Carson High Senior is a Racing Champion
Submitted by editor on Thu, 10/31/2013 - 10:33am
If you were to encounter a pretty, petite blonde named Samantha Schultz in the hallways of Carson High, your first thought might be “cheerleader.” You certainly wouldn’t think “racecar driver,” but Schultz just became the first female track champion in the Strictly Stock division at Diamond Mountain Speedway in Susanville. The ironic thing is that at 17 she doesn’t have her driver’s license yet, and is driving on a learner’s permit.
Samantha has been racing since she was nine years old, starting out in a Beginner Box Stock Outlaw Kart, a vehicle powered by a lawnmower engine and resembling a miniature sprint car. After a few years gaining experience she moved up to a more powerful kart with a 250cc motorcycle engine.
At 15 she got her first stock car experience, racing at Fallon’s Rattlesnake Raceway, Reno-Tahoe-Fernley Speedway, and Susanville’s Diamond Mountain Speedway. 2013 was her first full year, and she won her championship with consistent high finishes and two wins. Going into the last race, she was behind in points and needed a victory to claim the title. “I needed to win, and Junior (Toon) needed to have problems,” says Schultz. Both things happened, and she ended the season with a three-point margin over Toon.
She is philosophical about being the only female in the field, and racing against much older and more experienced male drivers. “They race me hard, and bump me around. They don’t give me any slack,” she says. Her father, Jerry Allec Jr., an accomplished racer himself, builds and prepares the car for Samantha. He says, “Samantha has learned to drive on the edge.
She goes deeper into the corners than the other drivers, and she has learned to feel what the car is doing. That helps me set the car up to go fast.” And going fast is what Samantha likes best about racing. “I like to go fast. I love the concentration you need to race, with nothing else on your mind when you’re in the car,” she says. During her early karting days, she watched older drivers to learn their techniques. Drivers like Kyle Larson, Mackena Bell, Rico Abreu, and Tanner Thorson were her role models. Larson and Bell are now racing in NASCAR, and Abreu and Thorson drive midgets and sprint cars.
Samantha would like to keep racing, but finances are a big obstacle. It costs money to race at any level, so she is always looking for sponsorship. Although a career in racing is a dream, she also has more practical goals. Her experience working with special education kids in high school has given her the desire to complete her college education and become a special ed teacher. But in the meantime she is looking forward to racing her Strictly Stock car again at Susanville, and trying out Dad’s much faster Late Model stock car at Placerville Speedway next summer.
