There are several student-athletes at Richmond, but few do what Ashley Hillenburg does in her spare time.

Hillenburg is a defender with the Lady Raider soccer team, as well as a part-time race car driver. Right now, the junior is trying to bounce back from a foot injury which forced her to miss Richmond’s season-opening loss to Forest Hills on Thursday.

“I’m still trying to figure out what may have caused the injury, but I think it had something to do when I ran cross country in the fall. I had aspirations of being a starter, and this was my chance to shine. Right now, it has been taken away, but hopefully, I can get on the field sometime soon and help my team win.”

Hillenburg has been playing soccer for several years, but admits her passion is getting behind the wheel of a car and going around the track.

As the daughter of Rockingham Speedway’s owner Andy Hillenburg, Ashley has followed in her father’s footsteps and started her own auto racing career.

“I know what a struggle it is to start out because I lived it,” her father said. “I know how it can go. I wasn’t sure how committed she was going to be to it, but she has the commitment.”

Currently, Hillenburg drives a bandolero car, which are small cars between a go kart and an actual race car for entry-level racers.

“I actually started in January of 2008, and I’ve been racing for about a year-and-a-half,” Hillenburg said. “I feel like I’ve came a long way.”

Hillenburg has competed in nearly 30 races and move up to bigger cars in the near future.

“She’s practiced in an Allison Legacy car and a Legends Series car,” Andy Hillenburg said. “She’s done really well.”

Hillenburg won her first career race in the bandolero outlaws division at the two-day INEX Road Course at Rockingham last November.

“It was a major accomplishment,” Hillenburg said.

She first got behind the wheel of a race car when she was 14. Once she started, Hillenburg admitted she was hooked.

When she first told her dad what she wanted to do, he gave her the answer she was looking for.

“He told me he will support me no matter what I wanted to do,” Hillenburg said.

“I asked her what took her so long to race because she is very good,” Andy Hillenburg said.

The risk for any driver is being involved in a crash, and Hillenburg said she has crashed on several occasions in her brief career. The worst at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in her hometown of Concord.

“I was running my line and another car who also was a rookie over corrected when we were coming out of turn four,” she said. “He slid into me and I actually went airborne. I hit the wall pretty hard. I was kind of out of it for a little while and I kind of got smacked by another car. The car smoked up and I was breathing some pretty nasty smoke, but I didn’t suffer any injuries. I’ve learned if you don’t want to wreck, then you don’t want to race.”

Because of her father owning “The Rock,” Hillenburg met several drivers including the three-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmy Johnson, who has tested at the track. In addition, she met actor Will Ferrell when some scenes of “Talledega Nights” were shot at the track.

Even though the track wasn’t owned by her father at the time he did own the race cars used in the movie.

Despite the obstacles which come with attempting to be a woman driver in NASCAR, Hillenburg has no problem setting her goals high.

Her idol is Indy car driver Danica Patrick, who became the first female driver to win an Indy Car race last year. Hillenburg is hoping to make a significant impact in auto racing like Patrick.

“Even though she is in Indy Car, she is definitely a role model,” Hillenburg said. “My goal is to go all the way and compete in the Sprint Cup series. I know it’s hard for some people to grasp, but that’s where I see myself up there racing against those guys going three-wide at Daytona.”



n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com