A U T O K N O W
B A T T E R E D M A C H I N E R Y A N D B R U I S E D E G O S
In what is traditionally a male stronghold, the women
competitors have taken just about as much gender
bashing as they can stand. The gloves are off and
they re ready to let their machinery and their talent
do all the talking. Welcome to the Bullrun.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPEED TELEVISION
By DAVID HARRIS works these days, I found Emilie.
T
F O R W H E E L B A S E C O M M U N I C AT I O N S She worked out really well be-
cause I am more of a driver and
she is more of a mechanic. It end-
ed up saving us because she was
able to turn the idle up at one
racy point, allowing the car to make it
Shayhorn through a challenge.”
feels slight- The ride they armed them-
ed. She isn’t selves with was a 600-horsepower
afraid to say turbocharged 1992 Lexus SC300.
so, either. Bathed in white, this unassum-
But if ing “street racing”-style import
that’s the only impression you wound up as one of the most
have of her and Team Lexus dur- powerful cars in attendance,
ing Season Three of SPEED tele- something that became a double-
vision series Bullrun (10 p.m. ET, edged sword as they were unable
Thursdays), you’re not seeing the to properly prepare it due to time
entire story. constraints.
Hosted by former professional “This was a highly modified
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPEED TELEVISION
wrestling star Bill Goldberg, and tuned car, and when you
Bullrun challenges 12 two-person Bullrun pits 12 teams against each other in series of competitions. change atmospheres ... we really
teams to a series of competitions After each episode, which airs every Thursday night on SPEED needed it to be re-tuned for the
ranging from road rally stages to television, one team is sent home. How long with Emilie Coppola West Coast. It did become kind of
“made-for-TV” driving obstacles. and Tracy Shayhorn, pictured here, last? Tune in to find out. an issue,” Shayhorn said.
Each episode means elimination “The car was stalling the en-
for one team, so when Shayhorn became a profes- tire time we were out there. We
Shayhorn’s real-life intensity sional drifter, running a modified would get up to altitude at 9,800
surfaced, it might have left a few Nissan alongside some of the feet, and the car would stall and
wrong first impressions. most talented drivers. But how the steering wheel would lock up.
“I am a competitor and I like did she get there? We were going up a mountain
to win,” said Shayhorn, 32, “I’m a “I started racing as a sponsor- with no guardrail or power to the
pretty strong woman, being a fe- ship ploy,” she said. “My steering wheel. It was crazy be-
male in a man’s world I get boyfriend wasn’t getting spon- cause some of the boys fell into
knocked around a lot, so I’m pret- sored, so we separated that out this ‘stupid girls’ thing as we
ty tough. You’ll definitely see that and started seeing if companies were stalling.
on the show. I don’t really play would sponsor me. Once we did “They thought it was my
well with others because they that, sponsors started to jump on boyfriend’s car and I just didn’t
don’t appreciate my straightfor- board. know how to drive it.”
ward attitude. A lot of time, I “We built a car, and luckily, I Slighted? Shayhorn isn’t
lack that brain-to-mouth filter, so was kind of good at it. I was a afraid to say so, but her car might
I will just say things.” professional drifter for two years, just do all the talking.
Shayhorn, along with her but never won anything. I was
long-time boyfriend Dan Willie, David Harris is the Media
one of only three females to be
founded Batleground competitive and to be considered Relations Manager for SPEED
Engineering and Racing a professional.” and Project Manager for TV show,
(www.batlground.com), an Every reality show needs an On Bullrun, Shayhorn and PINKS All Out. He also writes sto-
Atlanta-based tuning shop that animated hotshot host and her Team Lexus teammate, ries about his favorite subject: the
has spent a decade installing who better to greet viewers Emilie Coppola, 25, of Easton, automobile. He can be reached
high-performance upgrades for a each to Bullrun the former pro Pa., were paired together only on the Web at:
multitude of sport compact vehi- wrestler Bill Goldberg. days before production began.
cles and iconic American www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html.
Despite the late notice and per- Wheelbase Communications sup-
mounts. sonal scrambling to get the car
“It was all an accident be- those 1,000-plus horsepower from Atlanta to California, the plies automotive news and fea-
cause when Dan graduated from Toyota Supras, even though we duo, knowing little of each other tures to newspapers across North
Georgia Tech and I was a bar- were only 22 years old.” except from a chance meeting in America.
tender, we accidentally built this Along the way, Shayhorn got the shop a few years prior,
fast car for flipping (re-sale), and into drifting, where cars run in matched well.
it snowballed into this race pairs, usually around a small fig- “Three days before, I found Emilie Coppola, left, and
shop,” Shayhorn recalled. “We ure-eight track, in a constant out I didn’t have a team partner,” Tracy Shayhorn are in the
started to get big because we oversteer (skid) position. Shayhorn said. “I frantically Bullrun to win. Coppola turns
were the first to build one of went about looking for somebody. the wrenches while Shayhorn
With the way social networking drives the wheels of their 600-
horsepower Lexus SC300.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SPEED TELEVISION