How Amber Got Her Start As Told By Her Dad

Amber was born on December 17, 1993 in Tallahassee, Florida. She was so small and skinny that I ( Her Daddy) nic-named her "Squirrel". She has two sisters and one brother. While the others were athletic, Amber had problems with shin splints and was not able to play sports or run and wrestle, like the others. We had to be very careful as to what she was allowed to do.
For Christmas in 2003, we bought the kids a "yard cart". We took them to a City Park parking lot to teach them how to drive it. Nobody was there and the parking lot was empty and flat. There was asphalt track paved through the parking lot that had been used in the past as a road coarse for autocross racing. I got in the car put Niccole in my lap and then drove her around the track, showing her how to drive the car and the track. I got out and Niccole drove two laps at about 10 mph... lol
Then I put Amber in my lap and did the same. When I got out and she was buckled up, I told her to, "Take off", and that she did!! She took off down the front stretch flat footed. When she got to the left 90 at the end, she turned the cart up on two wheels without letting up on the gas. 20 foot later she turned the right hand 90 the same way throwing the cart onto the other two wheels. Then she turned left onto a 270 left hand, putting the cart on two wheels again, through a switch back and then a left hand 90 again, down the backstretch to the left hand 90 and hooked a power slide by locking the brakes.
Her mother just about had a heart attack and I was in shock. In about three months, she had driven the cart so hard that she broke he wheels off of it. I had to weld the centers back into the wheels.
I ran into a cousin that had a "racing cart" which I ended up purchasing. It was a 1997 model Shadow. The cart was pretty well worn out and I built the engine in my shop. I took her to a Nationals race, at Crossroads Motorplex in Jasper, Florida. Then next week I rented the track and took her out for her first time. I told her to take it easy at first and simply drive it as fast as she could controllably. She entered the track in turn three and came through 1 and 2 flatfooted. The faster it would go the better she liked it. Within a couple of hours she was running a good line and in pretty good times.
She raced 1 race in August of 2004, 2 in September, and 3 in October. These races were run on this old Shadow, on very soft prep tires, and my home built motor. While she should have been 2 seconds a lap slower than the others she seemed to get more out of kart than it had.
Her older sister, Niccole 12, became out pit crew and videographer. She would change oil, change gears, prep tires, change tires, help me lift the car, and video the races.
A friend that we had met at the track, took us under his wing, and started teaching us about the kart and the track. John Castleberry was a godsend to us and became a very good friend. His son was the JR. Sportsman 1 champion for two years. He told us that she was a good driver and that we needed to get her a good kart. I bought a 2004 Laser AV2 and John set it up for us. Her first race in the new cart she put a half of a lap on the pack and won.
That was November of 2004 and the beginning of what was to be her racing career. In December of 2004 she qualified 37th at Daytona, while in a four wheeled slide, all the way around the track. There were 250 entries in her class.
Two weeks later, we took her to 103rd street, in Jacksonville, Florida to run the road course. After running the course well all day, late that evening she spun the car at the end of the backstretch. When the car spun she turned it 180 and let it roll of the track. An adult coming down the backstretch at about 90 mph hit his breaks coming into that turn while she sat waiting on me to come get her. He hit her, head on, so hard that it picked her up off the ground about 2 feet and sat her back down about 40 feet from where she was. He and his car rolled across the top of the car, his steering wheel caught under her chin and it ejected him. Afterwards she got out of the car and brushed the mud off her race suit. she had taken an 80 mph head on hit from a kart that weighed about 460 while she weighed 250 and all she had to say was " it scared me a little but, momma, I am not going to have a kart to run my points race Saturday night and I am leading the points". The next Saturday night after $900 dollars worth of parts, she went out to Crossroads and put a half of a lap on them again.