Sarah Cornett-Ching Looking to Make History

A woman has never finished inside of the top five in the ARCA Series championship standings throughout the division’s history.  However, rookie Sarah Cornett-Ching can make history if she is able to finish inside of the top five in the ARCA Series championship battle.

There are not many females who currently drive in any of the top stock car racing tiers. Other than Danica Patrick, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Kenzie Ruston, they seldom receive publicity for their achievements in a male-dominated sport.

“It’s definitely a double-edged sword,” Cornett-Ching said of being the only female in ARCA. “I think that it gets me a lot of extra media attention and stuff sometimes, but at the same time, I can also get blamed for some things easily and you have to earn your trust a lot. It’s a little harder of a learning curve.”

Getting started in a unique way, Cornett-Ching has overcome adversity to race her way into the ARCA Series. In 2011, Tony Blanchard created a driving school that would allow young talent to get behind the wheel and work on racecars. Soon after its existence, it was known as Race 101.

Some of NASCAR’s current stars including David Ragan and Chris Buescher also went through driving schools, but that was under legendary Cup Series team owner Jack Roush. Blanchard created this effort from scratch to try and propel young drivers into a competitive racecar.

“I went to Race101 in 2011 with Tony and he had been working on his ARCA program for a few years,” Cornett-Ching said. “The opportunity came up for me to run Daytona and it stemmed from that race and a few other investors came on board and we got to run the whole year.”

It isn’t often that you hear a welder turn racecar driver, but that is exactly what happened to Cornett-Ching. She is from Canada, where welding is crucial up north. However, her dream was to one day strap behind the wheel and drive fast.

What you wouldn’t realize is that actually Cornett-Ching was a racecar driver who turned into a welder just to back her finances in racing. Like every other division of motor sports, a team needs funding in order to be at the top of the peak.

“I was a racecar driver and I kind of got into welding just to afford the racing,” said Cornett-Ching. “My racing slowed down as I got older and had more expenses and it was more difficult to race.”

As she began to get into young adulthood, she needed a job that would pay off in case the racing career didn’t pan out. However, when she became a full-time welder, which is rare for a female, she had to cut back on driving as welding and saving money became the primary resource of her life.

“I basically took a year off,” Cornett-Ching said of her lack of racing in 2014. “I ran two races last year and the rest of the year I just worked and saved and got this opportunity. I think the welding was an important part of the journey, but it’s definitely not where I want to be.”

One could only imagine how tough it would be to unite metal transiting into a competitive driver. Grit and determination can go a long way in determining the elements that a soul must have in this environment.

For some, the transition may be easy. For some it may be difficult. And for others, it may just be a part of life.

“The racing down here and the tracks that we are racing on is so much more different than anything that I’ve ever run on,” she said. “At home, I just ran on quarter miles and short tracks. This is definitely a huge change. I wouldn’t say that I’ve struggled with any transitions but everything has been new.”

In her rookie season, Cornett-Ching has started all 16 races in 2015, which only nine drivers have done. The 24-year old has picked up five top-10 finishes this season with a best of eighth at Talladega and Chicago. She has doubled that number in top-15 finishes as she has compiled 10 top 15s.

For Cornett-Ching, this season has been a learning experience. She has been able to prove to her fellow competitors that she has what it takes to run near the front with the top drivers in her No. 2 Chevrolet.

“Coming into this season, my experience level compared to some of the other rookies was really small,” Cornett-Ching said. “I had never raced on any of the tracks and we’re having a really respectable season. I still get frustrated when we’re not up front like we should be, but the learning curve is steep and I think we’ve done a really good job with where we are at.”

“The bigger tracks have been more to my driving style. We haven’t had any tracks that were a real struggle until Lucas Oil and I could just never get the hang of that place. I think that’s a good little learning curve and shows some of the perspectives on some of the other finishes that we’ve had as well.”

None of this would be possible if it wasn’t for the aforementioned Race 101. The funding that Race 101 is providing doesn’t allow for the No. 2 team to go and test at some of the tracks that Cornett-Ching isn’t familiar at since that requires extra funding.  

Cornett-Ching is currently sitting sixth in the ARCA Series championship standings. Beating Shawna Robinson’s record of sixth in the ARCA point battle is looming on the mind of the Canadian.

“The number one goal that we are all working towards is finishing fifth in points this year and beat Shawna’s record,” Cornett-Ching said. “Other than that, we want to keep finishing in the top 10 and it would be really nice to break the top five this year. It would mean a lot, especially being my rookie season.”

With only four races left, Cornett-Ching currently sits one position outside of the coveted top five. Though being 265 points behind fifth-place runner David Levine, it is possible that she could pull off the feat. It would take a couple of outstanding performances and possibly some bad luck for Levine, but her goal of becoming the first female to finish inside of the top-five races on.

 

Dustin Albino