Women at the Speedbowl

Click here for more info on all-female exhibitions held throughout the years

Over the years, auto racing has been a male-dominated sport.  The history of the Waterford Speedbowl is no differernt, yet there have been several notable achievements by females both on and off the track over the years.  It's important to remember that for the first two decades, women's involvement was relegated to Powder Puff Derby exhibitions.  In fact, those events were the only time women were allowed in the pits, a rule that remained enforced until the mid-1970's.

Arguably the first prominant female figure in Speedbowl history was Peg Gaudreau.  Peg was the car owner for the #3 car that Dick Dunn drove to 4 consecutive Modified Championships from 1972-1975.  The car was called "Buddah's Bullet" as a nod to her husband Al Gaudreau who built and maintained the car.  In 1976, Gaudreau won a 5th consecutive Car Owner Points Championship (Bob Potter won the Drivers Championship) – a record matched only by Harry Wyant (1999-2003 with Dennis Gada driving another dominant #3 car).  For a majority of Dunn's dominant streak on the track, Peg was not allowed in the pits and watched from the grandstands.  In fact, Gaudreau was one of the first who finally gained permission from track owner Harvey Tattersall Jr to enter the pits as the officially listed car owner.  

On the track, the first woman to qualify for a feature event racing amongst the men was Rae Williams in 1980.  Like Peg Gaudreau, Rae's story is a reflection of how times have changed, as car counts for the Super Stock division in which Rae competed attracted 30-40 competitors attempting to qualify on Saturdays.  Qualifying for a feature was much more of an accomplishment than it is today.

While Rae's qualifying for a Super Stock feature was unprecedented, she did not fair well in the feature and never captured a feature victory in the handful of seasons she competed.  In fact, it would take almost 26 years still until a female would win a feature event at the Waterford Speedbowl.

During that span however, there were still several all-female exhibitions.  Originally called Powder Puff Derbies, by the early 1990's, they were called Women On Wheels and ran a bi-weekly schedule as part of the Sunday Stocker Series that existed from 1991-1994.  One of the most accomplished in those events was Emma Coates.

Emma won several Powder Puff Derbies in the 1980's and qualified for numerous features in the Street Stock division competing against the men.  In the early 1990's, she was a dominate competitor in the Sunday Stocker Series, winning 6 straight W.O.W Mini Stock events in 1993.  In addition to her accomplishments on the track, Emma may be more known these days as the matriarc of one of the Speedbowl's most successful families.  Her sons Allen and Joe, grandson Corey and nephew Phil Evans have won over 110 features collectively, with Allen earning 6 track championships across 3 different divisions in his career.

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, several female competitors began competing on Saturdays, most notably in the Mini Stocks where Dennis Gada's twin sister Debbie Gada, Greta Watson, Cheryl Reilly and more recently Christina Cunliffe all competed weekly for several seasons.  None of them however were ever able to break into Victory Lane.

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The destinction as the first female to win a non-WOW feature event goes to Talya Orleans, who won an Allison Legacy North Series event during the season-opening Budweiser Modified Nationals event on April 2, 2006.  It was just shy of 26 years after Rae Williams first qualified for a feature in 1980.   At the time, Talya was also the youngest feature winner in Speedbowl history at 12 years old.  Talya won 2 more ALNS features at Waterford in 2006-2007.

In the 2010's, there were more and more females competing weekly amongst the men, especially in the Wild N' Wacky Wednesday divisions.  Taylor Martin and Rachel Forte both won numerous Bandolero races from 2010-2012 while 3rd-generation driver Taylor-Marie Moran won 2 Super X-car features during the 2010 season.  While the list of female feature winners grew, by the summer of the 2012 season, no female had yet to win a feature in any weekly Saturday division at Waterford.

 

Then in 2013, women broke through the Saturday ranks in grand fashion.  First, during the annual Mid-Season 300 event in July, Victoria Bergenty (daughter of former competitor John Bergenty), set fast time for the SK Light Modifieds during time trials.  She became the first female to set fast time in track history.  A few months later, on September 21st, she won the SKL feature, becoming the first female to win in any modified-type division and the first to win a NASCAR division feature.  A couple hours later, her good friend Nichole Morgillo held off Ted Christopher to win the SK Modified feature.  Nichole accepted the marraige proposal from her boyfriend Shawn Thibeault in front of the Speedbowl crowd earlier that night.  Watch our Sid's View webisode "Ladies Night" to the left about this historic day.

Off the track, in 2014 long-time scorer/handicapper Julie Winsor was named Assistant Race Director.  She became the highest ranking female track official in Speedbowl history.

Below is the complete list of female feature winners in Waterford Speedbowl history.  Remember they include feature event wins only – they do not include heat wins, consi wins or any exhibition type events (Enduros, Powder Puff Derbies, WOW, etc).  The events below are when the females came out victorious against mostly male competitors.

 

DATE	DRIVER	EVENT	DIVISION
April 2, 2006	Talya Orleans	Bud Modified Nationals	Allison Legacy North Series
October 8, 2006	Talya Orleans	Finale Weekend	Allison Legacy North Series
April 28, 2007	Ginny Quinones	Saturday weekly event	ATQMA Midget
September 22, 2007	Talya Orleans	Finale Weekend	Allison Legacy North Series
May 12, 2010	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
May 19, 2010	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
June 16, 2010	Taylor-Marie Moran	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Super X-car
June 16, 2010	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
June 30, 2010	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
July 28, 2010	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
September 2, 2010	Taylor-Marie Moran	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Super X-car
April 2, 2011	Taylor Martin	Saturday Showdown Series	Bandoleros
April 9, 2011	Taylor Martin	Saturday Showdown Series	Bandoleros
April 30, 2011	Melissa Fifield	Saturday weekly event	Allison Legacy North Series
May 11, 2011	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
May 14, 2011	Taylor Martin	Saturday Showdown Series	Bandoleros
May 18, 2011	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
June 8, 2011	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
June 29, 2011	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
July 20, 2011	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
July 27, 2011	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
August 10, 2011	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
September 21, 2011	Taylor Martin	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
October 8, 2011	Emily Packard	Finale Weekend	Allison Legacy North Series
May 16, 2012	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
May 30, 2012	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
July 4, 2012	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
September 12, 2012	Rachel Forte	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Bandoleros
September 21, 2013	Victory Bergenty	Saturday weekly event	SK Light Modified
September 21, 2013	Nichole Morgillo	Saturday weekly event	SK Modified
October 6, 2013	Bethany Stoehr	Finale Weekend	NEMA Midget
May 31, 2014	Robin Berghman	Four-Cylinder Fury	Pro-4 Modified
August 20, 2014	Shelby Donovan	Wild N' Wacky Wednesday	Mini Cup Series
September 27, 2014	Taylor Bowser	Saturday weekly event	Mini Cup Series
August 27, 2015	Hayley Desaulniers	Thursday Night Thunder	Bandoleros
June 4, 2016	Robin Berghman	Saturday weekly event	Pro-4 Modified