13-year-old Clovis racer just won a $20,000 purse. What’s in her future?
Jade Avedisian doesn’t like to be bored.
The Clovis 13-year-old first got in a race car when she was 3 but didn’t actually race for four more years.
“I was just kind of bored just racing by myself,” she said. “I told my dad that I actually wanted to race and he brought me down to a track and ever since then I started racing.”
So far, Avedisian is looking like a seasoned veteran every time she races.
In 2020, Avedisian has finished in the top five in 11 of the 14 dirt-track races she’s competed in, including notching a $20,000 win in the John Hinck Championship Outlaw A 40-lap race at the Sweet Springs MotorSports Complex in Missouri on July 4.
Avedisian went from sixth starting to first by lap 32 and stretched her lead to the checkered flag while leaving her mom a bit nervous.
“I always video her, but I had to shut it off,” Kim Avedisian said.. “It’s pretty remarkable that she’s my 13-year-old. She’s pretty fearless.”
Tulsa Shootout win to start year
Among her wins in 2020 was the Tulsa Shootout in January.
Avedisian won the Restricted feature, becoming the first female driver to win a feature in the 35-year-old annual indoor event since 2015.
She has kept the momentum going, winning eight races this year and garnering attention. Hanford sprint car and midget racer Michael Faccinto tweeted after her $20,000 win, “Remember the name. Jade Avedisian is the real deal.”
“Everyone puts me in the right spot and the cars are always good and perfect,” she said. “I just have to go out there and drive it.”
‘Ears and eyes open’
Ryan Avedisian, Jade’s dad, said she is a quick learner.
It helped early when he took her to races months after she was born.
She quickly picked up on auto racing and learned any way she can, he said.
“She’s not the one for talking much,” he said. “She’s always got her ears and eyes open. She listens and she’s watching. When she’s home, she’s engrossed whether watching videos of other races or race tracks she’s headed to and I think it’s just been a natural progression.”
It shows at her home.
Noticeable are the many trophies she’s won racing quarter midgets for three years before moving on to junior sprints and now mini sprints.
Trophies are nice, but Jade said, “I still have a lot to learn.”
What the future holds
Avedisian is the points leader in the National Open Winged-A Class and Restricted A Class.
She will next race July 23-25 in Marion, Ill., at the Highbanks Hustle and hopes to make the main event.
In five years, she said, she wants to race in the midgets or sprint cars because “I like the dirt and they just look fun.”
In 10 years, she wants to be in the “biggest sprint car race or the Knoxville Nationals.” NASCAR stock car racing is also a possibility, she said.
For now, she keeps perspective: “We’ll see if we can do pretty good there,” she said of her next race. “The challenges are pretty cool. There are tons of competition in California and Oklahoma and in the Midwest. Whenever you get to win, it’s pretty big. I love racing so much.”
