Natalie with Jesse Prather
At sixteen, Natalie Fenaroli is one of the dominant racers in the Midwest area of the USA. The Kansas City native first started racing go karts at age five and has been racing ever since. Since 2000, she has raced in over 100 competitions in a variety of karts from Kid Karts, Junior One Yamaha, TAG 60, TAG Jr and 125cc Shifter. At 14 she started the transition to racing cars. Natalie was granted a competition license to race in the COMMA series at Hallett road race track outside Tulsa OK after schooling there in a Spec Racer Ford in Oct of 09. She is currently racing the www.premiercobras.com Spec Miata for the 2011 season.
Natalie is one of the youngest female racers to be accepted into the Lyn St James Driver Development Program. She was among five drivers (and the youngest)selected in the first ever Project Podium racing grant program. Not long after that, in July of 08 and at the tender age of twelve, AutoWeek chose her as “One of Five of the Fastest Women You Will Ever Meet”(two of the five others are now racing Indy cars). Showing that the honors were not misplaced she won the 08 season championship as a rookie by a single kart length in a great battle that came down to the last corner of the last race of the year.
When Natalie first started racing, she was in a class called kid karts age 5-7. These were 50cc 2-stroke motors about 2 horse power. She won the Group2 Kid Kart National Championship in this class at age 7.
The next class up was called Cadets and that ranged from 8-11 years old. These were 100cc Yamaha and then 60cc motors with about 9 hp. She took 2nd place , and 3rd place at the KART Road Racing Nationals, and a best 2nd at the KART Sprint Nationals. In fact, in this three year period she never finished out of the top 5 in nationals in 20 consecutive races! Natalie finished off her Cadet years by winning the TAG Rookie Championship in 2007 at age 11 in the Central States Super Series(CSSS).
At age 12 Natalie moved up to a TAG Jr,which is for kids 12-15 years old. The class runs a 125cc water cooled motor with around 22 horse power. She won the Super Karts USA (SKUSA) TAG Jr. Championship for the region in 2008 her rookie season!
The 2010 season was another big step as she made the move to racing cars. The name of the game is seat time. It was an amazing season as she learned to race her PremierCobras.com Spec Miata. Finishing 16th in her first race, she steadily moved her way forward race after race. Learning sometimes the hard way, she improved her times and skills each outing. By the 5th race of her young career, she was able to win numerous battles on her way to a carreer best 4th place finish allowing her to finish the season 8th overall.
The 2011 season picked up where her first season left off. With a freshened car she was able to go shave another full second off her past season’s best time in her first race. Her goal is to get consistent in the Miata and start running near the front. She is also running the Heartland Sprint Series in her go kart. Natalie spent two weeks in New Zealand in the summer of 2011 learning to drive a Formula Ford at the Canterbury Driving school with instructor Andy Neale. This was her first multi-day school and set up a foundation to race open wheel cars.
She is setting her sights on a career in open wheel racing. The jug of milk at the Indy 500 is at the end of the rainbow with some long nights in search of a Rolex Watch and French Cuisine along the way. She is nice, bright, articulate, easy going and media savvy, making her an ideal partner for companies, race teams and future fans. You can compare her popularity ranking against 50,000 + other drivers at http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/21066/popularity/
If you are interested in a sponsorship package or want to find out more email contact@nataliefenaroli.com