Female Spotlight: Stephanie Cemo

Since I was 15 years old, I have been exposed to the motorsport industry and everyone who makes it run, participate, or help it grow. Like everything else in the world, there is good and not so good. Personally, I admire female drivers because they are at a disadvantage already by being female and have to work 10x harder to make their powerful presence known. They are smart, savvy, talented, and inspirational, but sadly a lot of these women get overshadowed by attention whores in the industry. Don’t get me wrong, models and other female eye candy will always be apart of the industry in their own way, most are great at what they do and call it a day. Lately, there are just some females that CLEARLY use motorsports as a platform for their vanity and it is so stupid. Why out of the blue am I being open about this? Because I am tired of seeing it happen. Each week or every other week, I would like to highlight a female driver or inspirational figure on here. Naming names and bashing others on the internet is so classless and disgraceful.

To start off my Friday female driver I want to write about someone I have been watching on the track, which happens to not be a Drifter! Stephanie Cemo caught my attention at Buttonwillow Raceway few months ago During Round one of Global Time Attack. It’s always rare to see female drivers out on the track, but to see one kick ass in her ’09 Corvette Z06. After getting her feet wet with drag racing about 9 years ago, she tried her hand at road racing and was not only hooked, but quickly moved to the advance group after the very first weekend. In about 2 months, Stephanie was asked to become a driving instructor at Texas World Speedway where she began learning and is currently instructing at Speed Ventures and BMWCCA. The ability to learn then teach is a quality that will make anyone successful at their craft and this is no exception. 

          I have heard some people say women have a softer style of driving by nature, but from my experiences, gender doesn’t matter on the track with serious racers. With an SCCA & NASA licenses under her belt, Stephanie has achieved many accomplishments on the track including finishing 3^rd in class Skip Barber Race School in 2003, winner of Shift-S3ctor Airstrip Attack- Tuner class, First place of Global Time Attack Pro-Am C13 unlimited RWD, and many much more that are listed on her website, cemoracing.com. You can also check out Stephanie while competing in SCCA GT2, NASA ST1, and Global Time Attack for the 2014 season.

          There is nothing prissy about her setup either, her modifications to the Z07 are bad ass are still changing as I write this. Take a look at her modifications straight from her proposal!

With many tracks and years of experience, Stephanie Cemo is a driver to keep an eye on in the coming years. Not only is she a versatile driver, she has years of unique knowledge and experience that furthers her in her career. 

Connect with Stephanie on Facebook!
facebook.com/StephanieCemoRacing