Page 6 - March 2019 IWMA News Interactive

Racing Runs in Hannah Grisham’s Family
Eighteen-year-old Hannah Grisham Grant. She is a goodwill ambassador for the City of Hope to bring aware-
from Glendora, CA got a go-kart for her 6th birthday and that is where her racing career be- gan.
Hannah’s dad raced motorcycles since he was a kid, and he has also won the Baja 1000. When she was younger she was pretty energetic and her dad wanted her to get into racing, but not motorcycle racing.
“We had a lot of fun racing go-karts out of my dad’s truck for many years. I got more serious around age 11 as we hooked up
ness to and support this world class, not-for-profit research, treatment and teaching hospital’s efforts to eradicate cancer, diabetes and other deadly diseases in children
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Hannah’s dad is the one who inspired her to start racing. “Racing runs in my family and is in my blood. Other than my dad, as a kid I really liked Travis Pastrana and you could say I was inspired by him.”
James Brown helps Hannah with her racecar. He is the owner and crew chief. “He has helped us so much and has practically become a part of our family these last three years. He is a wonderful mentor and coach.”
Hannah has won several karting championships and even two na- tional titles. She currently races mostly in Southern California, but she has raced all over California, and in Daytona, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Florida. She drives a 1999 Mazda Miata.
with other racers and teams to work together. Mr. Lloyd Mack and RLV helped me a lot, as well as coaching from Stephen Clark, Troy Ad- ams, Robert Arthur and Phil Giebler. I moved to cars at age 16 and have been mentored by a number of amazing people, especially James Brown of Morningstar Racing.” she shared.
Hannah’s most memorable moment so far was when she won the Lake Speed Achieve- ment of Excellence in Karting Award.
Hannah’s marketing partners include Mothers, Global Electronic Technology, Race- pak, RDR Racing, Morningstar Racing and Winners Circle Sports Marketing. In addition, she is a recipient of a Women’s Sports Foun- dation Women in Motorsports Project Podium
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Hannah runs in the Spec Miata with NASA So-Cal. She is current- ly one of four finalists in the Mazda Road to 24 shootout. If she wins she will get a $100,000 scholarship to race the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich in the 2019 season.
One of Hannah’s racing stories is from when she was racing go- karts. “I only flipped one time, a pretty bad double flip during the heat race of my last race as a Junior (you can see it on YouTube at “HannahGrish- amRacing”). After recommending I go to the hospital, the paramedics fi- nally agreed to release me from the ambulance. My team had already taken the motor out of my kart. Despite being banged up with a sprain or two, swelling and bleeding in a few places, I convinced my team to let me race in the main. I was able to move from last place in a field of 25 karts to 4th and secure a vice championship for the season.”
There have never been many females racing against Hannah, but the ones she has raced against have become friends. “It is sad that there aren’t more in the sport.” she said.