Pit Pass: Audra Sasselli
The elementary school teacher on 30 years driving race cars and returning to dirt for the first time in 10 years
Text + Photos: Saroyan Humphrey
Spotlight | Audra Sasselli has just rolled into the packed Turkey Night Grand Prix pit area at Ventura Raceway. A veteran racer, Sasselli has been racing for over 30 years and is a popular fixture at short tracks across California, driving her number 77 pavement sprint car. She’s a regular on the USAC, King of the Wing and NCMA sprint car series and has numerous main event victories at paved short tracks across the state. But tonight she’ll be racing on dirt for the first time in over 10 years. She’s not expecting to set Ventura on fire, but it’s a new challenge for the Selma driver. And that’s just what she’s looking for.
During the week, Sasselli is a Dinuba district school teacher and lives on the family’s 40-acre raisin farm, “the compound,” as she says. Her race shop is about an eighth of a mile from her home, where she lives with her husband Chris Thornburg and daughter Gianna. Her dad, Myrel, is her crew chief and handles most of the mechanical needs and chassis setup for the sprint car. Sasselli grew up going to the local Central Valley tracks on the weekends to catch the action with her mom and dad, long-time race fans.
While waiting for the first round of practice to start at Ventura, Sasselli sat down to talk about racing on dirt again and her journey to becoming a veteran racer.
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It’s been a while since you’ve run dirt. Are you getting back to your roots?
Audra Sasselli: I’ve run dirt, but it’s been a decade. I’ve run pavement for so long, it’s going to take me a few to get re-acclimated. But I’m a seeker. It keeps you sharp.
I’ve been wanting to get back to dirt and something finally materialized. I’ve been talking to Kelly [Nichols] off and on, just friendly discussion, and then he had this extra car and then it turned into, “If you ever want to run dirt…” And then he said, “Let’s go!” That’s basically how it happened. His son Terry runs the other car. He’s out of Delano.
When you started racing, you were racing pavement karts. How old were you?
Sasselli: Eight. It was early ’80s [laughs]. I ran the four-stroke go-karts all over California and that turned into running two or three classes at those IKF [International Kart Federation] shows. By the time I was about 20, I switched to dirt and ran the 600 [micro sprints] at Plaza Park and Lemoore.
Eric Humphries and Audra Sasselli battle at Madera Speedway, 2014.
That turned into Ford Focus [midgets]. At the time, Focus was a dirt and pavement combo series. That was really perfect for me. It was like 30-some shows per year. It was crazy. I was actually getting a lot of attention because I started winning and I had a friend back east, named Charlie Patterson, and he was trying to get me into Indy and different things.
Things were happening and then I got into a bad traffic accident. It was bad. Someone blew a stop sign, hit me and rolled my [Jeep] Wrangler. I was pinned upside down. It was very dramatic. That was in ’06 and it took a year to recover. Oddly enough, I didn’t break anything. The doctors joked, “We’re not messing with her.” [laughs]
But I had a lot of head trauma. So, memory loss. I had to relearn things. What I do remember is being in the ambulance and bossing them around. But I don’t remember other parts.
So, having to recover from that and then the market crashed [in 2007] and all the money that people were ready to put stuff together for me was not going to happen. So, my dad and I decided we’d go sprint car racing and get off the dirt. I was getting a lot of migraines. So, with the money that we would have spent trying to make it [in Indy Car racing] and renting rides, we just went USAC non-wing sprint car racing.
Did it take a while to get acclimated to racing again after the accident?
Sasselli: No. In the race car, I felt the best. On the street, I still have PTSD. I don’t like to ride with people; I’m a nervous wreck. I’m a horrible passenger. [laughs] As soon as I’m in the race car, I’m perfectly fine.
How did your family get involved in racing initially?
Sasselli: My dad raced go-karts and once in a while he’d run a micro. But he was more on the mechanical side, kind of in that hot rod, ’60s-era scene and crewed sometimes on the Triguero Brothers supermodified.
As a kid, I remember traveling, following the supers everywhere. We would follow dirt racing. So, you know, it was Hanford on Friday night, Madera on Saturday night. They were big super fans. Looking back, it was a great life. Then we started racing go-karts and that took a chunk of our viewing time.
Audra back on dirt at Ventura Raceway during the Turkey Night Grand Prix, 2019.
You raced karts until you were 20. That’s a long time.
Sasselli: Yeah. At the time, that’s what you did. Now, it’s like, “Oh gosh, you got to get out of go-karts by the time you’re 10 and race a sprint car.” It’s kind of maddening. But back in the ’80s, I didn’t have any idea that going on was possible. I just liked racing.
But when I was an adult, people started saying, “Hey, you need to meet this person,” and then I got a ride and then you start thinking, “Huh, this is an interesting situation…”
But when I was young and just running go-karts, it was just fun to win! I was a normal kid. I think it’s so different now the way they streamline kids. They pick out what they are going to do and they kind of have that path. I think it was more of an organic upbringing [for me]. I’m an only child. They didn’t say that I had to do anything.
My dad was racing, and the only reason I started that first go-kart race was because there weren’t enough people in his rookie class. I was 8 and I got second and I thought, “Let’s do that again.”
I think it’s great to have goals. But I also knew I wanted to have a backup plan, which was teaching. I went to college, got my degree, got a master’s, all while I was in that crazy Focus class, racing all those weekends [laughs].
And you were doing well, getting good results in the Focus series.
Sasselli: Yeah, I ran second and I was hard charger; I almost won that championship in ’03 or ’04, I think. I was driving for David Zoriki; he was a car owner who saw me at Stockton 99 and it materialized into a full deal—pavement, dirt—and we about won that championship. It was a lot of fun and then my accident happened. And we went pavement non-wing sprint car racing.
The Sasselli Racing Team at Madera Speedway, 2014 (left to right): Myrel (dad), Audra, Gianna, Donna (mom), Chris Thornburg (husband) and longtime school friend, Bronwen King.
It seems like your family has always been directly involved with your racing.
Sasselli: Yep, my dad has always crew chiefed. It’s nice. When he works on the car, he’s going to make sure the safety is there. I feel good when he does the once-over on the car. We’ve always had good communication. I come in, tell him what I want. He’ll say, “That’s what I saw, too.”
Does your dad still hot rod?
Sasselli: Yeah, he just sold his ’69 GTX. He has his first car, which was a ’64 El Camino and it’s beautiful. It’s perfect. It has some hellacious motor in it. It sounds like a sprint car when you drive it. I think he’s saving that for me. [laughs] He better!
He’s built motors for folks off and on, too.
He’s stayed up on sprint car technology over the years.
Sasselli: Yeah, and I think we like to learn on our own. If we mess up, it’s on us. But we’ve also always prided ourselves on, “Hey, let’s just go and figure this out.” We’ve never hired anybody.
Scott Losorwith builds my sprint car motors, but chassis-wise we’ve always tried doing it ourselves. When it works, it’s satisfying.
Tell me about your season this year.
Sasselli: I didn’t race as much as I usually do. We switched to winged sprint cars. I prefer non-wing but everyone’s gone to winged. So, monkey see monkey do, right? We ran Stockton 99; I won that race. It’s always good to win. We ran an open-comp show at Madera Speedway. It was kind of exciting. I’d never run with supermodifieds and we were quick time. We won the heat and then we just blew the set up in the main. It just pushed bad. So, that was kind of a bummer. I really thought I was going to beat those supers. [laughs]
And then when the King of the Wing guys came out, of course, we tagged in with them. I ran third at Kern, with an overheated motor. I don’t know if I could’ve run second but … and then fourth at Irwindale.
Kern is such a big, fast track.
Sasselli: It is. You run and you don’t let off; you flatfoot it there. It’s exciting. So, the main is 40 laps and when I finally got sorted in clean air and I could see my gauges, the car was so hot I had to start lifting, or I wasn’t going to make it. I really don’t know how it made it, honestly, in the last 20 laps. But I would just really lift and get a big gulp of air going into one and going into three. So, I know I gave up spots, but I needed the motor to make it to the next day. I went a couple of laps, really, just debating, “Should I pull it in?”
I wasn’t seeing any water, but all these things are going through my head and I thought, “I’m going to stick it out until I really smell water and really see it but we made it. It ran fine at Irwindale but if I hadn’t have looked down, it wouldn’t’ve made it. I watched the gauges more than I watched the track during those last 20 laps.
Gianna and mom in the pits at Ventura Raceway, 2019.
Do you like racing Kern and those faster racetracks?
Sasselli: I do. I think it’s so exhilarating. We’re so used to and bred on the short tracks that when you finally get a sprint car on a big track, it’s just like, finally. Even when we raced non wing, it’s so fun. You can leave your foot in it for more than half a second.
I enjoy the big tracks. A lot of times, it really shows you what you’re made of, you know. I think that’s neat. I always preferred a circuit, like back in my USAC touring days. I love hitting a new track every couple of weeks. It keeps you sharp, fresh. It’s fun.
What are your plans for the coming year?
Sasselli: I really enjoy driving the sprint car. I see myself as a pavement sprint car driver, not necessarily winged, but just in general. But you may see me around the dirt tracks a little more. I’m just going to try to get back into it. I think that’s the nice thing about being 43, I don’t put any pressure on myself anymore. When I was 25, it felt different. I’m just back to learn again. I don’t think it will take too long, but you never know.
It will be chaotic. It’s like we always say, “The circus is in town and here I am.” [laughs]
I know it’s always been important for you to have your daughter Gianna with you in victory lane and podium photos. Tell me about why that’s been important to you.
Sasselli: Yes. Well, we waited a long time to have her. I was almost 35 and I feel like, it was such a great age. We were settled and older. I just wanted to take her everywhere. So, we went right back to racing—like five weeks later—I ran a 100-lapper at Madera.
“So, they brought Gianna out and I’m holding her and it’s like what you always see with the guys and their little kids. So, I thought, ‘Well, this is really cool,’ and I actually had her.”
I can remember telling my dad, “I don’t know how long I’m going to last,” and, you know, by lap 80, I’m running second. So, of course, I feel great. So, I ended up second and on the podium. So, they brought her out and I’m holding her and it’s like what you always see with the guys and their little kids. So, I thought, “Well, this is really cool,” and I actually had her.
So, anytime I was on the podium, I said, “Let’s just bring her out.” She’ll eventually start remembering and at one point, I thought, “I’m just going to race long enough so that she has the memory of this and really see what girls are capable of,” not that she needs to race, but to be confident.
At the time, we were non-wing and we were winning a lot and she was always out there and it was cute because I could hear the crowd, “Ooohh!” I loved it. And, in the pictures, you can literally see her growing up. Now she looks at ’em and she gets a kick out of it and how teeny she was. She’s 8 now.
It’s really special for me to take her everywhere and I make a point of it. That’s kind of my breaking point. If I can’t get her in the pits, well, I probably can’t run there. It’s a family sport and I have to have her there.
Is Gianna driving anything yet?
Sasselli: She raced this year. She’s practiced out on the farm for years. You could visually see that she has the ability, but she just didn’t want to. But this year was the first time that she raced. We had a great friend named Marty Reitz [who passed away in September] who always wanted to sponsor her. He was the nephew of Vernon Reitz, who owned the ‘Spirit of Madera‘ supermodified.
So, she went out and won that first race and made this crazy outside pass, never lifted. She pulls in and she’s looking at me, like, “I don’t know what the big deal is. This is easy.”
This was at Hanford. There’s a little go-kart track on the side of Kings Speedway. So, she’s two for three. It was a beginners flat kart. It looks like a Mario kart with a Harbor Freight type of motor. It was exciting.
Is she going to keep racing?
Sasselli: It’s kinda up to her. I’d like to get her in something with a frame around her. I wouldn’t mind putting her in a junior sprint, or going to pavement.
You must be really popular as a fifth grade teacher. Do your students know you as the race car driver?
Sasselli: Well, it’s interesting, I’ve taught third, fourth and fifth and now I run the GATE Program [Gifted and Talented Education] for the district, and so I have like 200 students and none of them really know about racing. This last year was the first time that I had a kid describe this thing that he saw. He said, “Oh, you like racing, Mrs. Thornburg?” That’s my married name.
And I said, “Well, yeah.” I kinda don’t talk about it a lot. So, he starts describing this girl that wins at Madera Speedway. I start chuckling to myself and I said, “She does?” And he goes on and on and on. I didn’t say anything but one of my older students knew that it was me and he says, “That’s Mrs. Thornburg!” And he wouldn’t believe it and we had to show him a picture.
Do you ever use racing as a teaching tool?
Sasselli: I used to, depending on the grade level. Like with measuring, I’ve taken tires in and we’ve done some stagger. I’ve shown them old pictures of me running the Tulsa Shootout in the 600. It had the wing, so we’d talk about the aerodynamics and downforce and different pieces of it.
Last year I had a couple of teachers ask me to be a guest speaker. So, I’ve done that. The kids always like it.
During the racing season, is it hard to switch gears on Monday morning?
Sasselli: Sometimes, but I’m used to it. You just don’t have a choice when you have kids and you’re multitasking with all of the students. It’s like racing; you don’t have time to think about anything else.
“I start chuckling to myself and I said, “She does?” And he goes on and on and on.”
So, now that I’m leading the GATE students, I help them with competitions, which is really my wheelhouse. I teach kids how to be gracious winners and losers and how to prep. I do a lot of history day and science competitions. It’s a lot of fun. The kids keep me very busy.
Your mom was also a teacher; she must’ve been an inspiration for you.
Sasselli: Yeah, she taught fourth. She’s been retired some 20 years now. They never told me what to do, but you have to do something to pay your bills.
What has been your biggest success in racing, personally?
Sasselli: I don’t know. Everybody is going to say winning, right? Winning is nice but I would say, the fact that I’m still doing it. Just persevering. It’s a hard sport. It’s grueling. It’s fun, but it’s tough. A lot of the people that I started with, they don’t race anymore but I’m still here. You see the top guys out here: I can remember them when they were junior sprinters. So I think, still being able to compete with people half my age and having come through a lot of adversity. That’s my biggest success.
Do you see yourself racing for a while?
Sasselli: I think so. It’s funny, when you’re in your 20s, you’re thinking, “Who are those people in their 40s racing?” Well, it’s me, now.
I think when I feel like I can’t hang with the front pack, I’m either going to switch to a class where I can, or that’ll be enough. But I feel like I still have some left in the tank. So, we’ll see.
Pavement is much nicer but it’s precision and dirt is kind of an art. I feel like once I get back into it, it might be an easier fit. We’ll see if I’m up to it, or not. I like a challenge.
Keep up with Audra:
f: @audra.thornburg