02-23-2000
AKRON –ÊYou might say that racing runs through Tiara Cochran’s blood.
Her uncle is 1998 USAC Sprint Car Champion Tony Elliott. Her grandpa is Jim Elliott, who raced at the Warsaw Speedway.
Tiara, 10, born without a right arm, has raced go-carts for almost three years. Her stepfather got her started, but her father, John, has really helped get her going.
“I just think it’s fun and I like to do it,” she said. “Racing is in our family.”
“She’s the only racer with one arm in the Go-Kart Racing Association,” said John.
Her friends at Akron Elementary are proud of her, too.
“They’re really interested in it and they’re proud of me because I have only one arm (and race go-carts),” Tiara said.
In her first year of go-cart racing, she won the very last race of the season. Since then, she said, she’s won lots of races.
“This year,” she said, “I’ve been winning a lot. I won 16 races this year.”
Last year she won second place in season points at Logansport, despite the fact she raced only half the season there. She won eight of the races in a row.
On her birthday – Aug. 8 – she won three races. Though she’s proud of that accomplishment, she also beams when she announces that she shares her birthday with her favorite NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon.
“The only dream that I really, really want,” Tiara said, “is to meet Jeff Gordon.”
Tiara has driven three different go-carts. Her current one seems to be a lucky one for her.
“We’re staying with this one,” she said. She won 16 times in her current go-cart, No. 9. “I won eight races in a row with this cart.”
It’s a five-horse, Briggs go-cart that is totally built and not stock. It runs on alcohol, not gas.
She began indoor racing this year. At the Indianapolis Indoor Kart series, she was third out of 21 carTs in the feature race. In-door racing is a little more difficult, she said, because the asphalt and the curves are tight.
Her first race for the spring season will be in April in Wabash.
In go-cart racing, boys and girls race together.
“(There are) very few girls,” John said.
“I’ve only known one girl that’s beat me before,” Tiara said. That girl, she said, got hurt, but not by Tiara.
Tiara, herself, has been hurt before. She hit her head once on the concrete at Bunker Hill. She had to be taken to the hospital, where they told her she had a concussion.
But that, like having only one arm, hasn’t stopped her from racing.
“I’ll probably be racing the rest of my life – until NASCAR,” Tiara said.
World Karting Association will soon publish an article on her in their magazine. WKA is the sanctioning body of go-cart racing.
John said, “That’s like top honors. You have to race forever to get in WKA.”
Tiara maintains her own Web site at http://members.tripod.com/tiara_c
On her site, she posts, “how I did that week that I race. It shows pictures of me. My sponsors,” she said.
Her biggest sponsor is Lakeside Chevrolet in Warsaw. But, John said, they are still looking for “more sponsors. That’s what we’re looking for.”
“We’re looking to get as many sponsors as we can get,” Tiara added.
“We spend about $10,000 a year. About $150 per race day,” John said. That includes getting the family in and doesn’t provide expenses should anything break.
Next week she will race in Auburn.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “It’s a real good family sport. It’s not for the weak of heart. It’s dangerous.”