Ten-year-old races for the checkered flag
Apodaca got an off-track thrill when meeting professional racer Danica Patrick last year in Sonoma, California at an Indy Car IRL series event.
Information and photos courtesy the Apodaca family
Alexis Apodaca, ten-year-old resident of Buffalo Ridge Estates, is interested in more than your typical Barbie doll girl stuff; Apodaca is an accomplished kart racer who is about to take on her third full season.
Since an early age, Apodaca has taken a liking to auto racing in general and Indy Cars more recently. She attended a number of local club racing events when her father raced his Corvette. From the loud sounds of race cars to the excitement of the Indy 500, Apodaca wanted to experience racing first hand.
At the age of seven, Apodaca tried kid-kart racing to get the feel of it. Once behind the wheel, she was hooked and began to identify with and follow female pro racers such as Danica Patrick of Indy Car/NASCAR and Erica Enders of the NHRA. Apodaca has met both Patrick and Enders, the first women to win in their respective pro series. Each provided great insight and advice to the young driver.
Apodaca remarked, “Danica told me not to get intimidated by the other drivers. If they bump you, bump them back. If they bump you again, bump them off the track. You have to hold your ground!” Apodaca also recalls Enders advising her, “With enough persistence, commitment and hard work, dreams can be realized.”
At eight years old, Alexis joined a local kart racing series based at The Track at Centennial. While it was her first year competing, she learned many of the technical skills required to race in the second largest Rotax kart series in the country. In her second year of racing, she secured a national sponsorship from Lucas Oil and MAVTV.
Apodaca has finished her second full season of the Rotax Max Racing the Rockies Series. In her second season, she finished sixth in series points and ran her fastest time of 1:03.90, which is 1.9 seconds off the track record.
In 2012, Apodaca competed in her first international race – the Pan American Rotax Max Challenge, featuring drivers from four continents and live worldwide coverage from the Kart Racing Network. In her first international race, she finished 12th out of 13 in points and in the final race. She has her sights set on rivaling in future national races for 2013, including the Gatorz Kart Racing Series, as well as the local Racing the Rockies series.
Apodaca continues to make great strides and improvements in her performance and results. Racing at speeds in excess of 60 mph on a 20- turn, one-mile track can be intimidating, but shows no signs of stopping Apodaca. She will be competing in 2013 with high expectations of some podium finishes.
Apodaca has no fear taking on The Track on September 23 in Centennial.
