Ahnna Parkhurst
Ahnna Parkhurst has been through a roller coaster ride of emotions over the past few months. On the upside, the 16-year-old has scored her first three victories as a Late Model driver and made her first Super Late Model start. But on the downside, the young lady lost her mother, Laurie Parkhurst, on June 9th of this year after a 13-year battle with breast cancer.
Despite that hardship, the Evans, GA resident has been able to maintain her focus and continue her climb through the ranks of racing. That climb resulted in a Sportsman Late Model win at Swainsboro(GA) Raceway before a Crate Late Model triumph at Rome(GA) Speedway.
Parkhurst followed those wins with a third in a $2,000-to-win Crate Late Model victory after setting fast time in qualifying at Modoc(SC) Raceway on June 25th.
“When mom started to get real sick, we all sat down and we were like ‘we’re going to win while she can enjoy it’,” Parkhurst recalled in a telephone interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “To get our first and second wins while mom was still here was awesome. A week and a couple of days after she passed away we were able to get our third in honor of her and that was great. I guess God giving us all the negativity of losing mom has led to all the success in racing. It’s been tough for sure, but everybody in the community has been awesome. It’s making us feel a little bit better.”
Parkhurst believes her team has found a winning combination that can carry them to even more success in the future.
“We’ve been good these last few months,” the driver of the No. 23 proclaimed. “We’ve hit on some speed and it’s been great to capitalize on it. That 602(Sportsman) win was the first win I had ever gotten in a Late Model. It was good to get our first win but there were just a few cars there. Then to go on and win Rome against a great field of Crate cars and then do the same thing at Modoc was awesome. The wins have been good and I’m ready for some more, hopefully even one in the Super sometime soon.”
Parkhurst made her Super Late Model debut on Monday night at Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, GA during the Ray Cook-promoted Southern Nationals. And not only did she make her debut, but she did so with a splash as she qualified second in Group A time-trials and earned a locked-in spot on the feature starting grid.
“We went and tested with that open motor twice so I felt pretty confident going in that we could get in a good lap in qualifying and get a good starting spot for the heat race,” she explained. “But to go out there and lock ourselves in was awesome. I qualified ahead of Ronnie Johnson and then Brandon Overton was the one who knocked me off the pole so to be out there competing with guys like that was great. That felt really good and everybody around us was very excited. Even the guys who we out qualified were coming up and congratulating me. That was awesome.”
Ahnna Parkhurst’s No. 23 Crate Late Model
Parkhurst accomplished her primary goals in that Southern Nationals event with an eleventh place finish in which she completed the race’s full distance.
“I attempted to start the Ray Cook race last year with the 525 motor but this was first time trying to start a race with the open motor,” Parkhurst said. “Our goals for the evening was to make the race and run all the laps. We made the race and were locked in which was something we were proud of. We went back a little bit in the race but to run every lap and have a clean car at the end of the night was something we were really happy with. I can’t wait to run some more with it.”
Parkhurst has had a relationship with Team Dillon Racing, now Shane McDowell Racing, for several years. As a result, her team will soon take possession of a Sweet-Bloomquist Chassis to match that of SMR driver Dale McDowell. Up to this point, she has driven Warrior Race Cars throughout most of her career int he sport.
“When we first get it we’re going to drop a Crate motor in it just to get used to the car,” Parkhurst said of the new chassis. “We’ll probably run about two or three races in it then start running Supers. The Warrior will turn into another Crate car and that Bloomquist car will be our Super.”
With the success she has had over the past few months, where does Parkhurst and her team plan to go next?
“I’m getting my feet wet in Asphalt Late Model racing. I’ve had two races so far and I’ll be doing that again this weekend at Hickory. The Super Late Model deal, we’ll get back into it when we can. We’ll let the asphalt deal play out this weekend then get back into dirt soon. We’ll probably run at Boyd’s whenever they run Supers and we’ll still run the Crate some too. But the goal will be for us to be in the Super most of the time by the end of the year.”
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