Page 39 - January 6 2012

by Diane Rice
Take one horse-loving girl. Combine with one racehorse-loving grandpa. Mix for nine years. Add one go-kart-racing world champion stepfather. Stir.
The result? Kim Gillette, a racehorse breeder, owner and lover from Palmdale, California, who also has ties to the car-racing world—as, not surprisingly, do many racehorse enthusiasts.
“It’s very odd how the two racing worlds include many of the same people,” Kim says.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
When Kim was five years old, her mom, Jolene, married C.L. Maddon. C.L.’s father happened to be C.L. “Tess” Maddon, owner of the 1946 mare Maddons Bright Eyes—World Champion Quarter Running Mare in 1949 and 1951, and dam of four outstanding blue-eyed offspring, including Me Bright, Bright Red and Lady Bright Eyes, all by Leo; and Bright Bar
by Three Bars. Maddons Bright Eyes was also
a half-sister to the blanketed dun Appaloosa Hall of Fame inductee who begat the renowned Bright Eyes Brother line.
Kim spent much of her childhood in the company of Grandpa Maddon’s racing greats
in New Mexico. When Grandpa would visit Kim’s family in California, he’d take Kim to Los Alamitos with him. She remembers seeing Go Man Go in the round pen in front of the track, and more or less growing up with the late Scoop Vessels.
“Grandpa Maddon was the best at what he did,” Kim says, “from riding his own babies to training and breeding.
“He was also one of the originators of the All American Futurity,” Kim adds. “A bunch
of guys were across the street from Ruidoso Downs and said, ‘My baby can beat yours next summer...’” And the rest, as they say, is history.
When Grandpa Maddon died, Kim’s family—C.L., Jolene, Kim, brother Rob and sister Kelly—moved to New Mexico to run the ranch for Grandma Maddon. At age 12, Kim
helped breed the ranch’s two stallions,
Bright Bar and Johnny Boone—live cover in those days. “This was a tricky business,” Kim says. Perhaps this was when she began to define herself as a daredevil.
When Kim was 14, Jolene and C.L. divorced and the family moved back to California. Her mom remarried Richard Connors, former many-time world champion go-kart, off-road and motorcycle racer. That’s where Kim’s interest in car racing began.
A FEMALE AUTO RACER
Richard put Kim in an off-road racer when she was 15, and she raced on an all-girl team in Borrego Springs, California. It was then that she reunited on a different level with Scoop Vessels, who also raced off-road. “That was all he cared about then,” Kim says.
At age 19 she became a hairdresser, and was also showing horses and
modeling. She even co-hosted
a live car racing TV show with
Nascar announcer Larry Naston. “I was hardly ever home!” she says of her crammed-to-the-limit schedule.
Her mother, who kept her finger in the equine pie by buying yearlings at sales, agrees. “Kim was always on the go,” Jolene says. “She had so many varied interests, and had
friends in all walks of life.” When Kim was 22, her
brother, sister-in-law and cousin died in a plane crash. Around that time, Kim got serious about car racing and bought herself a ticket to Ohio to try out for the Indy car circuit pace car team.
“My mom thought I was nuts!” Kim says. “She said it
was all political
and they wouldn’t choose me.”
Forty girls tried out for the 13-woman team, and Kim proved her mother wrong by being selected for one of the five available spots.
She remained on the team for five years. The very first race she worked was the Long Beach Grand Prix, where she got to escort her friend Tony, son of Indy 500 track owner Mari George— both of whom Kim knew from spending summers in Ruidoso at Grandpa Maddon’s.
Kim’s goal in life became driving Indy
cars. “I almost got there,” she says. She was
the first woman to drive Formula 3, Mexico’s premier car-racing series. In 1990 she was the first female to win Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Rookie of the Year in a sponsored Formula Ford. She gave herself seven years to get to Indy cars, but fell short of the needed sponsor money.
37 SPEEDHORSE, January 6, 2012
A RECIPE FOR SPEED
The thrill of racing encompasses horses—and much more.
Kim’s love of horses started early, as evidenced by this picture of 18-month-old Kim happily aboard a horse.