Transcript
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Hey, it's Kathleen and Shannon here, and this is Get In Her Lane.
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We are two automotive professionals diving deep into why women are so underrepresented in this industry and trying to make a positive change.
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So ride along with us as we discuss ideas and takeaways that can help everyone further this effort in the automotive world and beyond.
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Hey Shan how are we doing?
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Hello Kathleen, Welcome back to another episode of Get In Her Lane.
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I am so excited.
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Today we have an incredible guest, Alanis King, and let me just say, if you are interested in motorsports at all, this is the episode for you.
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And I will add, even if you're not into motorsports because, to be transparent, I was not prior to this interview, but there's no way.
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This is also the episode for you.
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This is also the episode for you, and there's no way to not be at least a little bit into motorsports after talking to Alanis, so, so excited for that.
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She has quite the resume.
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She's done it all.
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Yes, so to dive into her resume, because I think, alanis, she's so passionate, she talks about so much on this episode, but the one thing is she doesn't brag about herself enough and her resume, so we're going to do it for her.
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She is currently a video presenter and car reviewer at Cars and Bids, a contributing editor at Road and Track.
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She also hosts a podcast, donut Media's F1 podcast, and she is even co-authored a book on F1 racing which we will get into in this episode.
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This is making me feel bad about myself.
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Yeah, and if you recognize her name, she has also worked as a writer and editor at Jalopnik and Business Insider, so her resume keeps going, she's incredible and really, beyond all this, she is one of the most passionate guests we've spoken to.
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Yet you know I can't wait for you guys to get a glimpse of it.
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She loves what she does, so let's hear about it.
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All right, alanis, we're so glad to have you here today.
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So, just to start us off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey into the world of automotive journalism and motorsports?
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Ooh, myself.
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Who am I?
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Let me think I first got into motorsports and cars by getting free tickets to a NASCAR race when I was, I think, 13 years old, 12 or 13.
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So it was 2009.
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Got free tickets to Texas Motor Speedway and we went to the race and I didn't know a single thing that was going on.
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I didn't know anything about cars, but as soon as they took the green flag and the grandstands just like shook under me and you could see it felt like you could see the end of the earth in front of you because this facility was so big and you were so high up.
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I was like I don't know what's going on, but this is what I'm going to do with my life, but it feels right.
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Yeah, that was like, if it feels right, this feels like what I want to do and I didn't want to go to NASCAR actually because it didn't interest me, and my mom said it's the recession, we are not going on vacation.
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We got free tickets, we're not doing anything, this is free and we're going to go, and I was like, okay, well, I guess I don't have a choice.
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Yeah, maybe they'll have snacks.
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Yeah, maybe they'll have snacks, Maybe there will be something there.
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I vividly remember walking up and there was a T-shirt for Sayla Dale Earnhardt Jr T-shirt, and my mom said that's Dale Jr and I said who's Dale Jr?
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And she said it's Dale Sr's son and I was like who's?
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Dale Sr.
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I didn't know anything at all, but that became my path.
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Good for you.
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So what happened from there?
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I decided that I would watch every single NASCAR race from here on out for the rest of my life, whoa Okay, so you went zero to a hundred.
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Yeah, and the most familiar with NASCAR.
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There are three ladders.
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If you're listening and you're not familiar with it, there are three ladders in the national series the truck series, the Xfinity series and the cup series.
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Cup series is the top, the Xfinity series is the middle and the truck series is the bottom.
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They race pretty much every weekend.
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The cup series has 38 races a year.
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36 of them are points paying.
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The Xfinity series, I think, is like 32 or 33, and the truck series is in the 20s somewhere.
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So to commit to watching every NASCAR race ever for the rest of my life is like a hundred races a year.
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And I was sitting there in that grandstand yes, I was sitting there in that grandstand and I said I'm never going to miss another NASCAR race.
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And I have not.
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Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh.
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I was going to say how are you tracking that?
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That's incredible.
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You've missed nothing so far.
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Nope, I've watched all of them, even if I missed them.
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I watched them back, even if I was somewhere else.
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I watched them on replay.
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So at what point did you know this passion you had?
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You were like I'm going to turn this into my career because obviously you were very young.
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So were you just kind of like, okay, I'm going to watch them all, but I'm also going to do this for the rest of my life.
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It was immediate.
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Yeah, it was.
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When I was sitting in the grandstands there, literally on that day, I was like, yeah, this is going to be my career.
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I don't know what this is, but this is what I'm going to do.
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And I think some of that was I had a close friend when I was young who always knew what she wanted to do when she grew up and she found it so perplexing that I did not have a passion like that.
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She found it so perplexing.
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She wanted to be an international correspondent for CNN from the time we were in the fourth grade and she was like I don't know how you are not passionate enough about something to do it for the rest of your life.
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And she said that to me for years when we were in elementary school and I was always shocked because when the teachers went around in class, everyone had an answer.
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It was like I want to be a teacher, I want to be a lawyer, I want to be president, I want to be this.
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And they would get to me and I'd be like I don't know, there is nothing that I want to do every single day for the rest of my life.
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And then when I saw that, I was like this is what I want to do every single day for the rest of my life.
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That was it.
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I think that's so cool because I know, even like Kathleen and myself and a lot of women we've had on the podcast, it almost feels like sometimes they stumbled into automotive you know what I mean Like maybe it was the people side of the business or just like some skill that they had.
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That translated well.
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So I'm really excited to talk to someone who's like passion for the actual part.
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Intentionally joined.
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Yes, that's so cool.
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Yeah, I think the difficult part about that is that I was 13 when I discovered that NASCAR existed.
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I did not know who Dale Sr was and I ended up in motorsports and automotive new cars, old cars, whatever.
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I ended up in both.
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And when you get into these fields, you're typically getting into these fields with men who have done this since they could walk or talk or whatever, like their dad showed them a car and that was all they did for the formative years of their lives.
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So I was extremely behind and that is hard, especially when you're a woman.
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Yeah, we know that story Absolutely.
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So from there, how did you get into the journalism field?
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So this is actually something I talk about with people pretty regularly, including kids who want careers.
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I got into journalism and writing because that was all I saw women doing at the time, especially in NASCAR.
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So Danika Patrick was around in the early years of my fandom, but not really when I made that hard commitment to this is what I want to do for my life, which is it's wild, because I was like 13 or 14.
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I thought I had to know exactly what I wanted to do at that point in my life.
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And then you get to college and people switch majors all the time and then they don't even use those majors in their career.
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But I was like I'm at a pivotal moment where I have to decide that this is what I'm going to do with my life, and I didn't see a lot of women driving or doing the engineering or doing anything like that, and some of that is access, some of that is just I wasn't on the shop floor in Ray shops or in the garage seeing the few women who were around.
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There just weren't a lot of women, and so I didn't see women doing these other things and I thought, well, I see women on the TV reporting and I see women writing, that's what I can do.
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And when you're that age, when you see people who look like you're doing something, that's kind of what you think is possible and not too much past that.
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And so I always say, had I seen women driving, had I had the access to see women driving, had there been more women driving, knowing my success rate and the things I do in life, I would be driving.
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But I saw people reporting and writing and talking about it, so that's what I ended up doing.
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In hearing you say the name, danica Patrick.
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Obviously I'm not super well versed in the NASCAR world but that is one of my benchmarks that I do have and I remember those were the races I did watch was when I knew that she was driving.
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And I think maybe like one in D 500 that might have been on TV at some point but that I watched, but because she was driving.
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That's when I started to engage in the sport more.
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So you're definitely right of only know what you see in a lot of ways, so that makes sense.
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That kind of journalism stuck out to you as okay.
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If I want to get in this world, this is how.
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Exactly, and I love what I do and I think it is just as professional and just as difficult as driving or engineering or doing whatever else.
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But my one thing I do say is that there was not a lot of choice in my 13, 14 year old brain just because of what I saw Now.
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It was still just as difficult to get here and it's still just as rewarding and I love my career and I think I'm good at it.
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But I was limited at the beginning.
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So, on that note, this podcast is we're really focused on diversity and inclusion in the automotive space.
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Obviously, it looked very different for you when you were 13.
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What's your take on the current state in motor sports in terms of female inclusion, and where do you see room for improvement?
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You know, things have changed a lot.
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At the time I was like 13 and changed it in ways I didn't expect to see for another couple of decades.
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So obviously we're still way behind where I would like to be, but we're way ahead of where I thought we would be in motor sports.
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And it's really interesting now to watch NASCAR and see NASCAR celebrate Pride Month.
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They did that, I think, for the first time on a major scale last year and this was the second year.
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And to see them celebrate Pride Month, to see them talk about Black history and all kinds of things like that is so cool, because when I got into this it was still very much like old school NASCAR, you know To see that is really cool.
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Also, I think having Lewis Hamilton be so, so good at Formula One that has just advanced the sport by miles, because I really do believe if Lewis Hamilton was not as good as he is, he would not be able to have as big of a voice as he does.
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Because when you transcend a sport in the way Lewis Hamilton has, you can say and do whatever you want for good and for bad, and he uses that for good.
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And that is really really, really cool because when you think about it, lewis Hamilton is the first and only Black driver in Formula One, and here he is, seven championships later.
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He can say whatever he wants without being ostracized for it, and if he did not have that era of dominance and just transcend the sport, I do not think he would have the ability to do that, because even now you do see sanctions put against him.
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He stopped from saying all of the things he wants to say.
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I think it was two years ago.
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He wore a t-shirt that said arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor, and that is all it took again.
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Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, great.
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They made new rules in Formula One to where you could not wear T-shirts on the podium.
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So if he were not as big of a deal as he is, he wouldn't have as much of a voice, but he has done so much with that voice to progress Formula One and Motorsport in general.
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That has been super cool to see as well.
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I mean, I've seen it across all divisions, I've seen it everywhere and just the progress we have made is more than I thought we would have made, which is really, really cool.
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I mean I still deal with a lot.
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I know my friends still deal with a lot in Motorsports, but overall it is so much better of an environment than it used to be.
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That's amazing to hear you just mentioned.
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You've dealt with a lot.
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Have you faced any challenges, maybe early on in your career?
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How did you overcome them and can you share maybe any specific instances where your gender presented unique obstacles for you Every single day?
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Every day.
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I mean, I'm sure y'all experienced this too and I'd be super interested to hear what y'all experienced, but it never stops.
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It is every single day.
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I mean, especially being on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram Reels and everything like that All I hear is about not about the topics I'm talking about.
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It's always about me.
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There are people who do keep on topic and who are great, and that is fantastic, but there are also so many people who don't stay on topic and you think we're here with a shared passion cars and Motorsports and you're only talking about me.
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Why can't we just enjoy something we like together?
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And so it's every single day.
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I mean, when I was early in my career at Gealopnik, it was terrifying because I was a Motorsports expert.
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I didn't know anything about cars, and here I was at a car website car specifically and there was so much pressure to get everything right Because if I got something wrong, then it was like, well, she was faking it this whole time.
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She never actually liked this stuff.
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If any of my male colleagues got anything wrong, it was like, ha ha, dude, no problem.
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You know it was, Stakes were high it was, yes, it just how quick people are to invalidate you If you get a single thing wrong or they sense anything off.
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It's wild.
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I would host.
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I would host reader meetups for Gealopnik and I distinctly remember one time I hosted a meetup at a bar and a man came up to me and he asked me something so wild.
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I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was something basic about working on a car.
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Like he asked me to basically tell him how to change oil or something like that to prove that I could.
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And I was like, do I really have to go through the steps of changing the oil on my car to prove to you that I change my own oil?
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What?
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And that took me by such surprise.
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But then I realized people will quiz you, just to quiz you.
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Like.
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Men will come up to you and ask you questions they know the answer to, just to see if you can answer them.
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And I have actually gotten to a point where I don't answer those questions, even if I know the answers.
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Yeah, even if they could come up to me and say what does red mean on a stoplight?
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And I would say I'm not going to answer.
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I am not going to answer that because I don't owe you that answer and you are not asking me that from a place of curiosity.
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You are asking me that from a place of invalidation and I will not give you that, whether I know the answer or not, you are not going to get it and I think that's been powerful for me to to accept that.
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I don't have to show people that I know what I'm doing.
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I'm here Absolutely Exactly.
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I don't owe them anything.
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This also happens with colleagues and with people in the industry.
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I remember it was, I think, 2019 or 2018.
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I went to the launch of the KTM Crossbow Comp R and it was at Sonoma Raceway and there were six of us, and it was five men and me and this, this launch was very interesting.
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But because there were only six of us, they just let us have free laps on the racetrack, no leader, no, nothing.
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And you would think that would be awesome, and that would usually be awesome for me, because I love ripping around a racetrack with no one telling me what to do.
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But as we get there the dinner before the track day, I have a man sitting across from me and he goes.
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You know, this car only comes in a manual right.
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And in my head, in my head, I was like, well, it's a manual and there's a DSG option, which DSG is a form of automatic.
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But I did not say that because, again, I'm not here to validate myself.
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So I said, uh-huh, what about it?
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And he said do you know how to drive a manual?
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And I was like, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, uh-huh, I sure do.
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And he chastised me the entire night about being able to drive a stick and then toward the end of the night, he goes.
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Have you ever driven on a racetrack before?
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And I said yes.
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The last time I drove on a racetrack was a couple of months ago at Shanghai International Circuit, which is a Formula One track.
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And he said ever been there, buddy?
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And he said and was that car a manual?
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And I said yes, yes, it was Uh-huh, it was indeed a manual.
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And then the next morning at breakfast, there were only two women on this entire trip me and a woman who worked for KTM.
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And this woman also, she raced cars.
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She was super cool.
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Next morning at breakfast, he invites me to sit down at his table and I'm like damn it, yeah, I was like I was trying to escape you.
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He invites me to sit down and he goes.
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So I hear you race cars.
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And I said we went through all of this last night at dinner, what?
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And he goes no, no, no, no, I like I hear you race cars professionally.
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And then he started listing out what this woman does and I said that is the only other woman here.
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There are two of us and we look nothing alike.
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And you just confused us.
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After chastising me for an hour at dinner An hour and then I had to go out on this racetrack with six men, and this man is a race car, like he is very, very well known and he drives race cars.
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And I tell you what, when I went out on that racetrack, I said to myself I am going to wreck this car before I let this man pass me.
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There you go.
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I will wreck this car before he passes me.
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And he never passed me.
00:18:51.138 --> 00:19:02.902
He never got near me and I do track days like twice a year and this man is an actual race car driver and he never passed me and I was like no, you are not going to, I will destroy this car before you pass me.
00:19:03.363 --> 00:19:05.386
Like that's some motivation right there.
00:19:05.386 --> 00:19:07.332
That was how mad I was.
00:19:08.554 --> 00:19:19.367
I was so mad and like again I've never felt like this, ever in my life, like I've never felt that passionately about proving myself.
00:19:19.367 --> 00:19:26.791
And I shouldn't have felt that passionately about proving myself because I didn't owe it to him, but there was no way in hell that this man was going to pass me.
00:19:26.791 --> 00:19:28.026
Yeah, no, none.
00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:36.529
I think, like I completely relate to trying to find the balance in the situation of just like letting the results speak from themselves.
00:19:36.529 --> 00:19:37.212
You know what I mean.
00:19:37.212 --> 00:19:44.795
Like I know that I deserve to be here versus maybe I will talk you through how to change oil and maybe you'll learn something from how I change my oil.
00:19:45.096 --> 00:19:55.182
It definitely is kind of a delicate balance and I think early in your career it's very, very easy to just get caught up in trying to validate every way you can that you deserve to be there.
00:19:55.182 --> 00:20:09.662
So I guess for you was it just like over time you kind of got that confidence, or was it maybe I know you've had a lot of different roles within the industry Was it like a certain role that you were like, okay, now I feel like I've made it kind of thing, or where'd that confidence come from?
00:20:10.303 --> 00:20:16.423
It happened over time, and I think it's because I realized this is a very important realization for me.
00:20:16.423 --> 00:20:44.613
I realized that if I would not say what these people are saying to me, if I would not say that to someone else, then whatever they're saying is not valid and it's not constructive and I don't need to listen to it, because if they are saying something that I find out of line, then I don't have to listen to it because I would never say that to someone else, so there's nothing valid in it because it is not up to the standards that I hold myself.
00:20:44.613 --> 00:20:50.432
So if someone says something, I learned over time that it doesn't actually matter.
00:20:50.432 --> 00:20:59.982
I also learned that while you will change some people, you won't change most people and they can think what they want and do what they want.
00:20:59.982 --> 00:21:08.406
I'm doing the things I want to do and I feel like I am in a place that I like to be in and they can deal with it.
00:21:08.406 --> 00:21:10.592
That's kind of what I learned over time.
00:21:10.940 --> 00:21:20.847
Okay, so on a more positive note, on the other end of the spectrum, you've had a ton of different roles, from Dilopnik to Road and Track, to Cars and Bids.
00:21:20.847 --> 00:21:27.173
What stands out is the most memorable or rewarding moment for you in your career so far, and why.
00:21:28.237 --> 00:21:30.063
Oh, most rewarding moment.
00:21:30.063 --> 00:21:34.761
I have had so many, that's good, sounds like a good career.
00:21:34.761 --> 00:21:40.347
I really have had so many that it's hard to choose.
00:21:40.347 --> 00:21:42.000
I mean I had a very cool moment.
00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.873
I'll just I'll talk about a recent moment that I had, because I have these.
00:21:45.873 --> 00:21:48.340
I really do mean it when I say I have these all the time.
00:21:49.515 --> 00:21:57.846
I had a very cool moment recently where Top Gear magazine reached out to me and they said can you write a history of NASCAR for the upcoming issue?
00:21:57.846 --> 00:22:03.807
And I said you can say no to this idea, but can I do this instead?
00:22:03.807 --> 00:22:17.825
And my idea was let me talk about the history of NASCAR, but let me intertwine it with the fact that I was not around for most of that history and what got me into NASCAR, because when people talk about motorsports they often talk about the glory days.
00:22:17.825 --> 00:22:20.340
Ah, we'll never get back to those.
00:22:20.340 --> 00:22:32.086
Whatever I wanted to talk about how the glory days were, not what got me into NASCAR, it was just and motorsports and cars in general, it was just seeing it right.
00:22:32.086 --> 00:22:39.946
And so I said can I write about that and can I interview some of the really important people who had an impact on that?
00:22:39.946 --> 00:22:44.500
And they said go for it and I said all righty.
00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:59.162
So I went for it and I called up the person who was with me at my first NASCAR race, who's a family friend named Steve McClain, and he walked me through everything and he was a big Dale Earnhardt Jr fan and he told me you are going to be a Dale Jr fan.
00:23:00.575 --> 00:23:05.666
And the first race we went to, which was a Saturday, it was the middle tier Xfinity series.
00:23:05.666 --> 00:23:07.520
It was called the nationwide series back then.
00:23:07.520 --> 00:23:24.567
A man named Kyle Bush won that race and Kyle Bush is by far the most dominant driver in pretty much the history of the Xfinity series and across NASCAR's three national ladders he has more than 200 wins.
00:23:24.567 --> 00:23:27.462
It's shocking how many wins this man has.
00:23:27.462 --> 00:23:32.001
He wins that race and I'm like so who's this guy?
00:23:32.001 --> 00:23:36.381
Steve says you cannot like this guy.
