Sara Price takes on climate change, gender inequality in new racing series with CGR
Sara Price is no stranger to the extreme. As a national motocross champion, X Games medalist and television stunt driver, the 27-year-old’s name is already associated with a fast and furious career.
She’s not stopping there. Price was recently announced as the first driver in Extreme E, a new racing series aimed at bringing awareness to issues of gender equity and climate change. The series, launching next January, has a unique premise: Eight teams, featuring one male and one female driver, compete racing electric SUVs in extreme environments across five different locations highly impacted by climate change.
The locations include the sand bars and salt beds of Dakar on the West Coast of Africa, the desert of Saudi Arabia, the Himalayan mountain glaciers, the Arctic tundra and the Brazilian tropical rain forest.
All racing infrastructure, including teams, cars and officials, will travel to the remote locations on a giant ship, which is undergoing a refit to lower emissions. The former cargo-passenger vessel will also host an onboard “environmental laboratory” for embedded scientists to perform research for its sustainability cause.
“The whole goal is to leave the littlest carbon footprint we possibly can while still racing,” Price said of the series, in which drivers will race 550-horsepower, ODYSSEY 21 electric-SUVs.
The announcement of Price as the first driver in the series also serves a milestone for IndyCar and NASCAR team owner Chip Ganassi. Price is the first female driver competing in any series for the Chip Ganassi Racing team in its 30-year history.
Price, who is also a former Miss California USA Beauty Pageant contestant, spoke with The Observer about how the new Extreme E series will run, what it means to be a female barrier breaker in motorsports and what it will be like living with her competitors on a ship for the next year.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Andrejev: As a motocross driver, why were you interested in driving electric cars, especially for Chip Ganassi’s team?
Sara Price: I come from off-road racing, so I have no experience in NASCAR or IndyCar, so for me, this is a whole new program. Off-road is more lax you could say. We just kind of go for it in the craziest terrains. Being a part of Ganassi is a dream come true. That’s the most top-tier racing program you can come by, and the fact that they want an off-road girl like me to represent their team, especially as a first driver and a first female driver, that’s a real honor. I am ecstatic, and I can’t wait to perform for them.
AA: What do you think will be the biggest challenge or difference with the electric car?
SP: I would say the thing that’s going to be super weird for me is not hearing noise — listening to the car and listening to the videos and everything like that, all you hear is a whining and the gears. I think for a lot of drivers who are inexperienced in electric vehicles, which I’m sure will be a lot, it’s going to be getting used to the electric power. It’s instant power. You don’t hear it, so you can’t judge that noise, which that’s a big help on our motorsports side of things. So that will be something that will be new to me, but I’m looking forward to it and I adapt fast.
AA: Looking at the schedule for next year, it seems like you’ll travel to some pretty cool locations. Which ones are you most excited for?
SP: A big goal of mine before Extreme E was to go to Dakar (Senegal), and that’s where we’re starting. We’re also going to be racing on ice and in extreme desert climates. Those are actually the most exciting for me, because I come from the desert, so that’s where I feel like I’m going to be most comfortable. It’s not going to be something that’s totally new for me. I’ve raced in Africa before, so that will be something I’m kind of familiar with. The ice I look forward to because that’s something I’ve never done.
AA: There’s also an element of gender equity.
SP: Right, so another cool thing about (the series) is I’m going to have a male driver. And every other team is going to have a male and female, so it doesn’t get better than that, honestly, for creating an equal playing field.
AA: How does that dynamic work with the two drivers?
SP: That’s one of the biggest things right now. We’ve been working together — the team and I — to pick the male driver. I think it’s going to be a big advantage to be able to get along with your counterpart. We’re doing one lap and then you switch off, and then the male does a one lap or vice versa. It’s however you want to strategically place it. I don’t know if we have to switch under time before we go back out for our other lap or if we get a certain time before the other driver gets in, so you don’t have to practice driver changes, because we do that in off-road racing and that is a big key to being fast in the pits. That part is going to be really interesting.
AA: Any hints about who that other driver might be?
SP: We have a few guys we’re talking to and they’re all people I know or I look up to. The team had their list, and I had my list. I just gave them my list and they’re like, ‘Hey, there’s five people on our list that are on your list,’ so I’m sure those are the guys they’re exploring. If it’s anyone on my list, I’m more than happy with that. If not, I totally trust the team. They obviously have a track record of picking the best drivers you can possibly pick, and I’m anxious to see who they go with, too, who’s going to be my new best friend for 2021.
AA: What are the lap distances?
SP: They’re going to be 16 kilometers (about 10 miles) a lap, but I’m sure every course is going to be a little different in distance. Each of us do one lap at a time. We have to qualify. There’s eight teams and they break it down to last-chance qualifying, and then you go to your crazy race, which is more door-to-door, so it’s going to be aggressive racing I’m sure. That’ll be interesting to see how the vehicles hold up, as well as when they have to get charged. We have a paddock on the ship cruising everywhere with us and that’s where our pits are, so it’s really incredible what they’re doing and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all works out.
AA: It sounds totally crazy. Just how radical is this concept of racing?
SP: It’s so exciting. I think that this is going to be the future. Electric vehicles are going to be something that kind of starts booming in America especially, because it’s already common in European countries. There are so many different, new things that are coming to play in the series, and the fact that we have eight top teams around the world, teams that are racing Formula E, NASCAR champions, IndyCar champions like Chip Ganassi, it doesn’t get better than that, so it’s going to be top-notch drivers, top-notch teams for really cool, different causes.
AA: How big is the crew?
SP: Each team gets seven people I believe, and that’s including the drivers, so it’s going to be a very small crew. You have your male and female driver, and it’s probably gonna be four mechanics and a manager. That’s sort of what I’m feeling out. And then we all stay on the ship together, so it’s gonna be a very close-knit series. We’re all going to get to know each other very well it seems like. We’re going to have to work well as a team because we only have seven people to basically maintain this race program and this vehicle together.
AA: Wait, you’re living together?
SP: You know, it was funny because the team was like, ‘You might be sharing a room.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t care. I’m cool. l’m easygoing.’ I’m there to do my best, and I’m a good person on and off the track and I try to treat everyone equally and nicely, so I have no problem sharing a room with the competitor or whatever the case is. That will be something new for any race series, that I might be sharing a room with a competitor. And who knows? Maybe one of these females I’m sharing a room with might be one of my good friends or something, so that will be even cooler. When it comes to the track, we all know that business is business and we’re there to win. We’ll do whatever it takes to win, but off the track, we can always be friends.
AA: As someone who’s been a barrier breaker in other racing series, do you think this is going to provide more exposure for women in motorsports?
SP: A million percent. As a female in off-road, there are very few of us. I believe I’m the only one even racing a trophy truck at this moment that is a female. There might be two others, actually, but it’s hard to come by. In a field of a hundred, there’s maybe one of us, if that. I would say in a thousand, there’s probably one. So this is going to give so many females an opportunity to actually put their talent out there with the opportunity to have a team that they can drive for. A lot of them don’t ever get that chance, so this is providing an opportunity to give them that chance, and I’m very excited for it because I come from dirt bikes (and) motocross. There is a gender difference. A female will most likely never be as strong as a male physically. That is just the way of the world. But in a car, it doesn’t matter. When you put on a helmet — male, female, whatever you are — you’re a driver. And I feel like there is no difference in gender. So it’s really exciting to see all these other drivers get an opportunity to possibly show their true colors and show that they can drive really fast.
