Dana Courtney: How A Mustang, A Camera, And A Track Shaped A Lifelong Love Of Motorsports

Welcome And Show Mission

Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast, the show that puts the spotlight on the incredible women who fuel the world of motorsports. From drivers to crew members, engineers to fans, and everyone in between, we're here to celebrate the trail risers, dreamers, and doers shaping the sport we love. Each episode, we share inspiring stories of females of all ages from every corner of the motorsports universe, past, present, and future. It's a journey through the seasons of life filled with heartfelt moments, laughter, and a whole lot of horsepower. So whether you're a lifelong fan, a racer yourself, or simply curious about the extraordinary women behind the wheel, settle in, relax, and enjoy a fun and uplifting ride with us. This is the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast, connecting and celebrating women in motorsports one story at a time. Let's hit the track.

Meet Guest Dana Courtney

And my guest today is Dana Courtney. And Dana, I want to welcome you to the show. Thank you for taking time to being here. And if you would, would you start by just telling us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Dana Courtney. I am 42. I live in Gainesville, Florida. I actually live less than a quarter of a mile from Gainesville Raceway.

So you can hear them when they're racing.

Yes, I can actually walk there and sometimes during Gator Nationals in the past, it's been the easiest way to get there.

You could probably charge for parking as close as you are.

Yeah, my dad used to, and he used to do work on some of the cars back in the 70s.

Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty close to the track for sure. So do you have children, pets, anything else that you want to share with us about?

I have a 22-year-old son. He lives close by. He just started his degree in welding and attempting to, he's actually helping me weld the cage in my car. It's a 65 Mustang. I do have a dog. You can see one of the beds here. He's got five throughout the house. He is a Belgian Lake and Wahhusky. He's back here. Yeah. So he kind of runs the show. No, you would think so, but no, he's a big baby.

Okay. I have a little tiny shih tzu that weighs about 15 pounds, and he definitely runs the show.

Yeah. The smaller ones tend to.

Yeah, he's he's like large and in charge, and whatever you're doing, he has to be there to see like this, you know, to see what you're doing. So oh my gosh. My husband and I just love him to pieces though. So but yeah, I have I have four kids, and I have 17 kids grandkids, and so plenty of plenty of people around, but the dog is just he's he's the one, you know, he's the one we love. So isn't that crazy? I never thought I'd like a dog. I know was never a dog person until we ended up getting this dog. It I turned into a dog lover. So,

Family Roots At Gainesville Raceway

Dana, tell me about your motorsports career. How did you get interested? How did you get going? And where are you now?

Well, it started at a very young age. My dad has always been into drag racing. He used to do local in the bracket when they first started against World Raceway. He's always been a Pontiac Trans Am guy. He has had, I think the one he has now is his fourth. It's a 78 banded edition, rebuilt all the way from the ground up. This one he rebuilt with both me and my brother, as well as my nephews. And he also has my brother in the same wheelhouse now. My brother has a 77. When my mom was pregnant with me, she would push this car into the water box. And my mother worked in the tower and at the ticket booth. I actually have some of the paper tickets to where she ran ANOVA that she had. Okay. And then when they split, she started dating a guy, and for seven years I was in the round, the roundy round up in Ellisville in the dirt track. So then we started building cages for that because it's it's a completely different type of racing, but it's still, I mean, it's racing, it's excitement, it's speed. And we did that for years. He raced, and then as his sons got older, one of them got into it and eventually built his own car. We used to go Daytona 500 every year with my grandparents. I have pictures from where you could actually walk up to the racers and you could interact with them and actually have conversations, and you know, kids could walk up to them, and it was like seeing their uncle from 40 years that they've known, and now it's so different.

Yeah, it is.

But I got back from the military in 2015, and my dad was building his latest car and decided that he wanted to start running again. So I was his one-man pit crew for the first year, and then I was taking pictures of him, and well, then my brother started. I got tired of taking pictures of both them, you know. You can only look at well, family, but you can only look at certain faces for so long, right? So then I started taking pictures of other people that were out there, and as long as they didn't mind, and slowly one of the workers, she was also a Pontiac, she became friends with the family. Obviously, Pontiac people they have to stick together. And then she had made mention to Jody, who was now our track manager, something about the photos,

From Photos To Working The Track

and then I ended up becoming one of the volunteer photographers with Gainesville Raceway, and then it kind of morphed from there. I now work for the track pretty much not full-time because it's only during race season, but I do clocks staging, I work at the ET Shack, I do pictures. We started a yearbook last year. The initial idea was just taking pictures and doing pictures for the employees that didn't get to go to the different events throughout the year and throughout different tracks. And it was also because Facebook doesn't didn't always exist and it may not always. Exactly. So the idea was to make something concrete for you know, 20 years down the road, they can see what Gainesville Raceway was and you know the families that were there. So we started it last year, and this is our second year. It includes all the families, it includes most of the events. I also travel with the team to ECF, was it which is Eastern Conference Finals for the Junior Dragsters. So that also gets included there. That's something that I

Building A Yearbook For Legacy

started doing in 24 and I absolutely loved it. You would not think so. Um I mean, my kids 22 and junior dragsters was not something I've ever been around. And it sounds like all of your lawn equipment is having MMA fights in your yard, and it with hundreds of them, it really is insane. But yeah, I love these kids, and they are amazing, and they put their heart and soul into it.

So and it it's amazing how many kids race junior dragsters. Yes, it's just you just don't think about it. So there's a track close to me, Martin, US 131 Motorsports Park, just about a half hour from me. And so when I first started the women's motorsports network, I went to

Junior Dragsters And Youth Pathways

I went to my first really drag race. I mean, I'd been to some drag races, but it wasn't something that was that popular or whatever where I lived. And so at the time, and so I went to 131 Motorsports Park, and it was a big, some big event they were having, you know, in the summer. And first of all, I was shocked at how many junior drakers were at this event because it was for you know all ages, but that also the number of girls that were racing just blew me away and was like, okay, this is this is really cool. All these all these little girls, and they were little, some of them that were racing. So I I really got more interested in drag racing after I went to Martin that weekend.

Yeah, I love all well, I love all of them. So they start at five and they go all the way up to 18. And they are there's some of them are so tiny, they get out of the cars, and you're like, You there's no way. But then two years ago, we had one kid who looked like a grown man, and at some of the races, people would really like question how is that 21-year-old racing? But he wasn't, he aged out at 18, just like the rest of them. But it's it's really nice to see because then they can go from one thing to another, and what I would love to see, and this is something that it would take a lot more than me, is a program for people that or kids that don't have families that are in racing, to be able to give them that experience. I mean, it's not cheap, it it really isn't. And like locally, we here we have Frank Hawley and his drag racing school, and he does travel, but for adults, that's great for someone that's never raced and wants to get into it, but for kids, especially ones that aren't in the racing community, it's hard for them to just hop into a junior dragster when their parents don't have 10, 20, 40 grand to drop on one.

Yeah. And you know that that's so true. And this conversation goes on more often than you think about whether it's late models or or dragsters or whatever kind of car it might be, that you know, it's the families with the money whose kids are racing, and you hate to think that the reason somebody's in NASCAR or bigger, you know, series like that is because their parents have the money. But when you start checking out some of these guys, I mean it is that is how it is a lot of the time, and and so your best racers are not always the ones in the series, they might be in the over series, which you know, I I just was watching, I was watching on Netflix the I can't remember the name of it, but it was

Cost Barriers And Access For Kids

the series where the guys were competing to drive the new Dodge Ram truck in the truck series, and and you know, a lot of those kids are just racing smaller series, but they're talented drivers. And so I love seeing those kids get a chance. And I I'm with you. It's like, is there a way or how can we let kids who don't have the finances get involved in motorsports?

Yeah, because I mean it also it begs the difference, like the ones that are in foster care or don't, you know, they for different sports for basketball and everything else, they get noticed in school. But for motorsports, there are no school programs. No, I mean, we have junior street, but again, that requires you to have a vehicle and an adult to be present to be able to run in it. So it kind of a catch 22.

Yeah, yeah, it really is, and that's you know, Dana. My mom always used to say the people with the ideas don't have the money, and the people with the money don't have the ideas, and you've got to get those people together. Yeah, yeah, that's the hard part. So tell me about your car and what you're working on, and what are you gonna be racing and when and all the details?

So it's a 65 Mustang, it was a roller, we bought it out of Daytona. Well, it was on the coast, I'm doing it as just a door car. Hopefully, my goal is to eventually be in sick week, you know. They were just here, yeah, and I got to work that. I loved the fact that they were here for both the start and the finish. But my ultimate goal is to be able to do an event like that. That is the test of both driver and car. I feel like that is not only because it's heads up, but it takes the drag racing of brackets because you have to be able to do it, you have to know the dial and you have to know how to run your car on the track, but at the same time, you have to have the knowledge and the ability to run your car and be able to work on it and know what you need, as like and the patience. I mean, I've seen so many of these teams be taken out by a bolt because of five seconds that it would have taken to tighten or check something, right? But currently I have we have half the cage in it. Hopefully, by the end of the year, it'll be running and on the track, but as far as doing dragon drives, it probably won't be for about another year or two.

Yeah, yeah. It takes time to put something

Dana’s ’65 Mustang And Sick Week Goal

like that together, and you know, people who are not involved in motorsports don't realize the time, the money, the hours in the garage. Oh, yeah. You know, and they look, you know, they might be walking in on pit road and they look in a car and they'd be like, Well, there's not much to this car. Well, there's a lot more to it than what you think, and there's you know, if you're gonna run in a certain series, there's rules about what has to be in, what can't be in. And so, you know, I think a lot of fans, casual fans, I guess I should say, need some education about how it works.

Oh, absolutely, and that's another thing. Like when I've worked internationals a few years, and when they're pulling the top fuel dragsters and stuff like that, it's it's insane because some of these casual fans they just walk out in front of these cars and they're like, Oh, they'll stop. No, they they can't stop like that, they're not like normal streetcars, they don't have brakes like that. And you know, even if they did, I don't want them to hit them like that because that causes damage and can so yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

And yeah, people people are just oblivious, I think. And and a lot of times they're on this and they're on their phone and they're not paying attention. That's another problem for sure. Yeah, so what's your favorite thing about being involved in motorsports?

Families, watching them do it together, watching them grow, watching it continue to be the same thing that I grew up with. Like, I got to see Alex Taylor and her dad work together on their car and talk to her. She's one of my favorite teams because of that. Because, like, doing my car with both my dad and my son, it's it's something that's very, I don't know, being a female in a male-dominated world, it's hard because they don't think you know what you're doing. They'll look at you sideways if you start talking about stuff because oh, you just you just memorize some stuff. You don't you don't actually know what you're talking about, but getting to do it and watching others do it and succeed, it's it's nice. And being able to help the juniors move up and watching them grow.

Yeah, that would be that would be part. I love I love the kids in motorsports. You know,

Fans, Safety, And Track Education

don't get me wrong, I love interviewing anybody that'll talk to me, but I really love talking to the kids because one, you never know what they're gonna say, and and the other side of it is they're just so honest about you know, like I really love it because of this or that, and it's just it's just so fun. And then to see them as they grow, like you said, I've I've looked back now, it'll be it'll be nine years, eight years, nine years in August that I started this, and seeing some of those kids grow and follow them now, it's it's just too fun for sure. So, what's been your proudest moment in being involved in motorsports?

Um probably having the kids ask me to do their photos for their hero cards. Okay, yeah, that's a big deal. It is. I mean, it's they're just photos, they they don't go anywhere. The kids just give them out to other kids at like Gator Nationals, but for a kid, like you said, they're very honest, they're very open. You don't know what they're gonna say for them to ask that and to be one who they go to, and like at ECF, they enjoy hanging out with me and we go to dinner, and so I think it's just being able to be a role model and not on purpose, yeah.

That wasn't your intention, but it was the outcome. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Family, Female Presence, And Belonging

That's pretty cool for sure. I I love that because you're you've influenced kids that you didn't even know were watching, and that's kind of a scary part, too. It's like, oh, I didn't think about they were watching what what I was doing and saying, and uh yeah, for sure. So, do you think motorsports is a good sport for women to be involved in, whether it's photography, racing, being a mechanic, any anything in motorsports?

Absolutely, and every facet, in every facet, and why is that because I think women I'm not of the mindset that anything a man can do, I can do. Because trust me, I know I can't, and I'll be the first to tell you I can't. Yeah, but I think having a woman's point of view at every step, whether it be just a verbal or a hands-on or something, helps in the way that you're one, you're keeping the gender roles somewhat even, and you're not gonna have the pushback from those that are like, Oh, you're not, you know, you're being gender biased and this and that. You're showing the younger ones that yes, you can do this, it's going to take work, you may have to do this, but you can, and this is what you have to do, but it it also allows some of the males that don't want to, it shows them that hey, you can go do this because we can, right? So, yeah, like at the track right now, like I said, we have a female track manager now. Up until her, it's been a male, and nothing wrong with that, but it's a completely different experience, yeah, different vibe. It is. And a lot of people are like, well, it's more family friendly, it's more

Balancing Life And Mental Health

focused, but you know, you have to look at it, okay. So we have to balance it though. So you just have to make sure that you have both sides, and if it's male dominated in the mechanics area, then you're not getting both sides either. And then because I mean I was a mechanic in the army for 10 years as well. That was probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but yeah, sounds tough.

So you do photography, you're working on a race car, you have a son, you have a dog. I'm sure you have to do laundry and groceries and all that stuff. How do you balance your work life with your dog? How do you balance all that so that you take care of Dana?

Sticky notes, friends, and Walmart plus delivery.

I mean, that'sn't it funny how I mean it that kind of stuff hasn't been around that long.

Something that came out of necessity from an absolute disaster has turned into something that's isn't everyday necessity for most people.

Well, and honestly, if you think about it, there's quite a few things that came out of COVID that were not bad. I mean, oh, yeah. You can sit and think of them. You know, I my youngest two daughters are 40, she just turned 40 and 38. She'll be or 30, she'll be 38 in March. And they live in the Phoenix area. And I always have to laugh because they live about 30 minutes apart, and you would think they lived hundreds of miles apart, because they can they can drive around the corner almost and be at Costco or be at 10 restaurants or whatever, and so they're spoiled in the fact that everything is so close. So 30 miles to see each other, you know, that's just that's just not heard of. But neither

Candid Photography And Memory-Keeping

one of them, I I could not tell you the last time one of them actually went to the grocery store. Now, my generation, I just turned 70 in December. We go to the grocery store, and when you go to the grocery store, you're gonna see more older people than young people. Okay, so I always just go to the grocery store. Well, I had back surgery, so I can't drive. And so I placed my order with Meyer, which is our big you know, I placed my order with Meyer, and then I sent my husband there to pick it up. Well, he'd never done that, he'd never gone to Meyer to pick it up, and so I had to train him.

Now, here's where you go, here's what you do, and and it's just funny how things change, and and I'm probably not gonna be going to the grocery store anytime soon because that is so easy, and it saves so much time, and it's probably saving me money because I'm not buying stuff that I see, and that you don't need, and that I'm also your someone's job, you're securing it, and you know, if it's a delivery person, you're making sure they have a job, plus you're tipping them, so it it kind of helped. I mean, obviously, it kind of hurt our social capabilities, but but going to the grocery store is one of the last things that I enjoy, and walking on the concrete is not good for my knee or my back, so yeah.

So, you know, something bad back surgery turned out to be something good, so we just never know, do we? Uh what life's gonna throw at us, yeah, for sure. So when are you in the process? Are they racing now? When does your racing season kind of start?

It started the first weekend of January, started our Scorpion Racing Products bracket series, and then like I said, we just finished sick week, and then this coming weekend we'll have another test in a Friday night, then we'll have our second weekend of bracket racing, then we start prepping for gators and then baby gators and so on and so forth.

Okay, so you're in the thick of it already.

Yes, the beginning of the year is always the the roughest because we don't race during the summer, you know. In Florida, we like to be on the boat during July and August.

Right, right. And it's it's just too hot to be doing that. Yeah, it's just too hot. It's like Arizona. I never managed to get to Arizona at the right time of the year, except for NASCAR. I never seem to get there the right time of the year when all the other tracks are racing. So I've I've just never been able to figure that out, I guess. But yeah, no, Florida in the summertime is not you don't want to be at the racetrack, that's for sure.

So no.

So do you see yourself staying involved in motorsports? I know you're building a car, but the photography part, do you see yourself doing that for a while? Because it seems like you really enjoy it.

As long as I can hold a camera, I guess. I mean, I I do the photography just as kind of a mental thing because taking pictures takes you out of your head and puts you

Where To Find Dana’s Work

in a moment that others may not see. Yeah. So as long as I can hold a camera, I will continue to take pictures and of anything and everything.

So yeah. Some of my favorite pictures that our local photographers take are the ones in the in the pit area, or it's it's not when they're racing around the oval or down the track, it's when they're working on the car or they're interacting with another driver, or some of those kind of what I say behind the scenes pictures.

Those are some of my favorites that the so that those are the ones that I do. And those are the ones because my initial thing was that there are generally photographers on the line at every track, and only certain events are there ones that do those, you know, the candid shots everywhere else. Yeah, and I felt like life was happening, and although they may have a memory, memories fade, and generations we are not doing so well passing stories down. So I started taking pictures and I started posting them, and I didn't charge, I still don't, because my theory is I can't charge for your memory. Yeah, so and I mean, as someone who's I mean, I'm not a track photographer. Now there are ones and they do amazing work, but they also spend hours editing and doing all sorts of stuff, and I mean I've paid money for some of their photos, and in fact, I have a sickweek book somewhere, but and but mine I don't edit anymore, it's it's raw, it's whatever is there.

So you know what, that's good though, and and you know, for one thing, it's not like we're rate wasting film because what is film? We don't even I don't even know if you can buy film anymore or cameras that you have film in them. You can so you know, as far as that part of it goes, if it's something you enjoy and you enjoy being able to give it to someone, then that's what's important. It's not about the money in that case. I re I understand what you're saying about the track photographers, you know, the editing in that takes a long time. But if you can, it's it's kind of like my podcast, Dana. I don't spend hours editing. Now, if there's something that I really need to fix, I will, but but otherwise, it is what it is. It is what we talk about, it is how we look, all those things. This is who we are, and and I'm not gonna spend hours editing because I want it to be authentic and and real, you know, and so we're kind of the same in that in that respect for sure. So tell me how would if someone wanted to see your pictures or follow you, how would they do that?

You can look me up on Facebook, it's Dana L Courtney. It's public. I made it a public profile a few years ago. That way, racers

Inclusion For Disabilities In Racing

from any of the events, any of the races could find their photos. A lot of them are also shared through Gainesville Raceway, Max and Indy. All of the photos that he uses currently are ones that are taken with within the last, I think, two to three years. I put them on a Google Drive and he searches whatever he wants for that particular post.

Okay. All right, sounds good. Well, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you would like to share about yourself or your racing or anything at all?

Not other than the fact that if you have a medical disability or handicap that you might think keeps you out of motorsports, it doesn't. One of our junior dragsters, I haven't talked a whole lot about her. I kind of was hoping she would do this. I'm still trying to get her to. She had extremely bad scoliosis and she had to have back surgery within six months. She put herself back into a junior dragster. So yeah, and I mean she was cleared, but it's and then we have another that is type one diabetic. He actually they actually found out on like not on track, but at the track, he had an episode and ended up going to the hospital. But just because something is different doesn't mean you can't race, or you can't be in motorsports, and don't let something or your gender or any kind of thing keep you from trying.

Yeah, I know there's uh racers for autism, and that's kind of something I follow because my youngest grandson is autistic, and he's very high functioning, he's very smart. But but sometimes uh what I've seen is kids with issues that maybe some some would call you know a disability. I don't like that word, but kids who have something going on that might be different or challenging, sometimes getting in that race car helps. It does. Yeah. And so we need to encourage parents, I think, too, are need to need to understand that it might be something they should let their kid try. Maybe they can't play basketball or soccer, but maybe they can race a quarter midget.

So well, I mean, it's it's literally like being in a steel cage, then with a hard shell around it. Yeah. And you're not going that fast at first. No, yes, there's there's always chances, but it's no more than you getting in your car and driving them to the grocery store, exactly or to the doctors. I mean, it's you have to take chances in life and you have to live life. Yeah, and you have to let your kids, and we we have a lot of them, and they do some of them. Have gotten into a car, and the look on their face when the kids get out is so much joy, yeah.

Absolutely. Well, Dana, I appreciate you taking time today to visit with me. It's always fun to to talk face to face instead of through email or Facebook or whatever. And then you feel like you really have met the person and you know them. So thank you for being on here today. Do you have any last words that you'd like to share?

Thank you for having me.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Closing Gratitude And Community CTA

That's it for this episode of the Women's Motorsports Network Podcast. We hope you've been inspired by the stories I shared today and feel more connected to the amazing community of women in motorsports. Remember, whether you're behind the wheel, in the pits, or cheering from the stands, your story matters. And together we're driving change and celebrating every milestone. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who loves motorsports as much as you do. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates, behind the scenes content, and more incredible stories. So until next time, stay inspired, stay connected, and keep racing through life. This is the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, where every woman's story is worth celebrating.