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Echo: How long have you lived in Richardson?

LA: 21 years we've lived in this house. Forever! [laughs]

Echo: Your whole life?

LA: My whole life.

Echo: Typically people don't associate racecar driving with Richardson.

LA: No. Not quite! It's more like a Charlotte, North Carolina or an Indianapolis kind of thing.

Echo: So you grew up in Richardson. Tell me about living in Richardson.

LA: I went to Hockaday and so many of my friends lived in Preston Hollow or Highland Park. I loved living in this neighborhood. Growing up here was just unbelievable. I actually knew my neighbors unlike a lot of my friends. You see them mowing their lawns across the street and they will say "Hi" to you every single day. It's not like you ever ignore each other. You've got Heights Park. I've got this neighborhood so wired down I can tell you per block how long it is mile-wise from running it. I love Richardson. I love the fact that you walk in your front yard and it's still home. You can walk across the street and it's still home. Traveling all over the world, this is where I want to come back to. My family lives here. My family lives across the street. I have family everywhere. It's such a sense of safe and home and things are going to be OK.

Echo: Tell me the kinds of reactions you get when people find out you are a driver. I'm not really a car guy but I would guess most people expect the guy with grease under his fingernails to want to be a race car driver. Tell me about reactions you get that might surprise people.

LA: I grew up going to Hockaday which is an all girls school in Dallas. I was there for 14 years. I was brought up with pig tails and pink fingernail polish and knee socks and the whole deal...super girly. I was always this secret tomboy, but I was a cheerleader in high school and I did all of the girly stuff. The whole getting ready for prom thing. All of it. At the same time the other side of my life was racing. So the normal reactions? If someone knew me they wouldn't be surprised. They'd say it makes sense because you are kind of aggressive and passionate and - you know - all these kind of things that would make a great race car driver. So when someone doesn't know me most of the time they don't believe me so that's why I don't tell many people, "Hey! I'm a race car driver!"

The average Joe is gonna say, "yeah right! You probably don't know what a carburetor is!" That's the normal thing. Would you like a story maybe?

Echo: Yeah... I'd love a story.

LA: Well there was this one time I was racing in go karts and it was the National Championship race. This was the championship I ended up winning. Racers come in from all over the country that didn’t quite know each other, and I pull in the pits. I have pink on my helmet and on my racing suit. I guess the given that I was a girl didn't quite mix. I pull in the pits and I am waiting in the go kart and my dad pulls up and is talking to me. I haven't taken my helmet off yet - this is qualifying - and this [other] driver pulls in right behind me.

His crew chief pulls goes up to him and says, "You just got schooled by that guy," - talking about me. "He just kicked your butt, dude" and they are fighting. I take my helmet off and they both look at me and they are looking like, “Nope, you got schooled by a GIRL.”

Things like that happen all the time when people don't expect me to be a female.