graphics and the technicians and
the engineers and data and there's a lot of opportunity
and the beautiful thing for me in my position is
one of the most difficult things that you can do
as an owner is figuring out how to motivate a team.
(34:27):
I cannot fathom how difficult of a job it is
to try to motivate someone to come in and clean
a hotel room. You're going to clean a hotel room
ten of them today, and tomorrow you're going to come
in and clean another ten and the next day you're
going to come in and Like, what we get to
(34:48):
do is to we in Porscha Career Cup. Last year
we had a total sweep of the Pro Championship, the
Pro Am Championship, and the Am Championship. Eleven championships last year.
We give our team an opportunity to struggle and to
(35:09):
work together and to overcome adversity and challenges and stay
up all night and be sore and tired and hungry
and crabby, and then win. And there is nothing that
builds esteem and teamwork and family like being emotionally depleted
(35:29):
and then watching your driver take the checkered flag.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah, but it's also like it gives you such an
incredible sense of achievement and self respect and all the things,
because you know how hard it was to get there.
I don't. I always think because it's always changing, and
it's changing at such a fast pace that keeps me
motivated and keeps me sharp and for the teams as well.
(35:54):
Like it is hard work, Like those guys are there
first in the morning, they're there until last thing at night.
They're working all day. They don't get a break. It
is a hard slog in the heat a lot of
the time. Oh, they don't get days off because they
have to go home and then prepare the car again.
Like it is not an easy job to have, but
it's like they don't see it as a job. You know,
(36:16):
they are so passionate about it. They're as passionate about
it as we are. And I think it's the constantly evolving,
constantly changing competition aspect and everything else that challenges them
to such a level of effort in every way physically, mentally,
emotionally challenges you. But then once you succeed, like that
(36:38):
with all those championships, like the enormity of what you've
done and how successful you've been, and it gives you
a huge element of pride, like you must be so
proud of everything that you have achieved and so proud
of everything that the team have achieved and individually they're
proud of themselves and so they have a great amount
of self respect and belief in themselves, and that confidence,
(36:58):
by the way, then it's more success. So it's like
it's like a spiral, you know how you have down
with spirals when things are going wrong, and then everything
goes wrong. It's the same in reverse with the team.
And then that also lifts everybody else up around you,
which is continually spiraling upwards, which I think is interesting.
(37:19):
And in racing you have to be you have to
somehow get it going in that direction, because once it
starts going in the other direction, it's really hard.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, it is a game of momentum, for sure.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
And that's the best way of putting it. Momentum. But
it's also krudos to you and Andy for choosing the
right people. Yeah, because the people make our sport one
hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah. It is so relationship based. It is so relationship based.
And it's funny because two years ago, at the end
of twenty twenty three, we were sitting at the banquet
for Portia Carrera Cup and we were running Riley Dickinson
and he won everything there, I mean most polls most
(38:04):
fastest laps the championship, he really cleaned up. And I
was sitting at the table and it's the end of
the season. Like the thing that stinks about the banquet
is at the end of season, you're just tired and depleted.
And there were people that were drunk sitting across from me,
and I was growing irritated, and I was like, you
(38:25):
need to stop. We won four championships. This is probably
the pinnacle of your career. Stop focusing on the negative
and appreciate this moment. Like appreciate this moment over and
over in my head. As that would get, you know,
I'd get irritated and I'd pull myself back out of it.
In twenty twenty three, we had one hundred podiums and
(38:46):
four championships. I thought, absolutely can't we can't get better, Like,
we can't do more. Eventually, we're going to slide backwards
and come to terms with that. A year later, I
was sitting at the same banquet. We'd won eleven champion
chips and we had one hundred and sixty one podiums
in the year, and I did the same thing, like, ooh,
(39:08):
there's you know, once you do that there's like, I
don't think that this year is going to be easy
for us. I think that we're going to really struggle
because there's a lot of incredible talent out there, but
it's not it's the fight. It's fighting and winning that's
so wonderful. So we'll have a lot of really high
(39:30):
highs as well, but we get pretty poudy with a
P two who are like, you.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Know, I'd be pretty pleased with the P two robout now.
I know it's the challenge, and it's like everybody says, oh,
the sacrifices you make, because you do make a lot
of sacrifices, but you don't see them as sacrifices when
you're doing what you love and you're winning. And that
brings me on to my final point. Actually, so you
run the team with your husband?
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, does that bring because you're traveling with him a
lot of the time, racing all the time. You're you're
running your world class team with him. Is that a
challenge in itself? Or is that good for your relationship?
Because you literally do you ever not talk racing because
I think if it were me, I'd be making dinner
and I'd be like, so these new shock obsorbers that
(40:17):
we bought. But is that what it's like.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
Back It's exactly what it's like, just to step back
to speaking to your sacrifice. You know, I've had people
talk about it. We're on the road all of the time.
We're on the road all of the time, and we work.
I get up between two and three seven days a week.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
You can't see my face right now, but I just
threw up on the inside.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I get twenty eight hours of uninterrupted work done every
week between when I wake up and between six thirty
and seven when the rest of the world starts chiming
in and adding to my to do list.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Crazy. That's that is so much level dedication.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
I love it because I get so much done in
that time period. And people will say you sacrifice so much.
And for people that have children, you would think going
into having kids that like having this little nagging person
that refuses to watch what you want to watch on
TV would be ridiculous. You know, Like you're a child,
(41:29):
you don't get to choose. When you become a parent,
you're like, oh, yeah, I want to watch you watch
Teletubbies like it brings so much joy. I think that
racing is sort of the same, Like you just don't
realize if you aren't in that situation, what else is better.
We really do struggle. We we live and breathe, and
(41:50):
we go out with friends and will notice that we're like, oh,
we're back to talking about racing and we have to
work so hard. But it is, it's what we do
and it's we are. And I think that we're very,
very blessed to have so much joy in what we do.
But you're absolutely right twenty four to seven. It's all
(42:11):
we do is talk racing, we talk work.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah, I can think it's either good or bad. Like
I could talk about racing forever and I literally just
do talk about racing for the most part with everybody.
So for me it wouldn't be bad. But I don't
know whether it's just we're just not normal, are we?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
No? And I think that in relationships it just depends
on compatibility. Me being as meticulous about things as I
am is a huge negative for some people. It's a
huge positive for Andy for sure. My obsessive compulsion to
push business forward and you know, to be so obsessed
(42:50):
with what we do because it's not just the racing,
like I'm I live and breathe to grow our sport
every day, you know, the Girl Scout program and the
b or Hero program and the Pinewood Derbies and all
of that stuff, which I just I'm obsessed about growing
our sport. And if you have the right person, then
that's a bonus. If you have the wrong person, it's
(43:11):
just sandpaper.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. I think obviously you guys
are doing something right because you are winning literally everything,
and you're an inspiration to so many and a really
good friend and sounding board for me, which I appreciate.
And I really do look forward to one day working
with you on all of this because I think I
(43:34):
would make a great team.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
I think we would make a great team. I can't wait.
I am absolutely positive. But it'll come somedate.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
No, it was lovely speaking to you, Victoria. Thank you
so much for being on the show, Thanks for having me,
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes. We want to
hear from you. Leave us a review in apple Poodcasts
and tell us what you want to talk about. It
might just be the topic for our next show. Throttle
(44:04):
Therapy is hosted by Katherine Legg. Our executive producer is
Jesse Katz, and our supervising producer is Grace Fus. Listen
to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart,
open your free iHeart app, and search Throttle Therapy with
Katherine Legg and start listening.
Host
Katherine Legge
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