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Tina Gordon drove a NASCAR saloon in the USA.
She was ranked 155 in 2001, 110 in 2003 and 51st in
2004.with winnings of $214, 725 No races reported
since 2004.
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Height: 5-7 Weight: 127
Born: Mar 14, 1969, Cedar Bluff, AL
Tina Gordon Racing, Fan Club Membership, 1409 May
St., Clarksdale, MS 38614
Race driver
Husband Gary, 1 child
In 5 career ARCA RE/MAX Series starts since
2001, career-best finish 8th at Atlanta Motor
Speedway '02. Also finished 10th at Talladega
Superspeedway after qualifying a career-best 5th in
career-first start '01. Also finished 12th at
Talladega '02, 26th at Daytona '02 and 35th at
Lowe's Motor Speedway '02. Also qualified 9th at
Daytona '02 and 10th at Atlanta '02. Veteran of
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Also veteran of
NASCAR All-Pro Series, NASCAR Goody's Dash Series,
NASCAR Winston Racing Series late models and ASA.
NASCAR Winston Racing Series late model veteran at
Birmingham Raceway Alabama, Thunder Mountain
Raceway AL and Green Valley Speedway AL with 8
career victories. Featured on the front cover of
Stock Car Racing Magazine in '02 edition. Tested
for NASCAR Busch and Craftsman Truck Series teams
in 2001 and 2002. Plans to run Craftsman Truck
Series in '04.
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Tina Has High Hopes at Bristol
Bristol, TN. (August 21, 2000) -Tina Gordon,
NASCAR All-Pro driver, has high hopes for a great
finish this week at Bristol Motor Speedway, in
Bristol, TN. August 23. The Reel Saver 250 is the
12th of 17 races on the Slim Jim All Pro Series,
NASCAR Touring 2000 schedule. Racing at Bristol is
always one of the highlights of each season for the
Slim Jim All Pro Series competitors. This race
represents the sixth visit by the Slim Jim All Pro
Series to Bristol's high banks. Tina is currently
17th in the series point standings.
"I have been looking forward to this race all
year long. We had a great car last year and our
race program is so much further along this year. I
just can’t wait to get on the track."
The Bristol race will broadcast on Speedvision
on tape delayed, Sept. 22, 9:00 p.m., Sept. 23,
1:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The show will include
talent such as top NASCAR announcer Allen Bestwick,
Pit Reporter Randy Pemberton, and Winston Cup
driver Michael Waltrip.
Women drivers remain a rarity
Of 8,000 licensed for local races in 2003, only
124 were women
By JEFF WOLF
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Tina Gordon
signs pictures for a fan while taking a break from
testing Jan. 11 at Daytona International Speedway
in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 34-year-old from Cedar
Bluff, Ala., competed in 10 truck races last year,
twice finishing as high as 13th.
Since 1949, when Sara Christian became the first
of 13 women to drive in NASCAR's premier stock-car
series, the racing landscape has changed
dramatically.
Television ratings for Cup series events are
second only to the NFL, attendance at races usually
rank second to none in sports, and NASCAR has
become a multibillion-dollar industry.
But while career opportunities for women have
improved elsewhere in NASCAR, women drivers remain
a rarity.
When the Nextel Cup race begins at noon today at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, no women will be in the
starting field, nor did any compete in Saturday's
Busch series race at the speedway.
The last woman to run a Cup race in Las Vegas
was Shawna Robinson, who qualified 36th and
finished 42nd two years ago.
Eventually, however, a woman will compete
regularly in Cup races, veteran motorsports
reporter Deb Williams said.
"Yeah, it will be a tough road. And yeah, she'll
still have to be 10 times better than her male
counterpart," Williams said.
But that's just how Tina Gordon wants it.
Gordon, a 34-year-old from Cedar Bluff, Ala., has
driven her way to a full-time ride in NASCAR's
Craftsman Truck Series, a level just below the
Busch series.
"When I get there, I want to be competitive,"
she said of the bigger series. "I don't want to be
there just because I'm a female."
Gordon began racing in 1999 on dirt tracks in
northern Alabama before graduating to local
stock-car races.
It's a path not many women are taking.
According to NASCAR, of the 8,000 drivers
licensed in 2003 to run in local races like those
at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's three-eighths-mile
Bullring oval, only 124 were women.
"You can't go out and read a book and be able to
go racing the next day," Gordon said. "It's racing
over a period of time, getting the experience."
Gordon competed in 10 truck races last year,
twice finishing as high as 13th. In this year's
season opener at Daytona International Speedway,
she qualified 13th but finished 22nd after her
truck developed suspension problems.
Gordon believes she has something that other
female drivers lacked: a solid team. She is in her
first year with Ohio-based Thorsport Racing, which
is fielding two race trucks this season. Since
entering the truck series in 1996, Thorsport has
posted one victory in 171 races.
"Being in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series this
year on a full-time basis is just going to get me
that much more ready when I make the step into the
Busch series or Nextel Cup series," Gordon said,
adding that she plans to compete April 24 in the
Busch race in Talladega, Ala.
Williams, who became director of public
relations for Penske Racing earlier this year,
believes it will take a special combination of
driver and team to succeed in a world where too
many times women have been more gimmick than
contender.
Gordon might have another advantage over
Robinson and other women who recently have tried to
crack stock-car's major leagues: She has
sponsors.
In racing, a driver's success is measured not
only by what happens at the track on Sunday but
whether that performance helps sell the sponsors'
products and services on Monday.
Toward that end, Gordon appears in national
television commercials for Sticks 'N' Stuff home
furnishing stores, which has supported her racing
effort since 2001. Her biggest coup came late last
year when she landed Vassarette, a division of VF
Corporation that sells lingerie, as her primary
sponsor.
"The products they sell are for females," she
said. "Forty percent of the NASCAR fans wear bras
and panties, and what better fit for them to have a
female driver promoting their products.
Gordon’s injury list grows
Surgery to repair leg and foot injuries Tina
Gordon suffered in a wreck Saturday at Lowe’s
Motor Speedway added another to an already lengthy
list.
Surgeons at University Hospital in Charlotte
discovered that Gordon suffered a fractured left
ankle in addition to the injuries diagnosed
Saturday. Those included a clean break of the left
tibia and fibula, a broken bone in her left foot, a
broken left heel, a broken left big toe and a
broken right little toe.
In an approximately three-hour procedure, the
surgeons inserted a rod that runs from knee to
ankle to support the tibia, fused the fibula
together with a plate and four screws and inserted
screws in Gordon’s ankle.
Gordon spent a fitful day Sunday, but had begun
to feel better later in the evening after doctors
removed a cast that had become too tight from
swelling.
“She’s in as good a spirits as she can
be for the pain that she’s in,” Midway
Phoenix Racing spokesman Gary Pike said.
“She’s been in incredible pain all day.
She’s a tough little girl, and I’ve seen
her go through a lot and never complain.
“But it hurts you just to watch her there,
and there’s nothing you can do to help her
pain.”
Gary Gordon, Tina Gordon’s husband, was
still stunned by the severity of the accident,
which occurred on Lap 41 of the 67-lap Easy Care
100 ARCA/Remax Series race.
Gordon’s car developed a push going into
Turn 4, and she slid into the driver in front of
her, John Hayden, and put both into a spin. Hayden
saved his car, but Gordon went directly into the
wall, then down across the track where she was
drilled in the driver’s side door by John
Borneman.
Gary Gordon estimated Borneman was probably
still traveling at least 160 mph when the collision
occurred. Gordon’s Ford Taurus was completely
destroyed, and Gary Gordon said crew members told
him the impact left a 26-inch indentation in area
where his wife had been working the foot
pedals.
“I did not even know she had been T-boned
’till I got to the car,” Gary Gordon
said. “All I saw from the top of the hauler
was her hit the wall and start to come down. I
thought, no big deal; it tore the car up, but
she’s going to be OK.
“Then the spotter came on there, ‘Tina
talk to me, Tina, Tina, Tina.’ That’s
when I got off the hauler and started running that
way, and, when I got to the car, it was
unbelievable. Not in my wildest dreams would I have
thought it would ever have been that bad.
She’s lucky to be alive.”
Gordon qualified in the 16th position for
Saturday’s race, but had to start at the back
of the 41-car field after piston problems forced
her crew to change engines Friday. She had climbed
to 13th and was racing Hayden for the 12th spot
when the accident occurred.
It was a driving display that had many tongues
wagging, including Lowe’s Motor Speedway
president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler.
“One of the guys that was the P.A.
announcer at the track called (Sunday) and said
that ‘Humpy’ Wheeler wanted him to call
and check on Tina,” Gary Gordon said. “He
told Gary Pike that he and ‘Humpy’ were
together during the race and that ‘Humpy’
kept saying, ‘Look at that girl coming through
the pack. Look at the girl coming through the
pack.’
“He said she really impressed a ton of
people.”
As of late Sunday evening, it was uncertain how
long Gordon would remain hospitalized.
About Jimmy Creed Jimmy Creed is the sports
editor for The Anniston Star. His NASCAR column
appears on Thursdays during racing season.
www.annistonstar.com/sports/2002/as-racing-0520-jcreed-2e20d1029.htm
Tina is 30 years old and lives in Centre,
Alabama. She is married and has a 8 year old son.
Tina started racing powder puff races in 1995 in
her husband's dirt track car. In 95 and 96 Tina
entered in 5 powder puff races and won all 5 races.
In the Winter of 1996, Tina purchased her own car
so she could run a full schedule in the men's
division at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Fyffe,
Alabama. In 18 starts in 97 she had 6 top 5
finishes, 11 top 10 finishes and only one DNF. In
her rookie season, she finished in the top 10 in
points. In 1998 Tina began racing at Green Valley
Speedway in Gadsden, Alabama. After 6 races in her
dirt car, Tina lead the division in points with 3
wins, 1 2nd, 1 3rd, and 1 7th place.
With the purchase of a new Pontiac Grand Prix
asphalt late model car, Tina's time and energy
turned to asphalt racing. On Friday, June 12th,
Tina ran her 1st asphalt race at Birmingham
International Speedway in Birmingham, Alabama. Many
Alabama driving legends such as Bobby Allison,
Donnie Allison, Neil Bonnett and Davey Allison
started their Winston Cup Careers there. Tina
attended Finish Line Racing School at Lanier
Raceway in July of 1998. To quote Mike Loescher,
Chief Driving Instructor: "Tina has the ability to
drive a race car at any level of competition that
she desires. Now she needs to go get that valuable
seat time and sponsorship and she will go far. She
is a very smooth driver."
For 2000 Tina plans to run the complete 17 race
schedule NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Series and will
also run a few NASCAR Goodys Dash series races.
Tina's ultimate long term goal is to race in the
Nascar Winston Cup Series.
Tina is always willing to make personal
appearances for her sponsors and to display her car
at sponsor events. Tina feels that the relationship
between a driver and their sponsor should be a
positive benefit to both sides.
Source: www.racerchicks.com/racers/gordon.html
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