Wombat Racing: History of Wombat Racing

I get the question a lot, what's a wombat, or why a wombat? My old high school car plates even said wombat. Here is the story.

Why wombat?

The wombat has been been my favorite animal since I was knee high of a...well....wombat! Even though I grew up in the States and have lived here all of my life (one year was spent abroad), my dad was born and raised in Australia and I also have Australian citizenship. My family has been been there for generations.

Here is a lovely wombat I am petting in Australia in 1996.

So yes, a cute, burrowing marsupial is my favorite animal. Learn more about them.

How did the racing part come in?

Roughly twelve years ago I started driving Porsches on the track. We have had several Porsches over the years as we use them for product development and testing at our business, LN Engineering. I began with a slow 1999 2.5 Boxster and all of the other cars would fly by me. But as I learned the proper techniques, I was able to catch them in the corners. I then came up with the slogan "I know I'm Slow, Get Over It" with a wombat wearing my car number 107. For these driving events, you have to wear long sleeve cotton shirt (yes, in the humid summers of Chicago) so had them made up for myself and my husband (with his number 407). Wombat Racing was born.

I'm in line for a run at AutoCross back in 2009.
This car is still known as Wombat and holds my wombat plates that I have had for 23 years.

My old logo, circa 2010.

And since then?

I haven't driven on the track for years, maybe I decided to get out while on top. Our team had won quite a few awards in 24 hours of LeMons (yes, like the fruit) and we retired winners.

That's me in the corner (that's me in the spot light....)
24 Hours of LeMons at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. We are the old beat up VW wagon.

What about the running part?

I ran my first marathon in 2008, The Chicago Marathon. I ran my first ultra, Des Plaines River Trail 50, in 2013. For those of you new to running or know nothing about it, an ultra is anything longer than a marathon (marathon = 26.2 miles = 42.195 km). As I started to run longer distances, which so far is 137.8 miles, I remembered to slow down and enjoy the journey. I knew that my Wombat Racing applied to running as well. Go slow to go fast. Huh, how? In endurance events such as marathons and ultras, you need to learn how to pace yourself. If you go out too fast, you will burn yourself out. A popular saying among ultra runners is "Start out slow and go slower".