Collete Davis
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE
Collete Davis is founder/CEO and racing driver at Collete Davis Racing, LLC. Starting college at fifteen, and, after receiving a scholarship from the National Science Foundation to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for Mechanical Engineering at sixteen, she quickly became a national STEM ambassador for young girls and women. She won her first championship in racing at fifteen and made her pro debut in motorsports alongside the IndyCar Series at eighteen. She's set a track record in Florida, represented Team USA on an international racing platform for F1 development, and was one of the first drivers in the world to test Ford's new Formula EcoBoost200 race car at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK. She was also part of the inaugural class at Draper University's entrepreneurial program.
As a military brat, my life has seen constant moving and changing, but one thing has always been there for me: racing. From taking apart lawn mower engines as early as age eleven, to winning a championship title my first year of kart racing, I was blessed to discover my life's passion early-and have since been designing my entire life around becoming one of the best drivers in the world.
Lots of kids get into racing go-karts shortly after they learn to walk, often because the sport runs in the family and the financial support is there to back them. My story is quite different-I started at age fourteen and my passion for racing was completely organic; no one in my family had been in the sport, had connections, or even watched racing for that matter. At first, this was my biggest challenge. As an outsider looking in, I had to work my way into the industry by brute force, make connections from nothing, establish my presence, and learn a whole lot about the business of the sport to pilot myself through the early stages of my career. I let being the "underdog" fuel my drive, and I hustled every day.
I knew what I wanted to do in life and did everything I could to excel in school so I could graduate early and pursue my dreams. I had already skipped sixth grade, so at fifteen I was a junior at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado. I was taking classes not only at my school but also at a local college campus (where I became president of my automotive class) as well as online. For my school allowing me to do this, I am endlessly grateful-if not for my school counselor, Cathy Matthynssens, who helped me convince the dean to allow me to take such a ridiculous workload, I don't know where I'd be today. By the end of my junior year I had enough credits to graduate two years early, as well as sixteen college credits.
People often ask what motivated me to work so hard that early, and the best answer I have is that I was, and am, hungry. I've always been hungry. Hungry to succeed.
Racing captivated me. From the first moment I sat in a go-kart I knew I wanted to be a professional driver and compete against the best in the world. Growing up, I was ultracompetitive and played just about every sport from basketball to cheerleading ... but racing was something different altogether-it spoke to my core. Racing is about pushing yourself, improving on every minute detail. It's engineering. It's about becoming a master of real-time physics and learning, and working, and growing with a team to collectively become the best within the pack. And all that aside, it's the single biggest adrenaline rush on earth. I have yet to fire up a race-car engine without wearing a devious grin.
When you find something that ignites that fire within you ... you must chase it.
After graduating high school, I received a scholarship from the National Science Foundation to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for Mechanical Engineering at sixteen. That scholarship represents another constant force in my life-the help of others. Were it not for a number of positive influences in my life, I know I would not be where I am today, and the funny thing about those who help you along the way is that they have usually been assisted as well along their own journey. Thus, I learned the importance of giving back, and vowed to use my unique experiences as a racing driver to promote STEM education for today's youth (especially young women), in hopes of captivating and inspiring other youngsters early on. I even became Embry-Riddle's youngest national STEM ambassador in history and, through that role, was able to inspire hundreds of middle school girls to potentially pursue STEM-related careers. I was also able to create a hands-on education program for the university, bringing students to the racetrack to help apply our STEM studies in the real world. During my time as their ambassador, I spoke to hundreds of middle school girls across Florida and was shocked to find that all they needed was someone to tell them that they can. They can be smart. They can be interested in math and science. They can be successful in motorsports, in engineering, in coding. I literally had girls come up to me after many of my talks saying how they just didn't know they could do that, too, alongside the guys. They didn't know it was "normal." As ridiculous as that may seem, that is the cliché that still exists in America during those crucial moments in a kid's life where they are shaped as individuals. They just need someone to show them that girls can, and more importantly, girls are. After some of my talks, I even had girls e-mail me asking me questions about cars, or telling me that they went home and starting working on cars with their parents and continued excelling in math and science. After realizing how big of an impact I could have, I knew I needed to do whatever I could to continue to inspire others and make a change.
My dedication in promoting STEM, enriching the education experience, and being a pioneer for the university led to me to land my first corporate sponsor ... Embry-Riddle! With their partnership, I went on to win every race that year, set a track record, speak at multiple events across Florida, and continue my engineering studies as a full-time student.
Fast-forward to today (and at the ripe old age of nineteen), I find myself a woman in a male-dominated sport. I have progressed through racing in Formula 500, Formula 2000, Formula Atlantic, Grand-Am Rx-8, Panam GP Series, and Pro Challenge Mustang. I have a track record of success, winning races in many different types of cars, making my pro debut in the USF2000 National Championship Series (a development series for IndyCar) in 2012 where I got two top-ten finishes (placing sixth and ninth) in a field of thirty-six drivers, and was the highest-running female in the history of the series at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. I was later selected as one of two drivers to represent Team USA on an international F1 development platform, and had the opportunity to be one of the first drivers in the world to test Ford's new open-wheel race car at the famous Silverstone Circuit in the UK. Racing success generally comes with lots of practice in the specific car type (which equates to needing a lot of financial backing just to practice) and having the support of a teammate-of which I had neither.
There will always be bumps in the road as you start chasing your dreams. My "bumps" were that my sport of choice is a very expensive one, and not only did I not come from a wealthy background (which is often the case), but I also didn't know anyone when I started. All that aside, I kept pushing. I accepted the fact that many things were against me, but I kept pushing. Tenacity, dedication, and persistence are what I've held on to over the years, and it's what's needed to chase success.
I was forced to become very entrepreneurial early on if I wanted to pursue my passion of racing for the rest of my life. I've also had to adapt and evolve as a person. Becoming a professional racing driver involves most aspects of starting a business and crafting a brand. I've had to learn a variety of skills, from coding websites and editing videos to managing social media channels, creating pitch decks, raising money, planning events and executing promotions, convincing corporate decision-makers, and building business partnerships.
Because of all these challenges, I realized I needed to do something much bigger to set my career up for long-term success.
In September 2012 I met with Tim Draper, one of the most famous venture capitalists on the planet, about his revolutionary vision for a new kind of university. A few months later, I received a scholarship (again, the help of others at work) and was accepted into the inaugural class of the Draper University of Heroes entrepreneur program, where I absorbed everything that was thrown at me, and I mean everything-complex business planning and development, advice from hugely successful entrepreneurs, wilderness survival, first experience driving an electric car, and even my first big pitch to a panel of some of the most prominent Silicon Valley VCs. It was here where I learned how to transform my racing career and brand into a high-growth business opportunity.
Having essentially bootstrapped everything to date, I'm racing toward that critical tipping point when I can finally stop fighting for entry fees and track time and proudly start racing for one of the top teams in the world-and I'm close.
If you couldn't tell by now, I'm on a mission to thoroughly disrupt the motorsports industry, make history, and inspire millions of young girls along the way to chase after what they want in life. This is just the beginning.
Copyright © 2015 by Stacey Ferreira and Jared Kleinert
