Spotlight: Meet Sprint and Endurance Racer Lara Vernon
I’m Lara Vernon, from Asheville, NC. Lifelong car fanatic, speed demon, and racer. I own a business called Rare Exotic Vehicles, which I started in 2016. It’s a small independent dealership with a focus on enthusiast cars, new and old. I buy the types of cars and trucks that I would want to drive myself, and curate a collection of inventory that would get any car guy/gal’s heart pumping. REV (as in, the engine) is the acronym for Rare Exotic Vehicles, which is why I chose the name. I’m cheesy like that.
My IRL racing “career” began with Autocross, in 2018, at Highland Sports Car Club here in Asheville. Though, you could say I’ve been racing since the age of 5, when I got a Super Nintendo for my birthday. I do really feel as though growing up playing racing games like Gran Turismo and Forza have accelerated my skills. My debut year racing autocross was anticlimactic, I just grabbed the keys to a C5 Corvette that I had for sale, which had 10 year old all-season tires, and sent it. I spun a LOT. It didn’t take long before I was hooked. For 2019, I bought a Fiesta ST, which performed double duty as my daily driver and racecar. I ended up winning H-Street that year with it, and also got top PAX a couple times. In late 2019, just before COVID hit, was when the universe connected me with Jeff Caplan from RaceBar. I had an old truck for sale which had a manfunctioning odometer, and called Jeff’s business in VA called Odometer Gears to try and get some parts to fix it. Our conversation quickly shifted toward racing once he learned what I do, and he mentioned that he was a part of this amateur endurance racing team called RaceBar, which fields a 1983 BMW 735i in ChampCar and Lemons. I told him I’d love to try road racing someday, but that I had only done two HPDE events. He said something along the lines of, “oh that’s plenty, you’ll do great, come join us for VIR in December!”. I couldn’t believe it, I had no business being invited to race with that level of experience, but the RaceBar guys are just built differently. I owe them a great deal of gratitude. After that first event, I knew I was done with Autocross.
Fast forward to 2025, and it really sometimes amazes me how far I’ve come in these 5 years. If you had bet me 10 years ago that I would be co-driving with Randy Pobst, I would have lost every last penny. I have to pinch myself sometimes. Driving with him and Sam Collier these past few years in the Lucky Dog and ChampCar races in his 1990 Volvo 760 Turbo has been the honor of my life. We have taken home quite a few trophies! I have also had the honor of driving with several other teams in endurance events, when I’m lucky enough to be invited. In the fall of 2023 I bought a 2002 Corvette Z06, which has been a racecar all its life, and previously competed in SCCA, HSR, and NASA. It actually won the SCCA Runoffs in 2006 at the hands of Lance Knupp. It’s an incredibly well-sorted car; built by Phoenix Performance straight out of the showroom. I am currently fielding it with NASA Southeast in Super Touring 2, for the Thunder Races.
My next event with the Corvette is coming up in May with Hyperfest at VIR. I’m very much looking forward to attending and competing, I’ve never had the chance to go to Hyperfest as it normally coincides with a race weekend at AMP with Lucky Dog. This year, we decided to skip the AMP event with the Flyin Moose and instead we will be racing it at VIR with Lucky Dog in June for their first ever event there! As for future events this year beyond that, I am playing it by ear. My life is in a state of flux at the moment, and I’m getting ready for a big move. I have always hoped to be able to win at a Nationals event someday with NASA, so we will see if I can make it this year. The ultimate dream would be to race in IMSA or TransAm someday.
I want to stress the importance of seat time in getting to where I am today. Right before COVID, I got a racing simulator in order to do iRacing. It’s a mid-level Fanatec setup, with a SimLab cockpit, and Pimax 5K headset. I got connected with Dale from Swarm Racing at the Ladies Track Day at Road Atlanta in 2019. During the pandemic, I asked if I could join their iRacing team, and Dale very generously offered me a seat. We had drivers from all over the country, and even Canada, in all different time zones. As a team, we competed in, and often won several events, like the 24 Hours of Daytona, 24 Hours of LeMans, 12 Hours of Bathurst, 24 Hours of Spa, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. We would practice almost every night in a private session and compare setups, lap times, sector times, and just practice, practice, practice for over a month leading up to a big race. I was probably getting 30 hours of seat time per week for that whole year. Even though the possibility of crashing may not be as financially or physically consequential in iRacing, I assure you the pressure of performing was just as intense. During the main event, after many hundreds of hours of preparation and practice from the entire team, if you make one mistake and the car needs repairs, you have cost the team the race. The pressure of performing on low sleep, while juggling pit stop strategy, fuel consumption strategy, tire saving strategy, tweaking setups — it all transfers to real life racing. I can’t stress the importance of buying a racing simulator. It’s the only way to get enough seat time to hone your craft and build confidence to prepare yourself for the real thing.
I would say that being a woman in racing is a double-edged sword. Nobody expects us to be very competitive, but when we are, people take notice. I am very glad that racing is one of those sports where men and women can compete fairly and once you put on that helmet, a driver is a driver. To any other ladies wanting to be a racing driver, I will say, I know it can often feel like a boy’s club out there. It’s easy to feel nervous, or like you don’t belong. I encourage you to take the risk and find your confidence. As someone who is a motorcycle riding, car dealing, whiskey drinking, poker playing, tire smoking female; the most important thing is finding your confidence. Don’t worry about what other people think. Hone your craft, ask for help, research and learn obsessively. When you find your confidence, nobody can tell you that you don’t belong.
I want to shout out my first sponsor, Lisa Bundy with Car Girl Capital. She has been so incredibly supportive of me, and is one of my best friends. I also want to mention Phil Picard with Momentum Motorsports. He’s been an incredible friend and mentor, and has helped me to prepare the Corvette for competition. Phil has been very generous, allowing me the use of his shop during race weekends at CMP, and also gave me my first open wheel experience when I got to get behind the wheel of one of his Formula 4 Ligier cars at CMP for a test day. That was just an unbelievable experience I will never forget! Finally, thank YOU Holly, for all your support, your friendship, and this sponsorship! You are such an asset to the racing community, and specifically to us ladies looking to compete in this incredible sport in which we sometimes don’t feel welcomed. I hope together we can make sure that no aspiring female racing driver ever feels that way.
See you at the checkered flag,
Lara Vernon
