Shauntia Latrice Norfleet (born May 1, 1986) is the first and only African American woman to hold a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

driver’s license. The daughter of

driver Bobby Norfleet, she has completed 1 lap in a late model.

Personal life

Born in

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. As of 2020, the population was 94,324. It is the List of cities in Virginia, 10th-most populous city in Virginia, the largest city in Virginia by bou ...

in 1986, Norfleet's interest in racing began at age 7, when her father, NASCAR driver Bobby Norfleet, doubled the battery power of a

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car to increase its speed. Norfleet claims her racing career began at age 14, when she began competing in

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

events; she went on to attempt a career in

drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, mos ...

at the local and regional level. In 2000, Norfleet switched to entry level spec racing competing in Bandolero cars, then moving to

late model Late Model stock car racing, also known as late model racing and late models, refers to a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other primarily on oval tracks. This type of racing was early-on ...

stock car racing on short tracks starting with the 2004 racing season; she became the first female African-American driver to purchase a NASCAR Late Model Series racing license. Norfleet attended local

events at tracks near her

Augusta, Georgia Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...

home, starting her Late Model career in 2004. She claimed to begin competing in NASCAR national touring series competition starting in the summer of 2012, and was operating a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

funding initiative, claiming it would finance her racing career; however she did not make it to the track in a major series in 2012.

Controversy

In March 2013, a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' article reported that there were numerous inconsistencies in Norfleet's self-promotion efforts. They observe that she has only raced in one low level event, where she ran one lap before parking her car. She also has several criminal offenses on her record, and according to public records is actually 26 years old, not 24 as she has claimed; in addition, the NASCAR license that she has received was the first to be received by an African-American woman. After Norfleet publicly stated this, NASCAR's vice president for public affairs said, “I am uncomfortable with Tia representing herself in the way that she has.” Norfleet responded that the accusations were "a biased, smear campaign". Her father responded to the allegations by calling them a "witchhunt", by posting pictures of Tia's name on four separate licenses, although it's unclear why because she is the first African-American woman to retain such a license regardless of how many she has. He did stand by his daughter by refuting some of the allegations. Tia confirmed that she did indeed have a criminal record, and that her only NASCAR event was indeed a "start and park", but also stated that she had never claimed to be a Nationwide Series driver even though she was shown with a NNS patch on her firesuit, which could be purchased from several different sources.

Charitable work

Norfleet supports the Safe Teen Georgia Driving Academy program, providing driving instruction at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (currently known as EchoPark Speedway for sponsorship reasons, formerly known as the Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Hampton, Georg ...

on behalf of the group; in addition she is an ambassador for Safe America Driving.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norfleet, Tia Living people 1986 births Sportspeople from Suffolk, Virginia Racing drivers from Virginia African-American racing drivers American female racing drivers Female dragster drivers NASCAR drivers Dragster drivers 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen