Cheetah Girls Put The Pedal To The Metal

By Nancy K. Crevier

Mary Tietjen is on the board for the Newtown Visiting Nurse Association, is a volunteer with Newtown Meals On Wheels and at the Dorothy Day Shelter in Danbury, plays tennis, and is the mother of four grown sons. She is also a racecar driver, and has recently become a member of the Cheetah Girls all-women racecar team.

Made up of seven women from up and down the East Coast, the team was formed this past winter, primarily to take part in the 24 Hours of LeMons (a parody on the famous Le Mans endurance race) series.

“I was approached by one gal [who also races] to form a team, and it sounded like so much fun. It’s not a totally serious race series, but it is the fastest growing race series in the US,” said Tietjen. The 24 Hours of LeMons is a fundraiser for Speedway Children’s Charities, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that helps sick, disadvantaged, and at-risk kids all over America. And the Cheetah Girls, she said, is the only all-women’s team in the series on the East Coast.

What makes the LeMons series different from the rest of the racing Tietjen does during the year, is not only the light-hearted attitude of the racers, but the cars that tear around the tracks.

Only cars that were purchased and prepared for racing for a total of $500 or less can be driven in the 24 Hours of LeMons series. Not included in that cost are approved safety equipment, brakes, and wheels/tires. At most of the LeMons series venues, Fridays are for track testing and the endurance-race sessions take place on Saturday and Sunday, with breaks for “sleeping, eating, and Band-Aid application every night,” according to the LeMons website.

The Cheetah Girls will take part in four races on the East Coast this year as part of the LeMons series. The first race was held in New Jersey April 14 to 15, she said, and while the Cheetah Girls did not take home a trophy, they did win the dubious honor of receiving the New Jersey Toxic Waste Award.

“Our car has had 16 engines in its lifetime,” laughed Tietjen, the reason why that award was conferred upon the Cheetah Girls. The car is actually on engine number 17, she admitted, since the engine installed in their 1979 Buick Regal — recovered from a junk yard — blew out on the first day of racing.

“Five guys worked eight hours to put a new engine in it that Saturday night,” she said, and by Sunday, the Cheetah Girls were once more underway. After deciding on their lineup, the women took turns pulling 1½-hour stints around the track. They reached 268 laps before pulling out of the race on Sunday, she said, fearing that the new, untested engine might be stressed. Nonetheless, final results posted online show the Cheetah Girls in 78th place out of 102 cars.

“I had at one point gotten us to 25 out of 100 cars,” sighed Tietjen.

The race is about fun, though, not winning, she said. That is why participants in the LeMons series are encouraged to have a theme. The Cheetah Girls carry out their theme with leopard outfits that they wear when they are just hanging around the course — and their Buick is hard to miss.

 “One of the women got us some paper painter outfits, we took the car to a parking lot, and spray-painted it pink,” Tietjen said. Then, using decals, they applied “spots” to the car.

The Buick is tuned and prepared for racing by “our Cheetah tamer, Carmine,” said Tietjen, on Long Island. He trailers the car for them, as well, “and says he just has fun doing it,” she said.

Cheetah Girls is only a piece of the racing Tietjen does. She has been driving racecars since 1991, a hobby she took up in order to spend time together with her racecar hobbyist husband, Ron.

“I would go with Ron to Lime Rock [Park in Lakeville, Conn.] to watch him go around the track. That can become very boring after not too long,” recalled Tietjen. “I said to myself, ‘Self, you should learn how to drive this race track!’” So she did.

Tietjen and her husband have learned racecar driving through Skip Barber at Lime Rock and other racing schools around the country. Both of the Tietjens are now instructors for the Porsche Club of America, teaching high performance driving to drivers of all ages.

“There were very few women drivers at that time. I was one of the first women instructors at Porsche Club,” Tietjen said.

The Tietjens belong to the Connecticut Valley Region Porsche Club of America, and do all of their activities through that club. While she competes in only about four races a year with Porsche Club, she puts in a lot of practice time. “We spend about 30 days a year on the track,” she said.

Racecar driving is an exhilarating experience, Tietjen said, and one that requires thought. “There is a lot of strategy. It’s not just about speed. I’m not thinking about how fast I can go,” she said. What she is thinking about is “nailing every apex. I love being consistent and knowing that I’m driving the track the right way.”

Racing is about the turns on the track. “When you are driving on a highway or road, you are basically going in a straight line. On a racecar track there are turns, and each turn has three parts: the turn in, the apex, and the track out” she said. Certain turns are more important than others in a race, and how a racer finesses those turns means the difference between a good and bad time.

Racecar driving is not necessarily the dangerous hobby people believe it to be, she said. “I would say it is safer to drive on the race track than on a town road. In a racecar you have no distractions — no radio, no phone calls, no texting, no coffee holder. Your car is equipped with safety equipment and you are wearing safety clothing and a helmet,” she pointed out.

Still, on the track, every driver must be aware that he or she is not out there alone. “It’s a challenge,” she admitted.

The Tietjens did not allow their four boys to the tracks when they were young, but all of them eventually learned to race and did take part. Right now, though, she said, each of them is not in a place in their lives that allows for the hobby.

 “I love to drive, and have always loved cars,” she said. “What we do is amateur racing, no money involved. We do it just for the love of driving,” Tietjen said.

 “I found myself laughing all the time,” she said of the LeMons series, a change from the usual serious nature of Porsche Club events.

Even the penalties at the 24 Hours of LeMons are uniquely applied, she said. “The judge wears a robe and listens to the infraction, then comes up with a punishment,” she said. At the New Jersey track, a driver who passed under a yellow flag and put himself and other drivers in danger found himself writing with magic marker on his car, 100 times, “I will not pass under a yellow flag.” It was not the mild humiliation that was the real punishment, though, said Tietjen. It was the time he lost while undertaking the task that hurt the most.

“Another guy was duct-taped to the roof of his car and driven through the paddock aisles while he profusely apologized for his infraction.

“Bribes are allowed,” laughed Tietjen, and the Cheetah Girls successfully bribed a judge with popcorn at the April racetrack, while being tried for a (false) accusation.

The Cheetah Girls raced the weekend of May 6 in New Hampshire, the weekend of June 15 in West Virginia, and will return to New Hampshire for their final LeMons race, in October.

“I can’t wait to go to the next one,” declared Tietjen.