Written by Jordan Schultz for the Huffington Post Tia Norfleet is used to breaking barriers. She’s used to being overlooked, and she well knows the low odds and risks involved. None of this matters though.
Norfleet, 24, loves what she does and she’ll stop at nothing to make it.
Racing … is her life.
Growing up the daughter of a minister and a professional racecar driver (Bobby Norfleet), Tia was introduced to the sport at a very young age. In a predominately white, male sport, she is the exception to the rule. Female drivers are rare enough, but an African-American as well? It’s never been done.
Norfleet is trying to become the first to make it into the NASCAR circuit. It’s a goal she’s been aiming toward for quite some time. She has been successful at drag racing and on the shorter tracks circuit known as the NASCAR late models, where she recorded two top-15 finishes, though she has not yet qualified for the longer distance tracks such as Daytona and Talladega.
“Around the age of 14 is when I really, really knew that this was what I wanted to do for a living; this was my passion,” she told me during a phone interview.
“My finest memory of my racing experience would be when I was about 5. I had a little Corvette car, and my dad put two car batteries in it. I literally drove that car until the wheels fell off. Ever since then, I’ve just been so enthused about racing, [or] any kind of motor sport.”
Tia hails from the South — Suffolk, Va., to be exact (she lives in Georgia now) — where racing is not merely a hobby; it’s a way of life.
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