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Tammy Kaehler Doesn’t Just Turn Laps with Her New Book, Avoidable Contact

The best compliment you can pay Tammy Kaehler after reading her third book, Avoidable Contact, is a big one: she’s not just out there turning laps.

One of the dangers of multi-installment series featuring the same protagonist is they can morph into a sort of same-story-different-location exercise. That is, the fundamentals of each book start to replicate -- the protagonist pulls out the same bag of tricks to solve the mystery, the same types of characters appear -- and all that changes is window dressing like location or time of year.

But in the racing vernacular there’s no “holding station” for Kaehler in book three. She’s not just doing the literary version of saving fuel and tires trying to make it to the end of a several-dozen-book run of her Kate Reilly racing-themed mystery series. Instead she’s driving for the win, even in the early stages of what fans hope is a long run.

Kenzie Ruston takes the Fendered Path, Doesn’t Court Fame

Kenzie Ruston's shares some racing enthusiasm with a fan.

Sitting at an Iowa Cubs baseball game in Des Moines on May 16, Kenzie Ruston’s eyes sparkle at the mention of Knoxville Raceway about 45 minutes down the road.

“The first races I saw when I was younger were sprint car races,” said Ruston, a native of El Reno, Oklahoma, who is in her second year in the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series and racing for Ben Kennedy Racing. “That’s what I grew up around so I wish I could get in one (a winged sprint car at Knoxville). I know a lot o people freak out about them and the safety and stuff, so I doubt I’ll ever get to drive one.”

If she ever did get into a sprint car, chances are the self-described “highly competitive” Ruston probably wouldn’t be content to just cruise around the track.

Kenzie Ruston: Working from Bondaleros Toward Big Time

Kenzie Ruston

By 10:30 a.m. Central time today (about 30 minutes into her first practice), Kenzie Ruston will have a good idea if she can win the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series race at Iowa Speedway starting at 8 p.m.

“It just depends on how you unload off the truck,” said Ruston, a 22-year-old native of El Reno, Oklahoma, who has been in Des Moines since Tuesday doing media advances for opening weekend at Iowa Speedway. “First practice you’re going to know if you are going to be decent or not, especially in the K&N stuff, where you don’t get a lot of practice.”

Bia "Looking for Opportunties," Adjusting to Life of Driving Uncertainty

Ana Beatriz during a pratice run at Iowa Speedway in 2013.

For the driver with the longest name in IndyCar, 2013 has been long on flights to and from Brazil and short on certainty for her future in the series.

In 2013, Ana Beatriz Caselato Gomes de Figueiredo, better known as “Bia,” has found herself in involved in musical racing chairs at Dale Coyne Racing, where she splits time in Coyne’s second car with Pippa Mann and Mike Conway.

It’s been an adjustment after Bia’s successful tenure in the developmental leagues of Brazil where she raced in karting, Formula Renault Brasil and Formula 3 Sul-Americana. She came to the U.S. in 2008 to race in Firestone Indy Lights.

Ashley Freiberg Lands in S.I. "Faces in the Crowd" Section

Ashely Freiberg is getting some ink in SI. See my bracing interview with Woman of pressdog® Ashley here.

News release below ...

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE NAMES FREIBERG A FACE IN THE CROWD; FEATURED IN JUNE 3 ISSUE

EFFORT Racing Driver Ashley Freiberg Turns Heads at the TIME, Inc. Publication

SI cover NEW YORK, NY (May 29, 2013) - Sports Illustrated magazine, the most respected voice in sports journalism with a weekly audience of nearly 21 million adults, will highlight IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama's lone female driver Ashley Freiberg, the current series points leader. Freiberg will be showcased as part of the publication's "Faces in the Crowd" feature in the June 3, 2013 issue, on newsstands now.

Cyndie Allemann Competes in 24 Hours of the Nürburgring

Cyndie Allemann at Nurburgring

Woman of pressdog® Cyndie Allemann has now raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Le Mans and the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Read all about her adventures in Germany on Cyndie's site HERE and follow her on Twitter @CyndieAllemann. Read my interview with Cyndie HERE.

 

Katherine Legge Picks Herself Up Again … and Again

Katherine Legge still hasn’t given up on finding a ride for the 2013 Indy 500. In fact, it’s possible that Katherine Legge hasn’t given up on anything … ever.

“I am desperately still trying to put a 500 deal together,” Legge said last weekend. “I am still talking to people and that’s the goal for the moment. I haven’t thought much beyond that.”

pressdog.com Becomes Fictional Sponsor for Fictional Driver Kate Reilly

Author Tammy Kaehler brandishes the pdog logo on her left shoulder.

Cue the Circus Music! pressdog.com is now a fictional sponsor for fictional ALMS driver Kate Reilly. Kate is lead character in the Kate Reilly Racing Mysteries, a series penned by Woman of pressdog® Tammy Kaehler. Tammy and Barb Kreisel came up with the idea of making Kate Reilly race team shirts to wear during last week's races in Long Beach.

They were cool enough to ask me to be one of Kate's "sponsors" (I use the quotation marks because unlike real sponsors, I paid zero to have my logo on Kate's team shirt). Check me out on Tammy's shoulder above. Manly tears. Other sponsors include #SteelOvaryNation and Kaehler's publisher, Poisoned Pen Press.

For more on Tammy, go here. For my review of her books and purchase info, go here. For a chance to win a copy of first Reilly mystery, Dead Man's Switch, go here -- but do it NOW because the contests ends TODAY (April 25).

Simona de Silvestro Enjoys Life after "the Lotus Situation"

Simona de Silvestro is smiling more than usual this season.

Here's how bad it got fro Simona de Silvestro in 2012:

“My dad didn’t actually want to show up to races anymore (last year),” said de Silvestro with a laugh. “I was like ‘thanks for the support, Dad.’ ”

Fathers everywhere can relate to Pierre de Silvestro’s pain. De Silvestro’s 2012 team, HVM, was stuck with an underpowered Lotus engine that de Silvestro says felt up to 100 horsepower below the Chevrolet and Honda power plants. That meant she had no chance to even compete, let alone win.

Tammy Kaehler Gives Readers Racing's Ultimate Backstage Pass

Tammy Kaehler channels Kate Reilly at the helm of a racing Corvette.

There’s a new female driver tearing up the track, running into and over other drivers (allegedly) and getting into off-track brawls. Dark hair. Petit. Fiery.

Danica Patrick?

No. Kate Reilly.