Behind The Wheel - #25 - Wendy White
Stay at home mom by day, and terrorizer of the Houston streets by night, meet Wendy White. Wendy grew up in Mississippi and at 25, she packed up and moved to Texas with her now-husband, Justin. She and her husband own a performance shop that specializes in GM LS/LT cars and she spends her days running the business, picking up and ordering parts, and also considering herself a stay at home mom. She didn’t start competitively racing until she was 25, and now has found herself getting faster and faster in her 8-second pink Cadillac CTS-V.
Wendy started racing as a late teenager when her friends threw her in a truck and told her, “you're gonna go race it!”. She told me about her introduction to racing, “My whole life has been surrounded by cars, and me learning to drive down the track was just throwing me in and letting me do it”. From then, Wendy found herself competitively racing her first CTS-V, which was modified with only an upper pulley, injectors, and E-85 at the time and ran a 10.6, her first time down the track in it. After that it ended up making 1000hp and was taken on a road trip across the west coast and was totaled on the way back.
She is currently the owner of a 2009 CTS-V which she holds the record for the quickest and fastest female driven CTS-V! Her Cadillac has a 376 cubic-inch engine, 4DHP twin turbo kit with Comp 64/67’s, a custom camshaft, BTR Equalizer intake, JWT level 4 6L90, ported LSA heads, and of course is Justin White tuned alongside plenty of other goodies. Wendy has slowly turned the car up, it dyno’d at 1420hp, and she has ran her best pass of 8.59 @ 163mph. But don't let this 1400horsepower car fool you, Wendy takes pride in her CTS-V being a daily-driveable street-car.
The next biggest project she is going to take on is her new-to-her Escalade. She previously owned a turbo Suburban and sold it, and decided she wanted to turbo an Escalade, so that is next on her list. She also has goals in mind of what's next for her and her car. She hopes that eventually after her husband runs a 7-second pass in his car, she can follow behind him and make a 7-second pass in both her car and his. “He really enjoys watching me race, so I’ll be attempting a 7 in his car too!”, she told me.
A woman that inspires her, is Erica Enders, she told me. But aside that, she explained that she didn't really have role models, “I didn't grow up wanting to race cars. It just kind-of happened. So I never was able to say ‘I want to be just like them!’ I just got thrown into racing and enjoy it”. Her support system both on and off the track is her husband Justin, and her 3-year-old Fallon. She told me about her daughter, “Justin will try to take a video and you'll hear her in the background cheering me on. She goes to all of the races, cleans cars, and works on the cars with us”.
Wendy told me about why she decided to jump into the Women & Wheels class in Tulsa, “I just saw how much fun everyone was having with the class, and I wanted to support women racing. We were already going to the event, so it didn't make sense not to bring the car and compete”. Her favorite memory that she can reflect on is hanging out in the pits with friends. “I enjoyed seeing everything everyone else put into their own car. I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time or how to build a car. I can do basic mechanic work, but I liked seeing other women who work on their cars, and meeting people I’ve spoken to on the internet plenty of times and now here we are getting to race together”, she said.
As always, I asked her what kind of mark she thinks Women & Wheels is making for women in this industry. “I think it has made it a lot easier to go the track and feel comfortable. Sometimes when you're racing around men, they don’t want to talk to you, and that doesn't happen at Women & Wheels races”, she said. Her biggest piece of advice would be, “Just be confident and go out there and try it. You’ll never know how much you’ll love it until you try. The worst experiences are things you don’t try. Don’t be scared to do something just because other people are watching. Try your best and do it for yourself”.
Wendy is an excellent role model who goes to show that there are things out there that you can try, that you might end up falling in love doing and surrounding your whole life with!
You can find her on IG @ twinturbowen.
Wendy started racing as a late teenager when her friends threw her in a truck and told her, “you're gonna go race it!”. She told me about her introduction to racing, “My whole life has been surrounded by cars, and me learning to drive down the track was just throwing me in and letting me do it”. From then, Wendy found herself competitively racing her first CTS-V, which was modified with only an upper pulley, injectors, and E-85 at the time and ran a 10.6, her first time down the track in it. After that it ended up making 1000hp and was taken on a road trip across the west coast and was totaled on the way back.
She is currently the owner of a 2009 CTS-V which she holds the record for the quickest and fastest female driven CTS-V! Her Cadillac has a 376 cubic-inch engine, 4DHP twin turbo kit with Comp 64/67’s, a custom camshaft, BTR Equalizer intake, JWT level 4 6L90, ported LSA heads, and of course is Justin White tuned alongside plenty of other goodies. Wendy has slowly turned the car up, it dyno’d at 1420hp, and she has ran her best pass of 8.59 @ 163mph. But don't let this 1400horsepower car fool you, Wendy takes pride in her CTS-V being a daily-driveable street-car.
The next biggest project she is going to take on is her new-to-her Escalade. She previously owned a turbo Suburban and sold it, and decided she wanted to turbo an Escalade, so that is next on her list. She also has goals in mind of what's next for her and her car. She hopes that eventually after her husband runs a 7-second pass in his car, she can follow behind him and make a 7-second pass in both her car and his. “He really enjoys watching me race, so I’ll be attempting a 7 in his car too!”, she told me.
A woman that inspires her, is Erica Enders, she told me. But aside that, she explained that she didn't really have role models, “I didn't grow up wanting to race cars. It just kind-of happened. So I never was able to say ‘I want to be just like them!’ I just got thrown into racing and enjoy it”. Her support system both on and off the track is her husband Justin, and her 3-year-old Fallon. She told me about her daughter, “Justin will try to take a video and you'll hear her in the background cheering me on. She goes to all of the races, cleans cars, and works on the cars with us”.
Wendy told me about why she decided to jump into the Women & Wheels class in Tulsa, “I just saw how much fun everyone was having with the class, and I wanted to support women racing. We were already going to the event, so it didn't make sense not to bring the car and compete”. Her favorite memory that she can reflect on is hanging out in the pits with friends. “I enjoyed seeing everything everyone else put into their own car. I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time or how to build a car. I can do basic mechanic work, but I liked seeing other women who work on their cars, and meeting people I’ve spoken to on the internet plenty of times and now here we are getting to race together”, she said.
As always, I asked her what kind of mark she thinks Women & Wheels is making for women in this industry. “I think it has made it a lot easier to go the track and feel comfortable. Sometimes when you're racing around men, they don’t want to talk to you, and that doesn't happen at Women & Wheels races”, she said. Her biggest piece of advice would be, “Just be confident and go out there and try it. You’ll never know how much you’ll love it until you try. The worst experiences are things you don’t try. Don’t be scared to do something just because other people are watching. Try your best and do it for yourself”.
Wendy is an excellent role model who goes to show that there are things out there that you can try, that you might end up falling in love doing and surrounding your whole life with!
You can find her on IG @ twinturbowen.