Courtesy of Rally-America.com

On the eve of the last round of the U.S. Rallycross Championship a pair of female drivers have thrown their hats into the ring to blaze new Rallycross trails. With the entrance or Kristin Chute and Erika Detota they are on the verge of being America’s first female Rallycross competitors.

Right now, Kristin Chute from Gray, ME is hurriedly turning wrenches in her garage alongside her husband preparing their 1995 Subaru Impreza for 2WD Class competition. This is a familiar process for them being regular stage rally competitors in terms of building and preparing a car between day jobs. But both are working hard to modify their rally car into a rallycross car to send Kristin to the starting line against other rally styled vehicles.

Kristin acknowledges the odds of winning a race and the work ahead of her. “My realistic expectation is that I could have a mechanical failure and not make it. I know all the drivers competing in my class and I don’t expect to dominate the field… I just want to keep up with the crowd and work on those driving lines,” said Kristin.

Though Kristin is new to this style of racing she has garnered a solid rally background and expects to utilize her rally skills on the tricky dirt sections.
She has at least 25 rally events and multiple autocross, rallycross, and track days under her belt, in addition to stints at the Team O’Neil Rally School. Kristin can also boast Cumberland Motor Club’s 2006 “Rookie of the Year” and “Fastest Female” Awards, and has consistently placed in the top 5 in her SCCA RallyCross’ AWD Modified Class.

When she shows up at New Jersey Motorsports Park this weekend she will have already achieved her personal goals by building her rallycross car, and becoming one of the first female driver in the Series. She doesn’t want to be judged by how well she places in the event, but by her ambition and inspiring fans to get involved. Something she tasted when she was surprised by the fan response at the 2008 Targa Newfoundland Rally and 2010 Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally.

“Kids were coming up to me and asking for autographs!” laughed Kristin, “Fans kept encouraging me to keep going with what I am doing. I think I was doing something that kids and the fans wanted to do themselves.”

The encouragement helped spark dreams of becoming semi-professional in the rally world and building a competitive team. Kristin won’t fully concentrate on being a female competitor in the sport. “There are plenty of female (and successful) competitors in Rally, but if it means getting more sponsors in Rallycross I’ll use that angle.”

She recently landed her first sponsor, a specialty wholesale provider of cheese and dairy products, and is working to promote the “Paul W. Marks” company brand. “It is a first step towards a more professional team that is worthwhile to sponsors. Bringing sponsors to my team while being a part of Rallycross means being part of the initial buzz. I think that is valuable,” explained Kristin.

Since competing in stage rally over the years, Kristin is now stepping into new territory facing a steep learning curve in front of her. She acknowledges that her competitors have more horsepower and her car will likely need a stronger Subaru WRX transmission to handle the extra power added to her car. But in her mind race results pale in comparison to taking the road to get there and experience the thrill of wheel-to-wheel racing in the car she built with her husband.

You can follow Kristin Chute’s progress at www.rallykracing.com or on her Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/pages/RallyK-Racing/158748614140106

Kristen’s sponsor, www.PaulWMarks.com has been distributing the freshest New England dairy products for the last 50 years. Please visit the website for a complete compilation of eggs, butter, cream, yogurt, milk and cheeses. The knowledgeable sales team can help you meet every need to make your meals as healthy, nutritious and delicious as possible.

The other female driver also comes with a rally racing background. Erika Detota from Passaic, NJ joins Team Broken Racing with boyfriend William Petrow, who has also entered the Rallycross event. Erika plans on piloting her usual rally car that won 1st place at the International Rally New York and competed at the 2009 New England Forest Rally.

Her amazing pace at learning such a tedious and male dominated sport is largely in part to her coach and navigator Jason Smith. “It’s great to see a woman excel in rally. She is tasting the success of all her hard work which is well deserved,” says Jason.

Throughout her first season Erika has donated space on her car to the organization “Keep A Breast” which strives to educate and prevent breast cancer through awareness- A female piloted rally car has become a medium to discuss and draw attention to the growing disease. To find out more about the organization please visit: www.keep-a-breast.org or find Erika at this weekend’s Rallycross events.

Erika looks forward to racing with Kristin, “having more than one woman racing is always a treat and it is happening more and more. There are a handful of promising young woman who are surfacing in the sport which is so awesome to see!”

[News & Picture Source]