(C)Debbie Jo Zardo

Each season as part of their efforts to promote females in the motorsports, Ladies of the Oval offers a sponsorship to help support the efforts of a select number of girls across the province of Ontario. With a couple Mini Truck Championships under her belt, Kaisha Zimoch was one of the three recipients for the 2023 season.

As she prepares for the upcoming year of racing, she spent some time with SHORT TRACK MUSINGS to share her thoughts on the sponsorship.

What are your thoughts on earning the Ladies of the Oval sponsorship for 2023?

It definitely means everything. This is the second year that I have applied for the sponsorship; I was a close second last year. Even getting that honor to talk to Randi (Seguin) and Sam (Shaw) last year was amazing in being so close to the winner. So definitely this year I put in a lot extra thought and it’s amazing to get the call to be recognized, being a female a racer and being supported by Ladies of the Oval is incredible and to be able to pass that on to other woman inspire other woman, and give them someone else to look up to and get a bigger platform to showcase how awesome we all are.

So what are your plans and goals for the upcoming season ahead?

This season, I will be racing full-time at Full Throttle Motor Speedway in Varney, and hopefully full-time at Grand Bend (Speedway) as well. I hope to gain another championship at Full Throttle, that would be amazing, and if I could get one at Grand Bend, that’d be awesome. But just to keep up with maintaining the top-threes and being a very consistent driver is super key because I’ve been in racing for 11 seasons and I’ve seen people who have won championships and only won one or two races – and obviously, have fun.

I have to say, Varney is one of the more unique tracks because of being a total bullring compared to other tracks in the province.

Yeah, I really like Varney. I started in the Junior Late Models and we used to have a lot of invitationals at Varney and I loved it in the Junior Late Models. Then it’d be four years ago now, I took the truck up there for the end of the season to just try it out and I was like, “Oh my gosh, so much fun.” Three and four, just the way it throws you in and the adrenaline rush of almost hitting the wall every corner, it’s just so much fun – and different than a lot of tracks with the huge banking going into three and four. Grand Bend doesn’t have a lot of banking, so it doesn’t give you that nice swing into it. I’ve always loved going to different and new tracks. It puts your skills to the test, as well.

You mentioned you were able to have strong success last year with strong finishes across the board, and have become a championship threat on a regular basis. What did it mean to you to be able to put together that success in recent years?

It was just incredible. Not like I gave up on winning a championship, but I accepted on how it was going. So when I got the two championships, which was two seasons ago now, oh my gosh – it just proved to myself that I am able and capable of doing it so I would just like to get those wins and get my name out there and prove to everyone out there that it’s doable. I look forward to being able to do it again.

What was your favourite, biggest moment of the 2022 season?

Definitely for last season, my all-time favourite moment was our final race which was an invitational at Flamboro Speedway for their Frostoberfest. We only go to that track once year but oh my gosh, it’s such a blast. I got second and third in our features, which was awesome – but there were so many photographers that came over to me and wanted to take my picture, and knew who I was which was super incredible because I didn’t know who they were.

There was some other spectators watching and just saying how good of a driver I was, and the mindfulness that I saw when I was on-track in making those important moves. It was just really cool to see that people who never knew who I was, just from watching those two races, noticed how good of a racer I am and the respect that I have for the drivers on the track. That was really cool just to see how much the impact of just driving and their appreciation for how well I could do.

So what sparked your interest to want to get involved in racing?

So my dad used to race Enduro at Delaware Speedway before I was born. So pretty much, as young as I could remember, we always went to Delaware Speedway every Friday night to watch the races. We always had dirt bikes, four wheelers, snowmobiles, really always had a need for speed. So one day I was like, “Hey, I kind of want to do this,” so we started in the Junior Late program and oh my gosh, I was hooked. It just fit everything perfect. I definitely have a need for an adrenaline rush and love going fast, so it’s definitely the perfect fit for sure.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

That’s a good question. In an ideal world, I guess, my dream would be to race Delaware Speedway. That’s a big track that’s close to me at home. So I would love to get into – they had a big truck division there, so I would love to get into a big truck, or even the (Canadian) Vintage Modifieds. Those are super cool. I like the vintage OSCAARs (Hot Rods) – even just to get in a bigger vehicle would be so much more fun to try out and get your name in front of more fans out there. But if not, that’s fine as I love the Mini Truck division – especially because I can stay in it forever as there’s no age limit and definitely the people and friends I’ve made through these years is super fun.

It seems like a fun division. Personally, I only get a chance to watch them once a year – being at Frostoberfest as you mentioned. It just seems like fun, from three-wide, to the versatility of drivers and moves you can make.

It’s so much fun. Definitely the age range – I don’t know if you got to meet Rick, whose going to be 76 this year, racing with us and he had a blast. It’s just awesome the different ages, but yet you’re still able to be competitive with each other all on an equal playing field. It’s so much fun.

You mentioned the fact there’s other people looking up to you, including young girls in the grandstands each week as they think about the possibility of going racing themselves. What does it mean to be one of those girls that they’re essentially looking up to, and seeing as their racing hero?

It’s defiantly incredible. It’s an incredible feeling. Most people that you think of that are heroes are huge movie stars, NASCAR stars. I never really considered a smaller division like Mini Trucks which I’m racing in that you have those people, but it’s so cool to meet those young boys and girls that look up to you in a division that I didn’t think was that well recognized and had these people that want to be like me and get into it. Being able to empower them to get into the division is super powerful and makes you me feel so much better, as well, as it gives you the extra encouragement to do well on the track in knowing you have all these people that you didn’t know now supporting you.

What would be a piece of advice from you to those young girls out there, just based on your experience?

Definitely don’t give up. If you were going to tell 11 years ago that I would actually have won two championships and to gain the confidence and skills that I have, I probably would’ve laughed because I started a little bit later than most people get into racing do. I also didn’t start off winning all these races, and it was really hard for me to start winning races and gaining that confidence.

So definitely never give up, never let anyone tell you you’re not good enough or you’ll never be in the top-three or a championship winner, because if you put your best foot forward and put your effort into it, and have great friends supporting you, you can defiantly achieve it – and don’t put a time on it. You don’t have to expect these wins in a short period of time as it takes a lot of time, experience, and confidence to make that happen.