James Wood's Kaiser shining in dirt track auto racing and softball

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

Jul 19, 2018

WINCHESTER — It didn’t take long for Haley Kaiser to discover just how intense things can get when you get behind the wheel of a car on a competitive dirt track.

In one of her first races at the age of 13, Kaiser hit the wall head-on in a U-Car event at Winchester Speedway in 2014.

“I passed out in the car because of the really bad whiplash,” said Kaiser, who added that she couldn’t be removed until the roof was cut off to create space to reach her. “It was scary.”

That incident might have been a nightmare scenario, but it had no impact on her dreams.

“I went back out in two weeks in a different car, and I won my first race,” said Kaiser, a 17-year-old rising senior at James Wood High School, during an interview in the school’s gymnasium in May. “I’ve always wanted to race ever since I was little.”

Four years later, Kaiser’s still goingstrong, and not just on the race track.

Kaiser — who recently completed her third year as a starter on the James Wood High School softball team and earned second-team Class 4 All-Northwestern District honors this spring — is in her third season of racing Modified cars.

Kaiser is still searching for her first Modified win after winning half of her races as a U-Car driver against people decades older than her.

But one of the youngest competitors and one of only two females who drive Modified cars sits seventh in the division’s point standings at Winchester Speedway in 2018. A total of 35 drivers have raced in that division at Winchester Speedway this year.

Kaiser is also ninth out of 41 drivers in the Mid-Atlantic Modified Standings, which also factors in results at Hagerstown Speedway, Potomac Speedway and Cumberland Raceway in Maryland, and Lincoln Speedway, Selinsgrove Speedway and Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex in Pennsylvania.

The dirt track season began in March and runs through September.

Her 36-year-old father David — a former dirt track racer himself who gave it up to focus on Haley’s career — initially wasn’t sure if Haley would want to still do it after her 2014 accident, but he’s been impressed with her commitment.

“She’s all about it,” David said. “We got her into a faster car and a better car after the accident, and it’s just escalated from there. If we rain out on a weekend, she’s bummed. She hates when we rain out. She wants to race all she can.”

“I like the intensity of racing,” Haley said.

Haley’s family has a long history of racing on dirt tracks.

Haley said her grandfather, 68-year-old Roy Anderson, builds and repairs race cars at the ARC Racing shop he owns in Winchester, and used to compete at Winchester Speedway, Hagerstown Speedway, and Potomac Speedway on a weekly basis.

David said his uncle, Jimmy Wilson, used to race on dirt tracks, but he didn’t start racing until 2002 after he met his wife Holly and Anderson put him behind the wheel. For 13 years David mainly competed in street stock cars and competed at numerous tracks in the region. He won about 40 races, and in 2013 he said he won the street stock division at Winchester Speedway.

Even before she can remember, Haley has been at the race track.

“We took her to the races when she was 1 month old,” David said. “And she always hung out in the garage.”

For Haley, the time spent in the garage over the years has actually been more meaningful than the time on the track. She’s at ARC Racing three to four days a week.

“I love driving, but I think my favorite part is checking over everything and being in the garage with my granddad and my dad, and my little brother [11-year-old Davin] helps me also,” Haley said. “I like working on the cars and knowing that that’s what I have in my life.”

Haley got her start by racing in U-Cars. David said Haley won eight times in 16 races in that division over two seasons before taking on the more challenging Modified division in 2016.

“A U-Car is just a front-wheel drive and like a car you drive on the street, like a ’99, 2000 [Chevrolet] Cavalier,” David said. “We strip them out, we put a roll cage in them, and we go racing.

“The Modified, it’s all tube chassis, and depending on who builds your motor, it’s about 600 to 700 more horsepower than a U-Car. And it’s rear-wheel drive instead of front-wheel drive, so if you’re used to running a U-Car it’s the total opposite.”

At Winchester Speedway, David said Haley is driving at speeds from 80-90 mph in the Modified divisions, and he added Hagerstown’s larger track allows her to get up to at least 100 mph.

Haley said she’s embraced the challenge that Modified driving presents.

“You really have to understand the car,” she said. “You have to work on it every day to understand what is underneath of it, how it’s going to work for you, how you like to turn it. You have to know what you have to change on the car after [a heat race] so you can do good for the feature race. U-Cars you just run it straight in, these you actually have to get them sideways to be able to run with the good guys.”

“Guys” are basically Kaiser’s entire competition. Outside of 20-year-old Alyssa Rowe of Greencastle, Pa., a veteran driver who also competes at numerous regional tracks and has been helpful to Haley with driving advice, Haley has been forced to prove herself against males who are usually much older.

Despite her age and gender, Kaiser feels like she’s always been accepted.

“In U-Cars, the closest person in age to me was 23, and then I think the oldest was 50-something,” Haley said. “I felt like they felt I was one of them. But I feel like if I passed them, they felt, ‘Oh my gosh, I just got passed by a little kid.’ But I was happy. My dad said all that matters is if I’m happy.”

Earlier this season, Haley said she had one of her happiest moments since joining the Modified division. In a race that David said took place at Winchester Speedway, Haley passed veteran driver Rick Hulson, who currently sits third in the Winchester Speedway and second in the Mid-Atlantic Modified Standings. She stayed in front of him until Hulson eventually had to pull out of the race four laps later.

David said Hulson probably has invested $35,000 into his motor, while his family has invested $10,000 into Haley’s entire car.

“[Hulson is] one of the guys that everybody wants to go out there and outrun because of his success,” Haley said. “That was great to beat someone who puts so much money and effort into their motor.

“There’s a lot of people out here with more money and experience, but you’ve just got to drive well and tweak the little things on the car to make you faster.”

Haley hasn’t achieved the success of people like Hulson, Rowe (fifth in the Winchester Speedway and Mid-Atlantic Modified standings), or her 41-year-old uncle Mike Corbin (second in the Winchester Speedway and third in the MAM standings), but she feels like she’s making progress. (Haley said Corbin is supportive as well, telling her “good job” the one time she did outrun him on the track.)

“I’m becoming more experienced,” said Haley in May. “I feel like I can improve every single race.”

David, who was interviewed in June, said he’s liked what he’s seen from Haley this year.

“She’s learning more to race with people side by side at a faster speed,” David said. “Car-wise, if someone else were to get in her car, they’d probably spin out just because we’ve got it set up so loose so she don’t push up across the race track and hit nobody.

“But each week, I’ve got to tighten it up, tighten it up, because she’s running it in harder, she’s hitting the gas quicker. She’s definitely improving every week.”

Auto racing’s not the only sport where Kaiser has shown marked growth.

Haley has stood out at softball from the start of her time at James Wood. As a freshman, Haley hit .300 (15 for 50) with 16 RBIs and 10 runs while playing right field, even though she grew up as a third baseman.

As a sophomore, Haley hit .325 (13 for 40) and scored 14 runs to earn second-team All-Conference 21 West second-team honors at third base.
This past spring, despite a mid-season thumb injury that hampered her for two weeks, Haley improved her average for the third straight year (.327, 17 for 52), scored a career-best 15 runs, and drove in nine to earn second-team all-district honors. She did all that while making the transition to shortstop, a position she hasn’t played much prior to this year.

James Wood head softball coach Todd Baker couldn’t be more pleased with how well Haley handled the move to shortstop.

The fourth-year head coach wasn’t surprised by her success in the least.

“She’s gritty, high-energy, and very determined,” said Baker during an interview in May. “[Against Fauquier in a 2-2 tie on May 15], she made some of the better plays I’ve seen since I’ve been here. She had a backhand in the hole between short and third, and it was almost to the grass line. She planted her foot and threw across the diamond for the out. Not a lot of shortstops can do that.

“She’s got the quick release that she developed at third base. She’s played at a very high level. You don’t win [17] games with a bad shortstop. That’s a pretty important position.”

Baker also appreciates her consistency at the plate, and her strong bunting skills at the bottom of the lineup this year helped set things up for her teammates at the top of the order.

“She’s been a part of some great wins with the team, and she’s just a great team player,” Baker said.

Haley was able to contribute to James Wood’s Class 4 Northwestern District championship season by staying positive, no matter what her task was.

“I’ve had my bad days playing shortstop, but I think that I’ve stepped up and not gotten down on myself, and improved every game,” said Haley in May.

As one of Haley’s racing sponsors, Baker has had several opportunities to see Haley in the other sport she’s passionate about.

Haley pointed out in May that she takes a lot of precautions on the track with the construction of her car and with her racing suit and gear. Baker said he still gets a little anxious watching her in a race car, but he also enjoys it.

“You just want her to be safe, and we know she is,” Baker said. “She’s a good driver, and she’s pretty safe in that car.

“Anytime you coach a sport, you really encourage the multi-sport athletes. Haley’s a little unique with the race car, but it’s a sport, and it’s good to see.”

Haley would love to have a career like nationally renowned dirt track driver like Scott Bloomquist, a 54-year-old whose numerous accomplishments include three series championships on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series since 2009.

All she knows right now is that she wants to race at dirt tracks for as long as she can.

“I just like going fast,” Haley said, “and being able to be competitive.”

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