From Horses to Horsepower

Sarah Cattaneo grew up with a love of horsepower, it was something she got from both her father and her mother. The only thing was she started competing on the fourlegged version. Let’s rewind to Sarah’s early years in Phoenix, AZ. “My Dad raced in SCCA when I was a baby, so being around the racetrack was natural for me! I can’t even remember what type of car he raced as I was only two or three and he stopped racing shortly after my younger sister was born. The love of racing was something that stayed with me. My mom however, loved and rode horses. When I was about three or four years old, my parents took my to a petting zoo where they had pony rides. I cried every time they tried to take me off the pony, and that was the start of my love affair with horses! So, when I was old enough my mom signed me up for riding lessons which happened around the age of five.” By the time she was eight, Sarah’s competitive juices were coming to the fore and she started competitively show jumping and was Nationally ranked by age eleven. Sarah went on, “That is when it got really serious. When I was fourteen I moved over to California to train with a United States Equestrian Team rider and the following year I qualified for the U.S. Junior Olympic team. Unfortunately I never got the chance to go to the Olympics as my horse got hurt prior to the event. I did get to go to Rome, Italy to compete once so that was sort of neat.” By the time her equestrian career was over Sarah was a five time U.S. Equestrian Federation medal winner and had won over one hundred championships. Now it was time to move up from one horsepower!

“I had always been into cars and would go to car shows with my dad whenever I wasn’t riding horses. In 2006 I was driving a BMW 330i on the road and decided the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving looked like fun. I took the four-day class, where I got to drive a C5 Corvette and after that the rest is history, I was hooked. My instructor at Bondurant, Danny Bullock would go on to

be my driving coach. He definitely has played a huge part in where I am today. Being my first coach he taught me all the fundamentals of driving. I had never been on a track prior, so he definitely had his hands full. He worked with me to get me faster and become a better driver. Having a coach who believes in you is very important to your success, I can’t thank Danny enough.” It was then time to go racing seriously and Sarah and her father took all of 2006 to find a car and check out the local race scene. We had decided to get a Mini. “When I got the MINI it was still street legal, it was not really track prepared. I just drove it to the track, changed tires, drove all day and then drove it home.” In 2007, Cattaneo stated racing in the NASA PTC class where she became the NASA Arizona regional PTC champion in both 2007 and 2008, she was also selected as Sportsman of the Year in 2007. During the time she was racing in the Phoenix area she became friends with a local businessman called Randy Smalley. Smalley also had a MINI and was racing locally like Cattaneo, but had bigger plans in the works. In 2007 Smalley and RSR Motorsports took the MINI to Grand-Am racing to perform on at a National level. When it was again time to move up the motorsport ladder

Sarah decided that Grand-Am was to be the new arena and Randy Smalley would be the guy to talk to. So in 2009 the girl who grew up racing horses moved to racing MINIs in the BIG SHOW. That move proved to be the right one and by 2011 Cattaneo had honed her skills even further, ably showing how competent she was behind the wheel of a RSR MINI. When asked about her best memories in Grand-Am so far, she said, “Well podiums are always a good memory! I would have to say my best moment up to the start of this year with the team was at Miller in 2010. It was the season ender and we finished second, Everyone was super excited and it was a great way to end the season. However, winning at New Jersey in 2011 was so amazing,

I was so excited that I was speechless! Which never happens! The team has worked so hard all year and it feels great to give them a win.” Team owner Randy Smalley had this to say, “This hasn’t been an easy year, both personally for me and for us as a team. We’ve had success, certainly, but there have been a lot of setbacks, from Owen getting taken out at Lime Rock to a new rule that restricts our RPM limit. So to get a win after all of that was very gratifying, and just proves what an incredibly talented and dedicated team we have. Sarah deserved to get a win, and I’m glad we could finally make it happen for her. She and Owen have been very competitive all year, and a win for them was overdue.” Going into the final event at Mid-Ohio, Cattaneo has the chance to become Grand-Ams first ever female champion. Their rivals are only six and nine points ahead respectively but the duo are under no illusions about their chances. “We will do the best we can!” And Sarah that’s all anyone expects! So what of the future, “I would like to move up to the Rolex Series or even over to ALMS. But really it does not matter, just racing in general! I want to make this my life!” Well, Sarah congratulations on your successes so far and I am sure there are many more to come.