An Inside Look with Gray Leadbetter

When 17-year-old racing sensation Gray Leadbetter was, as she puts it, “A kid,” she yearned for one of those electric Mighty Wheelz rides they’ve got at Walmart. Only problem was her gravel driveway wasn’t conducive to the plastic wheels. So what’s a girl to do?

“I got a PW50, rode it for a bit, took the training wheels off and went racing,” she said of the famed starter Yamaha mini bike that’s launched the MX careers of most of today’s pro racers.

At all of four years old Leadbetter learned how to ride in dirt, how the track can actually change during the course of a race, how to select lines and how to jump. All knowledge imprinting in a kid’s mind, knowledge she’d unleash on the rest of the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road Series’ PRO SPEC class field earlier this summer when she became the series’ first female driver to win a PRO class short course off-road event.

Monster Energy-backed and running the #28 Ryan Beat Motorsports Bilstein Chevrolet Colorado (in a deal she remarkably worked herself) on the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road Series tour, Leadbetter is currently tied with experienced racer/family man Nick Visser for the overall PRO SPEC point lead (297-297).

“Gray Leadbetter gets better every year and with every race,” noted Carl Schubitzke, President of ISOC – the organizers of AMSOIL Championship Off-Road. “She has a bright future in off-road, or any type of racing she is in. She is the real deal, and the men better watch out.”

We were able to flag Leadbetter down and get the lowdown on her volcanic rise to the top of the professional off-road racing rankings. From Gray’s days developing her racing talent on dirt bikes and go-karts, to how she applies those skills on race weekends this summer at legendary tracks of the northern Midwest known simply as “Crandon” and “Bark River,” here’s a look at one impressive 17-year-old with an incredible future ahead of her.

And prefacing this is Leadbetter’s father, Steve, who, when asked about his daughter’s racing career, kind of half-jokingly said: “Honest to God it’s all a big mistake. I’ve never raced anything in my life. No idea how this happened.”

Get us started here, Gray. Where are you from? How’d you get involved in racing?

"I’m from North Carolina and got hooked on motorsports when I was about three. I first rode one of those little quads, then my dad got me a PW50. And since my parents have zero background in motorsports, my neighbor took me motocross racing with their family and that’s pretty much how I got hooked on racing."

Did you stick with motocross for a bit then?

"Yeah, but just with local stuff. My dad would get involved and we ran some FMF Arenacross in the North Carolina area. I ended up breaking my shoulder at Muddy Creek (Raceway, in Tennessee), but continued to race. That is until it started raining here and seemed to never stop. So my dad took me to an indoor go-kart track and I eventually fell in love with that. … Anything to do with racing I fall in love with.”

So go-karts were then your key to moving up to other forms of racing?

"Pretty much. It started out that we were ‘Doing this for fun.’ And that lasted up to about 2017. Then we really started to get involved with it. We went to a rallycross race and somehow struck up a conversation with Buddy Rice (2004 Indy 500 winner), having no idea who he was when we first started talking to him. Through him we ended up getting into the Bondurant Racing School in Arizona and I started driving the Vipers."

How old were you?

"12. It was a TON of fun." SL/Gray’s father interjects: “What was also wild about it was that all of the instructors at Bondurant took turns driving with her. I guess word got out that ‘Hey, you’ve got to watch this girl’s hands.’ Apparently she had a gift that was unbelievable to see in a 12-year-old.”

So you started racing when other girls your age pretty much liked… turtles. Did you get involved in any other sports outside the world of gas & gravity?

"I had no desire to play any other sports. My mom said I have to ‘Try at least one sport growing up.’ … Let’s just say I got kicked off the soccer team at six-years old because I sucked bad at it. So after that my parents just said ‘Let’s just let her go racing.’”

You’ve been all over the board with motorsports. From dirt bikes to go-karts, where you were the first female to win a US Pro Kart Series national race. At 14 you were the youngest competitor and only woman in the Americas Rallycross ARX2 Series (placing 5th overall in the championship). You’ve run 410 class sprint cars (See: World of Outlaws) and, knowing Monster Energy, it probably won’t be long until you get to roll around in the Monster Energy/FELD monster truck. With such a diverse racing background, tell us how you arrived at off-road racing and, eventually, AMSOIL Championship Off-Road.

"We’ve been with AMSOIL Championship Off-Road since they started out in 2020, but we first got into off-road in 2018 in the side-by-side (SXS) class in 2018." Steve Leadbetter chimed in, “We’d met Jeff Palhegyi, who does work with Yamaha, and he knew the Greaves’, (Monster Energy’s) Johnny and CJ. So for about six to eight months Jeff was in Johnny’s ear about ‘You’ve got to see this girl from North Carolina run a side-by-side. It’s unbelievable.’ So, finally, I think Johnny just got tired of getting bugged by Jeff and told him ‘Why don’t you just have her fly up to one of our races.’ So we shipped her Yamaha YXZ (SXS) up to Wisconsin and put Gray on a plane (by herself) to do a test with Johnny. Next thing I know I’m getting a call from them saying ‘We want your daughter to come race with us.’ So, literally, in the off-road world Johnny’s become Gray’s second dad, CJ’s her brother. Gray left rallycross and was 100-percent ‘in’ with the Greaves’ off-road program.”

So, Gray, you started in with the Sportsman races up in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Michigan?

"Yeah, ran those classes from 2018 to 2020 – and won the last (SXS) race of the year at the Crandon World Championships. That was pretty cool. Then in 2021, still with Johnny and CJ, I had some podium finishes, ended up winning the overall Sportsman’s SXS class championship. After that I moved up to the PRO MOD division in 2021 and my average finishes were around 7th place. I did make the podium once, 3rd place at 141 Speedway (Maribel, Wisc.), but that was actually just luck."

You won your very first pro class PRO SPEC race earlier this summer, in Antigo, Wisc., and became the first female to win an AMSOIL Championship Off-Road race. Talk about the race, what you were feeling in your first, and how things unfolded in a way that, despite spinning out on the opening lap, allowed you to win?

"It was insane. I’d been in the truck one time beforehand. In a parking lot a bit, then a short time on a practice track. Brand new class, but a lot more competitive that I’d imagined. My only goal was to finish and bring the truck home in one piece. I was just out there just trying to figure it out. Spun out in first turn, and I was like ‘Great, this is how it’s gonna go.’ Side-by-sides are all-wheel drive, so this was the first rear wheel race truck I’d driven. The track was very muddy. I got myself sorted back out, calmed myself down, and my spotter helped out. We caught the Competition Caution at the midway point, which helped a lot. I knew I was fast, just had to figure it out. Put my head down and passed some people, came home with the win. Didn’t feel real, still doesn’t. Being able to be one of the first females to win a pro off-road race feels incredible. And having all the little girls now coming up to me and wanting pictures and autographs feels amazing."

That’s awesome. Were you pretty nervous, or did you take your first pro race in stride – just like when you were racing go-karts or the Americas Rallycross Championship at age 14?

"I get nervous right before we go on the track. But as soon as the engine fires up and the wheels start rolling I’m like ‘Here we go, we’re racing,’ and I’m good. I raced mini outlaws and micro 600, so those maybe helped a bit. But for the off road side of things, this class is about consistency, keeping it under control and keeping momentum up. So it correlates a lot to racing go karts."

You were the runner-up at ERX Motorsport Park in Minnesota this past weekend, and left the round tied for the overall PRO SPEC point lead with Nick Visser (297-297). How’s it feel to be in the thick of the championship point chase at the midway mark of the season?

"I’m very happy with the results we’re getting. We’ve made a lot of great improvements to the truck, and (improvements) with me getting comfortable with it. Racing is getting tighter and tighter. Everybody within a half second of each other. Now we’re getting to some of my favorite tracks, including Bark River."

Talk a bit about your truck and the PRO SPEC class. Who built your truck? Were you involved much with the setup?

"Ryan Beat Motorsports built it. And they kind of started this new PRO SPEC class. The truck’s powered by a Chevy V6 with H-pattern shifting, basically the same motor that’s in a Chevy Colorado. We had a custom seat made for myself, and put an insert in it. But that’s about it."

When you first showed to run a PRO truck class did you receive any looks of disbelief at the drivers’ meetings or in the pro pits? Not many teenage girls running AMSOIL Championship Off-Road, much less ones tied for the overall series point lead!

"I would say that there probably has been, or still is, but I’m so used to it I don’t even notice it - being a female AND a teenager as well. But the fans, after I won, were SHOCKED when I took my helmet off and walked up to the podium. So that was the big thing. But personally, I don’t notice it. It probably happens, but I don’t see it. … As for the point lead, that feels really good. Until I think about it, I don’t really notice it. But seeing little girls coming up to me to take a picture, and I’m practically their age, or only a few years older, to know I can make a difference with them is awesome."

So you’re at the halfway point of AMSOIL Championship Off-Road. What’s it going to take from you and your team to earn that PRO SPEC championship?

"Really just consistency. I’m learning the truck more, communication is getting better. Bonding with the team throughout the rest of the season. Working every time out on getting the truck fitted to me. What I need to work on personally hopefully falls into play against them (Visser, Chris Van Den Elzen and Easton Sleaper)."

Looking ahead, is your plan to move up to PRO LITES or PRO 2 next season?

"You can pretty much race PRO SPEC as long as you want to. It’s (PRO SPEC) a cheaper version of PRO LITES where you need a V8, along with a brand new chassis. Aspirations of PRO LITES and PRO 2, PRO 4? That’s definitely the goal. Ryan Beat actually runs three PRO LITES, plus a PRO 2. Definitely something I’d like to get up to for sure, but it’s one of those things that takes time."

Talk a bit about your relationship with your dad. It’s unique given that he doesn’t have any sort of background with motorsports. None. Was he on you early, treating motorsports like any other sport?

"I’d say with my dad it was actually the complete opposite of him pushing me into motorsports. Growing up on dirt bikes I’d be given the choice of, say, going to Disneyland or get a new swimming pool instead of going to a race. I would say NO to all of that. And so much so that I missed my friends’ birthday parties to go practice. At that point my dad was like ‘She actually wants to take this seriously.’ So he worked to make all those connections to eventually end up where we are now. We’ve traveled to Sweden to drive rally cars on the ice, Aruba, Canada, Panama – places neither of us thought we were going. So it’s been a great adventure so far."

You’ve been with Monster Energy since late 2021. Outside AMSOIL Championship Off-Road, what other forms of four-wheel motorsports (or two-wheel for that matter) are on the horizon for you?

"Once off-road season ends we’ll be focusing on sprint cars (410 series, cars they run in the World of Outlaws series). Get done with that around November, then run midgets at the Chili Bowl (Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma). Go back to sprint cars and then back to off-road next year. Pretty much trying to focus on sprint cars and off-road right now."

ISOC runs the world’s premier snocross series as well – AMSOIL Championship Snocross. They get you out to a snocross race yet? At least get you on a sled with some pro instruction?

"No, I haven’t made it up for that yet. I haven’t even been on a snowmobile before. Watched a bunch online, and would definitely like to check it out some day."

Right on. Good luck the rest of the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road season and your quest to bring that PRO SPEC title home!

"Thank you. And thanks to Monster Energy for all their support!"