Today’s inductee into the Racingkc Hall of Fame has been involved directly with the sport and our local racing community for the last 30 years. We both attended our first Central Auto Racing Boosters banquet in 1988 at the Kansas City, Kansas National Guard Armory. Since that time much has happened of which we both have been involved. At that time this inductee was a racer’s wife to the then Rookie of the Year. In her own right she became a racer.
The late Great Bob Libbey coined this inductee the Racing Grandma. He was in the pits doing his normal prerace interviews and he was talking to this driver when one of the Grandchildren came up and asked Grandma a question using her Grandma name. From that day forward, Vicki Davis became the Racing Grandma. Congratulations Vicki on becoming an inductee to this Hall of Fame.

Now let’s take a few steps back which led to this driving career. At Lakeside Speedway during the asphalt days we would hold, at the end of the year, a Powderpuff Derby. The first year this occurred Vicki won in her husband, Gary’s number #66, Charger class car. The second year became even more interesting. Her husband Gary blew the motor in his car in the first heat race. All week long I turned down several ladies asking to drive my car. After the second heat in which I finished second I was met at the scales by Gary and Vicki requesting to use my car in the Powderpuff. Of course, I knew their situation and said yes. Now let me tell you my car finished first that night, twice, in my Charger feature and in the Powderpuff, however, during the Powderpuff there was a new line on the track none of us weekly racers utilized. Vicki would drive into the turns so hard she would push to the wall, bounce off the wall to set herself for a straight shot down the front and back stretch. She did the lap after lap, Mrs. Consistency. This line worked as she claimed her second Powderpuff race. Was I ever happy to see my car return to the pits with only a bent right rear bumper! Whew!

When Vicki began racing in her own truck prepared by Gary they utilized the same number and same color scheme which at the time was turquoise and black. Gary determined she needed her own identity and in her second year of weekly racing her truck was pink and number 8. When Libbey announced the Racing Grandma the rest was history, she became a fan and kid favorite. Fans flocked to the stands just to witness here racing.

When she first started Gary coached her to hold your line and stay on the bottom. She was outstanding at following directions! Twice she finished in the Top 5 and she finished 9th in NASCAR points one year.

She has earned the C.A.R.B. Sportsman of the Year Award and she has been the privately awarded Woman of the Year.

Vicki was also one of the original Pit Tour Club members at Kansas Speedway. In January 2001, I was asked by Jeff Boerger, then President of Kansas Speedway, to find 20 to 25 people to serve as ambassadors who if they meet Dale Earnhardt would not go “Oh my god you are Dale Earnhardt”. The first people I called were Vicki and Gary Davis and this group became the Pit Tour Club. So, you see anytime around the racing community if help was needed Vicki and Gary were there. She led a team for few years in charge of the suite area. This eventually led to her working as a receptionist at the track and now she works special events in the media center.

Vicki was on the original selection committee for the C.A.R.B. Hall of Fame. She has been a part of this organization for many years. Vicki has worked at Lakeside Speedway for many years, until recently, and for the last 3o years she has been an integral part of the local Kansas City area racing community. Congratulations Vicki you now join your husband in the RacingKC Hall of Fame.