We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Afdahl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.

Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Being a female in the Motorsports world is no easy task and the ones who say it is, aren’t telling the full truth. Then again it’s entirely dependent on which avenue of the Motorsports world you are in because each route has its own difficulties. As a female in a very male dominated industry you will always face being mischaracterized. That if you are a girl, “you can’t do it.” When I started racing at 17 I found myself often being misjudged and misunderstood for trying to chase a dream in racing. I was often pointed out and made fun of by other men I raced with because my dream was a route for other men like them not a route for a young girl. Until this day, I use there hatefulness as fuel for my fire of continuing to chase my dream of racing because proving them wrong is too good of an adrenaline rush.

Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up around racing but didn’t have the opportunity to race myself until I was 17 years old. At a young age I knew racing was what I wanted to pursue but didn’t have the financial backing to make it happen. Racing is VERY expensive and anyone who races or is around racing knows that. My dad always supported my dream to race emotionally but always told me he couldn’t afford to help me financially. Taking care of a family of 5 I never blamed him for it because I knew that was a financial weight in itself. Long story short, I did YouTube for a few years as a beauty guru to try to raise money since I wasn’t quite old enough to work at the time and was only 14. After a few years I actually got into doing videography and photography full time and ran my own business. I was conditioned to believe that racing wouldn’t happen because I grew too old even though I was only 17 because of what I believed the industry standard was. Nowadays kids start racing as soon as they can walk. I knew I wanted to race though so I put my head down and tried to figure out how to make it happen. I actually ended up getting into creating documentaries for racers and made one for a female racer that actually was the main inspiration for my fuel to race as I watched her race at 8 years old. Loved how she was the only female but yet still wheeling in a full field of men each race. Basically we became friends when I got older and she introduced me to dirt kart racing when I filmed her documentary. Saved up everything I had and purchased my first kart for $500. I raced in a local dirt karting class for a few years called the sealed 212, in Arizona. I quickly became aware of the expenses of racing just in karting itself and learned the game of marketing. I knew I was a first generation racer in my bloodline and so I knew I had to rely heavily on funding from sponsorship. I put my head down, worked hard and was able to fully fund my racing program in karting after just my first year in the industry from sponsorships. The next level up was micros and my dream class to wheel next. I knew my couple thousand dollar budget for karting would gain zeros and commas if I wanted to move up. To get into micros you are easily talking $20k on average. I had a deal to be a driver for a new team and was just about to sign contracts when the guy flaked and decided not to get into micros anymore. It felt like my world crushed. Everything I worked so hard for and dreamed of, gone. Then life happened a year or so later and the guy who actually ran the karting class at the time, Tony Morris, unfortunately lost his wife and son in a car accident from a drunk driver. His son ran micro sprints and Tony wanted to carry on his legacy by driving his car in his sons honor. Months and months went on and I helped Tony with the micro since I’ve known him for many years. He knew how bad I wanted to race micro sprints but knew I didn’t have the financial means to move up. He purchased a micro for me to drive as his teammate that year. Now it was no top of the line Micro but he wanted me to prove I wanted to actually race so I had to work my tail feather off on proving that. No power steering but a heart full of passion. Then the following year he did upgrade my car and we’ve been racing together ever since. Its truly a dream come true. I have many sponsorships that help fuel my racing but he is a big part in why I can keep racing and i forever will be grateful for that.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I knew social media would be a huge asset to my racing program so I quickly had to learn how it all worked. I’d say the main reason I grew a so called presence online was because I always stayed true to myself. I never faked my life on and off the track. The good and bad, I always shared how the races went. As far as advice goes, just be you. People love seeing authentic people they can relate to.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Racing is tough and being a female in racing is even tougher. When I kart raced I had a lot of other male racers help me in the beginning but as soon as I became a competitor, I was quickly hated. I had multiple instances of men getting upset I finished in front of them because girls shouldn’t race so they would threaten me or take me out of the race any chance they could. I truly think that helped build my strong mentality in racing to be able to let there negativity be my fuel to keep going. When they would tell me I wouldn’t make it past karting, I’d say watch me. Now look where I’m at! Racing micro sprints in Oklahoma against some of the biggest named drivers in the country each week.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.ashleyafdahl.com
• Instagram: Ashleyafdahl
• Facebook: Ashley Afdahl Racing
• Youtube: Ashley Afdahl
• Other: Tik Tok: @AshleyAfdahl

Image Credits
Mav Miller Media Alex Afdahl Christopher Silva Maxwell Patrick Imagery