Karen Stoffer always had an appetite for athleticism ... - NHRA.com

y Kelly Wade
Karen Stoffer always had an
appetite for athleticism and
adventure. To feed the hunger
early in life, she was involved in various
sports in school and some pretty serious
jet skiing that could have turned
competitive had she not dropped anchor,
climbed ashore, and taken a swift turn
down a paved quarter-mile road.
Unlike many of her competitors, the
Southern California native didn’t have
much exposure to the drag racing world
until after high school, when she and
neighborhood pal and future husband
Gary Stoffer began dating. Gary’s
enthusiasm for the sport sparked her
initial interest, and Stoffer’s own
passion for drag racing began to
surface.
“Gary was a motor head,” said
Stoffer. “He had a ’67 Nova that he raced
in the E.T. track series events, and I
became his pit crew. That’s how my
interest was developed, all from Gary.”
The 2004 season was a breakthrough year for Stoffer
(right): She scored her first Pro Stock Motorcycle
victory at the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in
Houston, and she finished the year in the top 10 in the
POWERade points standings. (Above) But 2004 wasn’t
all pretty. At the Pontiac Excitement NHRA Nationals in
Columbus, Ohio, Stoffer was thrown from the bike after
completing a qualifying run. Thankfully, she wasn’t
seriously injured, but the condition of Doug Johnson’s
Jonco Motorsports Suzuki was another story.
20 ✦ National DRAGSTER
During an engine rebuild for the
Nova, Gary raced a Kawasaki 650
motorcycle at the track, and Stoffer
had learned enough about turning a
wrench that she became the crew chief
on the bike. Gary continued to race the
Kawasaki and won two track E.T.
Motorcycle championships and a
National Motorcycle Racing Association
(NMRA) Super Gas championship.
Then, it was Stoffer’s turn.
“Knowing how much I enjoyed
racing, Gary asked if I wanted to race a
bike, and that was all that had to be
said,” said Stoffer.
After one race on a stock Honda
Interceptor, Stoffer settled onto the seat
of a Kawasaki 1000, and in the first
year on the circuit, she won the NMRA
Super Gas title while Gary took the Pro
Gas championship on a Suzuki. Soon
after, Gary decided to pass his quicker
Suzuki on to his speed-loving gal, sell
Stoffer’s Kawasaki, and take hold of the
wrench as crew chief for her, a
choice that boosted a
flourishing career in E.T.
racing and helped them score
the 1993 Pacific Division
Motorcycle championship.
A few more years of successful
racing followed for the
Karen Stoffer made her Pro Stock Motorcycle debut at the 1996 Mopar Mile-High NHRA
Nationals in Denver along with Angelle Sampey and Stephanie Reaves. Though she didn’t
qualify, Stoffer made history as one of the first three females to compete in the class.
husband-and-wife team, and in 1996, the
two stepped up their game, added
nitrous to the Suzuki, and entered the
Pro Modified class, where they
consistently laid down quick 7.40-second
passes. More excitement followed that
year when Production Wheels, along
with close friends Bill and Dee Dee
Peters and other friends and family,
were able to pull together just enough
funding to sponsor Stoffer in the Pro
Stock Motorcycle class at the Mopar
Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Denver
and at the Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals in Pomona.
Stoffer didn’t make the field at either
event, but her first foray into
Professional racing was historic. She
debuted in Denver alongside Angelle
Sampey and Stephanie Reaves, and the
trio became the first females to ever
compete in the category. Though
Sampey and Reaves continued in the
Pro ranks, Stoffer decided to step back
and continue bracket racing until she
and Gary were better-prepared to
compete at the Professional level.
“People called it a debut, but it was
really us out on a wing and a prayer
just getting some experience and trying
something on our own,” Stoffer
recalled. “We shouldn’t have been out
there in reality. We didn’t have the
money, we didn’t have the knowledge,
we didn’t have anything, just a big
dream to go out and race.”
or several more years, Stoffer
Fhoned her skills, and at the 2001
ACDelco NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas,
her future as a Pro rider was sealed
when a friend approached the owner of
Jonco Motorsports, a team in need of a
pilot for their recently vacated Suzuki,
and told them he had a rider if they
were interested in a girl. Two months
later, Jonco Motorsports owner Doug
Johnson phoned, and Stoffer and her
husband were on a plane to Florida to
meet Johnson and his wife, Debbie, and
check out the bike.
Things got hairy during her very
first run during a preseason test
session at Gainesville Raceway. A
defective helmet, which came down over
her eyes and blocked her line of vision,
caused Stoffer to crash.
“The pass was beautiful, but the
shutdown was a disaster,” said Stoffer
in a 2004 interview.

“I felt awful, but Doug told me that
he had seen enough in one pass to let
me continue. That sort of faith is what
has made our relationship so special.”
The deal was inked, and Stoffer
made her second debut at the 2002 Mac
Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis,
where she qualified 10th and was first
off the starting line with a clean pass in
the first round but was defeated by
Antron Brown.
Stoffer’s 2002 effort showed
significant improvement over her
introduction five years earlier. She
qualified for each of the four events
entered, and to highlight her
determination and polished skill, she
made her way to her first final-round
appearance next to eventual event
winner Sampey in Reading, where, as
(Above) Stoffer, who was runner-up to
Sampey at the 2002 Reading event in her
first final-round appearance, scored at the
event in 2006, the fourth victory of her
career. During qualifying, Stoffer recorded
a 6.970 pass to join the Mickey Thompson
Six-Second Pro Stock Bike Club. (Right)
The GEICO Motorcycle Suzuki team
celebrated in the winner’s circle following
Stoffer’s victory at the 2007 ACDelco NHRA
Gatornationals in Gainesville.
(Below) The 2004 season was the final year that
Stoffer rode the Jonco Motorsports Suzuki without
a major sponsor. Stoffer, pictured with the GEICO
Gecko (right) and aboard her blue Gary Stoffertuned
GEICO Motorcycle Suzuki (left), has
collected four of her five wins while enjoying a full
ride with the motorcycle- and car-insurance
company. GEICO was an associate sponsor when
Stoffer collected her first win in Houston.
they did in Denver in 1996, Stoffer and
Sampey made history together, this
time as participants in the first allfemale
final round in NHRA Pro Stock
Motorcycle history.
Stoffer had continued her ascension
in the class, climbing from 20th in
points at the end of the 2002 season to
11th in 2003 and finally breaking into
the top 10 following her first win in
Houston in 2004. The next season,
Stoffer again finished 10th, secured a
sixth-place finish in 2006, and locked
into eighth place in 2007.
In 2004, Stoffer collected her first
win and was finally standing out as a
rising star, but the year also saw
struggle, including financial concerns
and an accident during qualifying at
the Columbus, Ohio, event in which
Stoffer was thrown from her bike. She
walked away with barely a scratch, but
the Jonco Suzuki was badly damaged,
and the short-on-cash team didn’t have
a spare. Thankfully, fellow Pro Stock
Motorcycle rider Craig Treble lent the
team a set of wheels, and Stoffer went
on to qualify for all but one of the
remaining events that season. And
more good news were on the horizon:
The team’s financial worries would
soon be assuaged.
“We had a couple of small product
sponsors here and there,” said Stoffer.
“And, of course, Jonco
Motorsports sponsored
us for the first year
and a half we were out
there, but GEICO was
really the first [major sponsor] that we
had. It was a cold call, just saying, ‘We
see your advertising for motorcycle
insurance and don’t know if you’re into
promotions, but here’s an opportunity
for you.’ It was a pure cold call, and
they said, ‘Well, let’s test the waters
and see how you do.’ They sponsored a
few races and received a very good
response, so it just progressed from
there. It was a few more races the
following year, and after that, it was a
full-blown multiyear sponsorship.”
toffer is an ideal representative for
Sher major
sponsor because in
addition to her
refined skills
aboard the GEICO
Suzuki, she’s an
accomplished
businesswoman
with two Bachelor
of Science degrees
from the University
of Nevada, Reno.
Stoffer’s position
as a six sigma lean
master black belt
for operational
excellence at
General Electric in
Minden, Nev., may sound like a lengthy
title for a martial arts expert, but her
duties boil down to analyzing data in an
effort to help the business become more
efficient and effective in their processes
while producing a quality product. It’s a
tough and demanding job, and Stoffer
commutes an hour each way and works
more than 60 hours a week, but the
stress of her job is minimized by the
fact that she and Gary live close to her
parents, who provide meals, do the
shopping, bring in the mail, watch the
house while they’re away, and offer
unending support.
“I have a lot of people who take
care of me,” said Stoffer. “If they
weren’t part of my life, I don’t know
how successful I’d be in either of my
careers. I have a very supportive
network that allows me to be flexible
Stoffer, pictured with ESPN pit and
trackside reporter Gary Gerould, is no
stranger to the limelight. The five-time
national event winner has garnered
the attention of the media since
earning the Pacific Division
Motorcycle championship in 1993.
and do all the things that I need or
want to do.”
The support that surrounds her —
not just from her family and close
friends but also from fellow racers and
fans — became even more evident in
2005 when Stoffer was seriously injured
in a freak pit-area accident following the
ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.
One of the supports that held the back
door of her transporter released
unexpectedly, and the rear door crashed
to the ground and pinned Stoffer
beneath it. Stoffer was out of
commission for the final event of the
season but made a quick recovery to
race at the first Pro Stock Motorcycle
event of 2006, in Gainesville.
“It’s like a family network,” said
Stoffer. “I think I realized that most
when I was injured. It wasn’t just the
NHRA family, but it was all
motorsports in general. I was receiving
e-mails, cards, and letters of inspiration
and was just bombarded. I was
pleasantly surprised at how many
people had heard about my injury, when
the door fell on me, and responded in
kindness, and it was very encouraging.
If I had to give up racing, and that will
occur one day, it would probably be
hardest to separate from all the family
and friends you make out there.”
What could possibly make the
successful racer with so much ahead of
her, including the challenge of obtaining
her first Pro Stock Motorcycle
championship, climb off the bike?
“If I’m not being
effective for my
team anymore,”
answered Stoffer.
“If, for some reason,
I lose the edge and
there’s somebody
out there who is
better for the team,
I would step off the
bike. Also, it’s something
that Gary and
I do together, and
we both love doing
it. I’m not sure that
I would love doing it
if he wasn’t involved
in some way. If he
wanted to leave or he had any desire to
move on, or if he wanted to race, I
would definitely step off and let him do
it if we both couldn’t do it together. I
have a plan of when I want to stop, but
not right now and not in the near
future. I still think I’m good enough to
be on the bike, my team still believes
I’m good enough, and we still have a
very good relationship with GEICO. We
love them, and they love us. I don’t
have any inclination right now.”
here has been much discussion over
Tthe years concerning parity in the
class and the constant challenge of
maintaining a close field of competition
between current combinations, including
Buell V-Twins, Harley-Davidson V-Twins,
Suzuki inline four-cylinder engines, and
to page 22
May 2, 2008 ✦ 21

● Karen Stoffer
from page 21
22 ✦ National DRAGSTER
Kawasaki inline four-cylinder engines.
Nearly every rider has an opinion on the
matter, and, true to her business-like
nature, Stoffer’s own is one of logic
rather than emotion.
“I work for a business that looks out
five and 10 years to see where they want
something to be,” said Stoffer. “If I were
to take that stance, I would say that the
way technology develops year after year,
there are a lot of things that can happen,
and [NHRA] needs to try to get in front
of technology and direct where the class
is going to go before it gets there. It’s
very, very tough, and I definitely feel for
the people who have to try to make these
decisions.”
Aside from the issue of parity, the
five-time national event winner has an
opinion on her own performance so far
this season.
“It’s amazing,” marveled Stoffer.
“This is actually the best start to a
season we have had as far as qualifying
but the absolute worst racing start
we’ve ever had since we assembled the
team. I have mixed emotions, and I
kind of wonder if we didn’t qualify so
well, if maybe we’d be
doing better racing — no,
that’s not true, and it’s
my own mind-set there.
At this point in time and
this early in the season,
we do have a great bike.
Our sponsors, Vance &
Hines, GEICO, Speed
Dawg Apparel, Mac
Tools, and everybody,
have all helped us
significantly, and we put
a good package together.
I’ve got a great bike
underneath me. It’s just
getting the team jelling
and me working correctly
to capitalize on it.”
There have been many
highs and lows in
Stoffer’s career that are
unique to her and aren’t the typical
moments commonly referenced by
racers. Although the highlight of
Stoffer’s career included her first
victory — a high for any competitor — it
was more about giving back than
hoisting a trophy.
Johnson had two dreams as a team
owner: to drive the team’s rig and to
win an NHRA event.
After effectively
maneuvering the
team’s transporter for
four years, Johnson
was able to cross off
one goal on his list
and handed the transporter
keys to crew
chief Gary, and at the
very next event, the
2004 O’Reilly NHRA
Spring Nationals in
Houston, Stoffer
defeated Brown in the
Two final-round
appearances resulted in two
victories for Stoffer in 2007,
helping her finish in the
NHRA POWERade top 10 for
the fourth consecutive year.
Stoffer credits her crew chief and
husband, Gary, with igniting her passion
for drag racing. Gary, a former
Sportsman racer in four- and two-wheel
classes, introduced Stoffer to the sport
and encouraged her to climb aboard her
first race bike.
final round to fulfill Johnson’s second
wish.
“It was emotional for the team but
even more so because we knew Doug
had realized both elements of his
dream,” said Stoffer, who picked that
moment as her most memorable but
adds that fans provides plenty of happy
memories, too.
“Anytime you win it’s a great feeling,
but if you’ve just red-lighted or you’ve
done something extremely stupid and a
fan or a child comes up to you and says,
‘You’ll get ’em next time,’ that makes you
feel really good. It puts
life into perspective,
and I’d say that’s one of
the best things about
NHRA Drag Racing
fans.
“It’s how your life
plays out and how you
react that makes you
who you are,” said
Stoffer. “I’ve worked
very, very hard for
everything that I’ve got,
but I think I cherish it a
little bit more — what
we have and what we do
— and I don’t regret
anything. I am one of
the older ones out there,
but I’m still living my
life and having fun. I’m
[also] probably one of
the only people in the top 10 who has a
full-time career outside of racing, and I
know that makes me unique, and
sometimes that makes it a little
challenging, but I don’t know that I would
do it any different. I’m okay with the way
my life is going, and whatever happens,
we’ll deal with it. I’ve been fortunate to
be able to do both.” ND
Though she has yet to win a round this season, Stoffer and
her team have shown their potential and have qualified in the
top half at the first two Pro Stock Motorcycle events of 2008.