By Staff
Moore prefers racing street-circuit events
By GREG KATSKI
Staff Writer
Danica Patrick, move aside. Force girls, look out. There’s a new girl burning up the asphalt.
Lakeisha Moore might not have the national exposure of Formula-1 racer Patrick, or a hit television show like funny-car drag racers Ashley, Brittany and Courtney Force, but she has enough experience to have an effect on the drag-racing street circuit for years to come.
Moore, a Washington resident, has been racing competitively since she was 8 years old. Moore, now 28, got her love of fast cars from her father, J.C. Nicholson.
Moore spent extensive time as a child in her father’s body shop, where he fixed up go-carts for her to race.
Moore grew tired of go-cart racing, desiring the adrenaline rush that drag-racing provided.
So, Moore bided her time on the local go-cart circuit until she was old enough to handle a muscle car.
Moore said she was a natural at drag-racing from the first time she started her Buick Regal 350.
Moore trained in the back country of Bear Grass until she was 15 years old, at which time she started racing competitively.
Moore has always held the small track in Bridgeton in high-esteem.
One reason she prefers New Bern Motorsports is because the dragway has always supported her, and she wants to reciprocate that support.
National Hot Road Association competition features more than 200 classes of vehicles, grouped into 12 categories, or eliminators, each strictly governed by NHRA rulemakers, according to the NHRA’s official Web site. Top fuel, funny car, pro stock and pro stock motorcycle are the four professional classes of NHRA competition, but Moore has always ran in street-class competitions.
Although street-class competitions don’t provide the same payoff as professional-class competitions, Moore insists she didn’t start racing for the glory or money.
Moore believes she could have been racing professionally by this time in her racing career, but she always viewed the competitions as more of a hobby than a job.
Moore preferred Chevrolet when she first started street-class racing, but a chance encounter with her future husband, Brandon Moore, converted her to Ford.
The two, who share the same passion for drag-racing, were married and started a Mustang club. The couple have run L and B Racing for four years.
As part of the racing code, Moore does not divulge any information about her current car, but she acknowledges it is barely street legal.
Moore honed her skills in the body shop and on the drag strip with help from her father and Jack Starkey, owner of Jack’s Body Shop. Starkey recently gave Moore’s Mustang a paint job.
With the drag-racing season approaching, Moore is excited to get on the strip but cautions that conditions have to be perfect to race.
Moore was involved in an accident on the track once. Bad weather did not cause that accident.
Moore is used to being the only female driver at street-class drag-racing competitions. She believes success has to do with ability more than gender.
Moore, an assistant office manager at Hazardous Environmental Supplies, loves her job, hobby and horsepower.