An Interview with Leilani Munter

Haegwan Kim: Let me start by asking why you became a race car driver.

Leilani Munter: I got my degree in biology from the University of California in San Diego, and I got into a race car, and I had some encouraging words from some of the guys that were in racing and that encouraged me to pursue this as something more than a hobby, and so I did. Back in 2001, I had my first race and I’ve been racing now for the last nine years.

HK: Cool, what do you most like about racing?

LM: It’s just a feeling that’s very hard, I think, to describe unless you’ve actually done it, but to be at speed in a race car on a race track is unlike anything else I’ve really experienced in life, and I have scuba dived and I’ve sky dived, and I’ve done all those things, but the feeling that I get in a race car is something unlike anything else.

HK: I was wondering, what do other people think about you? I mean, you are female and don’t they worry about you?

LM: Yes, at first, when I first did it, my family and my friends were concerned for my safety. One of the things about racing that I think until you get involved in it, you just don’t realize is how very safe it actually is. Yes, of course there are accidents, once in a while, but ever since 2001, when Dale Earnhardt died in the Daytona 500, they’ve made several advancements in safety. I’ve had an accident at 200 miles an hour, and walked away with nothing but a bruise on my elbow.

HK: You are active as an environmentalist as well. What drove you to engage in this field?

LM: I think we’re facing some really urgent challenges, that humans have never faced before, as far as the environment goes, and I felt so strongly about those things, that even though, and it was something that was a bit controversial for me to be bringing up and talking about at the race track, in the racing community, I started talking about it back in 2006. I started a section on my website that was dedicated towards environmental news, so when I came across any story that I was reading about clean energy, about wind turbines or solar panels, or biofuels, or green buildings or composting, I started to put those stories under the environmental section, and then in 2007, I made the commitment to adopt and protect an acre of rainforest for every race that I run, to offset the carbon footprint from the car. I wanted to use my car to spread environmental awareness as much as I could.

I definitely ruffled some feathers, and there were plenty of people in racing that told me that I should not talk about these things, as a driver who was still trying to make it to the top level, that these things were too controversial for me to talk about. I was also bringing up the political issues surrounding our environmental challenges. I became an ambassador for the National Wildlife Federation in 2008, and started to go to speak with Congress on behalf of environmental legislation, so it became such a part of my life that some people in racing thought that it might hurt my racing career, because here, there may be a sponsor that might want to work with me, as a driver, but maybe is not such a big fan of the other things that I talk about, but I stuck to it because I really believed that here I had a voice in my sport, it’s the number one spectator sport in America, and I wanted to use my voice to talk about things that were important.

HK: If you compare the racing and environmental issues, which is more important to you?

LM: It’s funny because when I first started to do this environmental stuff, people were surprised that I was doing it, because they seem like they don’t go together, but actually I will tell you now, that those two parts of my life are completely intertwined with each other, and I can’t really even imagine one without the other. This is because part of the reason that I’m able to get my voice out there more than I would if I was just a biology graduate from UCSD is because I race, and that is one of the reasons that I am able to reach out to these NASCAR fans. And by just telling them about what I’m doing, I’ve found that a lot of them have reached out to me because they’re interested in getting solar or getting a worm farm, and they write to me and they tell me.

I had one guy that wrote me and said, “I didn’t know what to get my wife for her birthday and I read about how you’re adopting an acre of rainforest for every race you run. How would I go about adopting an acre of rainforest? I think it would be really cool to give her a certificate that I purchased an acre of rainforest in her name for her birthday,” and when I get letters like that, that’s when I realise that from my presence as a race driver reaching out to an untapped audience, talking to them about our environmental issues, that is how I can make a difference. If I wasn’t a race car driver, and I was just an environmentalist, I wouldn’t be able to reach nearly as large an audience. They are interested in what I have to say, because I race cars, not because I’m an environmentalist.

HK: What would be your advice to achieve success?

LM: I definitely feel like if you choose something that you truly believe in and that you’re really passionate about, then you will be successful, because even when it’s really difficult and it’s really hard, and you’re thinking, why am I doing this? You can answer that question right away. You’re doing it because you really believe in it, and you know that it’s the right thing to do for you. I moved here in 2002 and you have to keep in mind this area in North Carolina is where all of the aspiring race car drivers come. So it’s like if you want to be a country singer, you move to Nashville, if you want to be an actor, you move to Los Angeles. This area that I’m in in North Carolina is the place where you move if you want to become a race car driver, and I have been here for eight years now, and I’ve seen so many people come and go.

Young drivers like me that arrived the same time that I did, that when things got rough and they didn’t have a ride, and they didn’t have sponsorship, or they lost a sponsor whatever it was, they quit and they went home, and I didn’t quit, and I didn’t go home, and I’ve stayed here, and I was committed even in those rough times, I have got to keep going. Things will change if I just keep working at it, so there were times in the last nine years, where I wasn’t racing full time, where I was working at racing schools. I was fixing crash race cars at a body shop. I worked as a correspondent for NASCAR.com. I did all kinds of other jobs to be able to pay the bills, while I was trying to pursue my racing career, and I think there are a lot of people that weren’t willing to do those kinds of things, and they gave up and they left, and I think it’s the people that are just really so stubborn that they won’t take no for an answer, that eventually you end up getting somewhere, because you just won’t give up.