ARCA Series driver Deborah Renshaw was done for the day, back in street clothes and ready to make good Friday on a media interview promise. Slowed by a thick orthopedic boot protecting her injured left ankle, she nixed the suggestion of sitting in the fluorescent palace known as the Daytona International Speedway media center to chat. This was the first time Renshaw had been back inside a racetrack with Bob Schacht’s team since Oct. 9 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. It was on that dark day that Renshaw was involved in a fatal racing accident. During an ARCA practice session, her car smacked into the driver’s side of Eric Martin’s stalled racing machine. Martin was killed instantly. “I didn’t want her sitting around all winter at home thinking about it,” Schacht said. “She needed to get back out there.” Friday’s test session for ARCA competitors proved to be good tonic for Renshaw, who was greeted warmly by driver after driver. Mark Gibson, Andy Belmont, Jason Jarrett and Andy Hillenburg all waded in with a hug and a smile in a blitz of oil-smudged well-wishes. These ARCA folks, along with family and friends, helped pull Renshaw from a dark mental abyss in the weeks following the horrifying tragedy. Schacht was key to Renshaw’s emotional recovery. As soon as Renshaw had the strength, Schacht loaded her into his passenger van and they toured the accident site at LMS. It was painful. Schacht, a longtime ARCA man and a racer’s racer, knew Renshaw had to let it out and come to terms with the loss-of-life incident. Renshaw is ready to wheel a race car again. It was supposed to happen Friday but a fuel spill in Turn 2 of the 2.5-mile tri-oval postponed all test laps until today. Renshaw has come to grips with the accident, which severely damaged her left leg and ankle. No matter what safety gains are made in the sport, it will always be dangerous. “I’m not ever going to get over it,” Renshaw said. “It’s something that I’ll live with the rest of my life but I’m not going to let it control me.” Even though a 2003 Busch Series deal fell apart after Martin’s death, many think Renshaw will be “the one,” the first female to truly break the male stranglehold on the sport. “Good kid,” one of those veteran drivers told me. “She’s got a lot of potential if she gets that accident behind her.” Renshaw has a solid base with her father Dan and big brother Tommy and mentor Schacht all circling constantly like watch dogs.(full story at Daytona Beach News Journal)(12-21-2002)
