With corks popped and champagne streaming down her face, UCLA alumna Lisa Klassen finally stood in the limelight as the first woman to win a national rally car race in North America since the sport’s inception in 1972.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me. This was the sort of thing I fantasized about,” Klassen said about her victory at the Rim of the World Rally in Lancaster in April.
The 22-year-old Bruin developed an interest in rally racing, a type of off-road motor sport that uses extremely modified street cars, while earning her bachelor’s degree in American literature and culture and minoring in music history.
“When I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and had to tell everyone what I wanted to do, I told them I wanted to race rally cars, never thinking I’d actually do it,” Klassen said.
It proved to be her brother Mike, a former downhill mountain biking champion, who fed her curiosity for the sport when he began showing her races on the Speed Channel every Sunday evening.
“It’s funny. My brother was always the one who wanted to be the rally racer and even went to engineering school to learn more about the cars,” Klassen said.
Shortly following her graduation in 2004, Klassen made a journey down to Guanajuato, a city in the heart of Mexico, where one of the World Rally Championship rounds is held. Once there she made invaluable relationships with participants who urged her to become a race volunteer in order to discover a mentor willing to coach her in this adrenaline-pumping sport.
“When I saw and heard the cars for the first time, they were so loud and fast,” Klassen said. “Television really doesn’t do it justice. I was just so caught up in the excitement.”
In 2004, while volunteering at the Rim of the World Rally, she met Leon Styles, her soon-to-be mentor and open class winner for the event that year.
“Working with her has gone really well,” Styles said. “She is very marketable. She’s young. She’s beautiful. And from the sponsor point of view she is always putting herself out there.”
Klassen began taking the first few steps toward becoming a rally champion when she purchased her first racing vehicle, a 1976 Toyota Corolla named Prince Charming.
“Only four months before that, I was in Mexico dreaming about what it would be like to have my own car,” Klassen said. “I wanted to scream and cry, I was that happy.”
Much of her initial training included simply becoming comfortable behind the wheel.
“The first time I saw her drive a car, she possessed a natural talent to correct the car without knowing how to do it,” Styles said. “Very few people know how to do that instinctively.”
Rally racing takes place on a variety of surfaces and conditions, including asphalt, snow and ice. This lack of smooth terrain results in racers never truly knowing what lies behind the next turn and creates a whole new sense of danger. Drivers like Klassen must strive to learn the specific technicalities of their vehicles in order to perform at the optimum level. With speeds exceeding 100 mph, controlling the car becomes a skill one must develop with patient practice.
“There’s a fine line between chaos and control, but it’s the best drive of your life,” Klassen said. “It’s better than drugs. It’s better than sex.”
Her determination and passion for the sport led her across the United States in search of competitions and more opportunities to learn. Race after race, she placed herself in a position to absorb as much knowledge as possible.
Klassen struggled early on in her career as she competed against individuals who had years of experience within the racing circuit. In October 2004, Klassen finally had her first taste of victory as she won her race class and came in sixth overall at the Tombstone Rally Cross 2 in Arizona.
“That was the best part, the feeling that I had earned the respect of the rally cross community and that I had at last become a rallyist in my own right,” Klassen said.
Over the course of her short career, Klassen has had to battle with gender stereotypes. In a male-dominated sport, she often stands as one of the few female drivers striving to make names for themselves.
“I’m the novelty,” Klassen said. “(Men) quickly drive away, looking angry that I have dared to step into their world of motor sport. It makes me want to succeed even more, to prove that I belong here, in this suit, in this car, in this race.”
This past April, Klassen made her prowess known as she competed in the Rim of the World Rally. Trailing by 0.4 seconds going into the final heat, Klassen and the leader, Bill Holmes, found themselves racing head-to-head.
Though Holmes possessed the faster vehicle and more years of experience, the rookie driver displayed her skill as she won the race by a lopsided 4.0 seconds. This victory secured her place in racing history as the first woman to win a national rally in North America.
“I hope that my success inspires other women to go out and race and to try things that have traditionally been done by men,” Klassen said.
With the Rim of the World Rally behind her, Klassen’s focus shifts back to her studies, where she is striving to become a costume designer and hopes to someday work in the film or television industry.
Meanwhile, she will begin to prepare for her next mark on racing history as she competes in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in late July.