By Victoria Beaver

Reagan May is not the only racer that has had the chance to tie her passion and career together, but she's definitely thankful to be in the position. The 23-year-old Wisconsin native graduated from Michigan Technical University last fall with a degree in mechanical engineering and settled into a career in racing, and she's as busy as ever.

On Friday night, May raced in Norway, Michigan, and the night before she raced at the Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. But despite the hectic schedule, this is the life May wanted from the beginning. 

"Racing is what drove my career choice and my schooling choice," May said. "After I graduated high school... I knew exactly what I wanted to go for. I started racing when I was 10 in go-karts. Working on cars is what pointed me in the mechanical engineering direction. I would say that schooling helped out my racing and my background with cars helped out my schooling."

May races Super Late Models in Wisconsin and the greater Midwest area. Her journey to the cockpit started in go karts at age 10. She matured from to mini stocks to sports mods to Late Models by the age of 16. She's been pursuing racing in late models since.

May was not the first person in her family to race: her dad ran with Sports Car Club Of America in the 1980s. But his history had nothing to do with her discovery and love of the sport.

"My dad raced SCCA in Ohio before I was born, so he was on road courses and on motorcycles," May said. "It was a totally different ball game than what we are doing with late models. He was never really a person that pushed me into racing, I kind of found it myself. Fell in love with the sport and fortunately enough he loves the sport as well."

In 2015, May became the first female in Wisconsin to win a track championship. That came at Golden Sands Speedway, and she followed it up in 2016 with a second-place finish in the points. Even with her early success with championship racing, she decided that it wasn't for her and is not pursuing points this year in order to have the freedom to race on more tracks.


 
"What happened was we went out for the first race and won it and thought, 'Well, we have to come back now,'" she said. "Then we were always first or second in points. So we just kind of fell into running for points. I've never been a big points racer, because I like to travel and I like to go to a lot of different tracks. You only have race Thursday, Friday, Saturday and a lot of different tracks run all those nights."

On Thursday night at the Wisconsin International Raceway, May started 14th in the feature after finishing third in her heat. The race ended up going caution free for all 75 laps and May drove herself up six positions for a top-ten finish of eighth.

"That track is very rough -- it's a half-mile -- and the track surface is very rough. It is very taxing," May said. "You have to also remember that it's not just running the laps. You have to stay focused for 75 laps straight and you're not only thinking about your lines and the cars that are around you but also conserving tires, conserving brakes. That track is very good at burning people's brakes up. There's a lot of aspects that go into it. I think that's what makes you a race car driver you have that focus and that ability to get through a race."



In racing there is no rest for the weary as May left the track Thursday night at 11:30 before having to arrive at work at 7 AM. Once her work day was through she headed to Norway, Michigan, for the race at the Norway Speedway.

"Tonight is a special night because Gene Coleman is getting inducted into the hall of fame." May said about the Friday night feature. "Gene has been terrific for the sport, he raced and then he started Coleman Racing Products which is my primary sponsor. They have just been a supporter of racing for many, many years in the Michigan, the UP, Wisconsin, Midwest area. I'm pretty excited for that to be there and see everyone honor him for everything that he's done for the sport."

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