Girl power

One thought crosses Nicky Whiteside’s mind every time she watches one of IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick’s commercials for GoDaddy.com, “That’s gonna be me one day.”

The 15-year-old Remington resident isn’t really interested in promoting domain names, but she isn’t shy about setting lofty goals either.

“There aren’t any women driving in NASCAR right now,” she said. “I want to be the first one.”

It’s true that the Sprint Cup Series is devoid of female drivers, but in the next couple years, Whiteside plans to try her luck in oval and dirt-track racing as a start to an auto racing career she hopes someday results in a spot on one of the top circuits.

But right now she’s happy to fly down Blue Ridge Avenue in a homemade wooden car as part of Culpeper’s seventh annual Soap Box Derby.

“It’s really fun building and painting the car,” Whiteside said. “Plus in soap box racing, it just you against one other person and that really gets me pumped.”

The derby began in Culpeper in 2003 and Whiteside is the only driver entered in Saturday’s race that has made the trek down the hill all seven years.

“You always get a little nervous before a race,” she said. “The first year I just kept thinking, ‘I put this car together and I really hope it holds together until I get to the hay.’”

Whiteside wasn’t the only nervous one during that inaugural run, though.

“I’ve never been more scared than I was during her first race,” said Nicky’s father Ronnie, who works at Cedar Mountain Stone. “But we’ve been to every race since. It has a great family aspect to it and it’s really good for Culpeper.”

Whiteside’s uncle convinced her to enter the first Soap Box Derby and she has been hooked ever since and she has witnessed how the race has grown over the years.

“It has gotten a lot stricter,” she said. “The first year, we never switched wheels but now we do it after each run so no one has an advantage. There has been a lot more people too. It’s nice to get to bond with new people and that everyone gets a trophy.”

The rising freshman at Liberty High School spent the first five years of her Soap Box career driving in the Stock Division and the last two in the Super Stock class.

She received plenty of compliments on her pink car in her first year in Super Stock, but decided to go in a little different direction this year.

“I started with a pink car because that used to be my favorite color,” Whiteside said. “People liked it because it was the only pink car in the race, but now I really like purple so I decided to go with that this year.”

Have no fear, though. Her original pink car will once again grace Blue Ridge Avenue as Whiteside has decided to let another young lady drive it this year.

“I think that’s important because some men don’t think women should be in racing,” she said. “But I want to show them that we can drive too.”

With one year of eligibility left, Whiteside plans to step up to the Masters Division next year and that has her parents feeling a little nervous.

“That makes me a little excited and scared,” said Nicky’s mother Michelle, who runs the family’s 15-horse farm. “But getting ready for the race is just a lot of fun because it gets the whole family together and she has gotten a lot more mature since she started racing.”

Hundreds of spectators crowd the street in front of Yowell Meadow Park every year to see what the hype is all about, but many of them probably don’t know how much work goes into preparing for the derby.

The first step is building the car. Drivers get kits ranging in price from $300 in the Stock Division to $500 in the Super Stock Division and, with the help of family and friends, assemble the most aerodynamic speedster possible.

“Building the cars is really complicated,” Whiteside said. “The package says it only takes an hour, but it took us more like eight. The hardest part is figuring out the weight and resetting the brake as you grow every year.”

Once the assembly is complete, drivers go through a plethora of practice runs, show up to events like family fun day, help with fundraisers and turn their cars in for inspection the weekend before the race.

“I feel good going into this year even though I haven’t had as much practice as I’m used to,” Whiteside said. “Practice is really important. If you’re a beginner driver, you have to practice or you’re going to freak out on the hill.”

Whiteside has learned plenty of tricks — such as angling toward the cones on the side of the street to pick up more speed — during her seven years as a Soap Box driver, but she has yet to hoist one of the winner’s trophies that towers over most of the drivers.

“I really want to win this year because I need a vacation,” she said. “Mom, dad and I have always wanted to go to Akron.”

Danica Patrick has been flirting with the possibility of making the jump to NASCAR for some time now, but a strong showing in Saturday’s derby could put Whiteside in a place the 27-year-old Andretti Racing driver has only graced once in the IndyCar Series — the winner’s circle.

And besides, Whiteside wants to beat Patrick to the punch when it comes to landing a NASCAR ride.

“I think she’s really cool and she’s one of my heroes,” Whiteside said. “But she’s doing pretty well right where she is, so I think she should stay put.”