WINDHAM — Race car driver Taylor Martin, 13, has a lingering cold and sleeps whenever she can. Feeling rundown is the price she pays for pursuing her racing dream.
The Windham Middle School eighth-grader races 10 months of the year, and was either traveling to or from races most of the summer.
"Oh, my God," she said, "at least five days a week this summer."
In one stretch, she raced seven days in a row. Racing consumes a lot of her time, but Taylor still manages to get A's and B's on her report card, favoring math and science.
She will return to school today, but yesterday she was standing in her driveway, leaning against the rear of her Bandolero car, a small version of a NASCAR vehicle. She races in New England, the Carolinas and Florida.
Two weeks ago, when she was still 12, she became the first track champion at Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut, racing against boys up to 16 years old. She's the first female driver to win a title at the oval in a division that includes both male and female drivers. Most drivers are male.
Focus, patience, track awareness, a desire to win, and respect make a good driver, Taylor said.
At times, tension arises between respect for other drivers and the desire to win. The driver's side door of Taylor's car — marked by black rubber marks — bears witness to aggressive driving by opponents. The practice is called rubbing. A driver rubs the car against another driver's car, trying to force it from its course. The rubbing marks become more prominent as the racing season runs on.
Last week, an aggressive driver tried to get under Taylor's car, pass on the inside, when his car was not clear of hers.
"Some kid T-boned me and we went sliding through the grass," she said.
Taylor said she is competitive and wants to win every race, but she's not vindictive.
"They are all like my brothers," she said of her fellow drivers.
Taylor has been a natural at the wheel since she was a toddler, her mother, Valerie Martin, said. At 2, she hopped on a miniature two-wheel bike, without training wheels, and was riding almost immediately. She has been riding four-wheelers from about the same age and racing since she was 8 years old.
A room at home is filled with racing trophies, about 70, at least one of them taller than she is. Three sports agents from North Carolina recently called the Martins, all interested in representing the young racer. An agent's job would be to find her a sponsor as she prepares to make the leap to the Legends race car division.
Legends vehicles are larger and faster than Bandoleros, which travel 70 mph. A Legends car costs about $20,000, and to race for a year would cost about $50,000, Valerie Martin said.
"If you can't attract a sponsor, you'll get kicked to the curb," she said.
Valerie Martin said she is torn. She said she wants to support her daughter, but worries about her safety when she dons her helmet and flies around the track.
"My heart races as fast as (the) car goes," Valerie Martin said.
But Taylor said she will always race.
"You could see it comes from her heart," her mother said. "I have to let her do that."
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