Originally born as an idea to create women’s Nomex underwear for racing (I still have the patterns!), Black Cat Racing is now… Who I am!
Pit Lane Firefighter at Sonoma Raceway, NASCAR, 2023- Photo by Jessica J. Miller
Please be patient with any page wonkiness- I’m currently revamping it.
All services are available individually, and some may be done in combination with others.
Click on each link (in green) to learn more:
On-Set Services:
Medic
Naturalist
Precision driving
Snake Safety
Event Services:
Medic
Snake Safety
Appearances
Motorsports Services:
Course and Grid Marshal
Fire/Safety
Scrutineer (Technical and Safety Inspection)
Beyond driving, I have had many years experience on-set with producing movies with my company, November Fire Recordings and helping out with Slob on the Spot and Creepy Koffee Movie Time, now available on multiple outlets but originally aired on KOFY-TV20, San Francisco.
At the Track
I love working with the amazing people at our local road courses!!!
At Sonoma Raceway, I’m an EMT/Firefighter on the Fire/Safety crew, a Course Marshal, and headed up Sonoma Drift Tech in 2019 and 2020. I’m also experienced working Grid, Pit, Tech/Scrutineering, Sound Control, and Light Panel Marshalling for the SCCA, HMSA, and the FIA. I’m both a Nationally Registered and a California Emergency Medical Technician. My favorite place to be is on the pit lane as a firefighter or working Black Flag! Being involved in pit stops is the most amazing, violent, dangerous, energetic places a person can be.
Get me out there!!!
On the Pit Lane
My favorite place to be is on the pit lane! Whether that’s as an EMT/Firefighter at Sonoma Raceway, working Black Flag for HMSA at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion and Rennsport, or crewing for a friend, the pit lane is where all the action is!
Heather at NASCAR, Sonoma Raceway, 2023. Photo by Jessica J. Miller.
If you don’t know much about it, this video from NASCAR demonstrates the fast work that happens in the pit lane:
The lug nuts that come off the car are not only a hazard as they can hit you when they’re spun up and over the pit wall, but they’re also blazing hot!
Another demonstration is this NASCAR pit lane fire that engulfs two crew members:
Here’s a video of an Indy car that catches fire in the pit lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They use the heavier water extinguishers (2.5 gallons) because the cars use 85% ethanol for fuel. You can see how the guy behind the car tries to spray and the guys in front of the car try, too. The guys up front are using the extinguisher plus the 5 gal. water buckets that are available for this series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olY9DjcSX4A&feature=youtu.be
This was me getting called over, “Black Dog Race Shop’s Lawson Aschenbach, whose Chevy Camaro has been a perennial championship contender, was forced to stop on the front straight and call for safety workers to bring a fire extinguisher to put out a small blaze within the cockpit.” (Racer Magazine, 2016):
At 49:50 (I'm pretty sure), you can see me toward the right of the screen in white helmet, black hood, red jacket, holding my water extinguisher, looking like a chicken with my head cut off, watching 3-4 pit stalls right after I had to call a med cart over for a crew member, IndyCar, 2018:
You can’t see me here, as I was supporting at the rear of the car (NASCAR race at Sonoma, June 6, 2021):
Appearances
I’m available for a variety of special appearances!
I hosted a program on silent film classics for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.
Before I resigned as a driver’s manager, I managed to get some of my own press, too! Here’s an article by The Loud Pedal Blog, “These People Might be Crazy: TLP goes drifting”:
Additionally, I was interviewed by the International Women’s Motorsports Association for their Racing Girls Rock podcast:
My work with a driver I resigned from working with is still available for you to see here (I designed the website, made business connections, posted for social media, created a contest, and wrote all the newsletters and press releases):
Other Motorsports Randomness
A few of the things I’ve done…
Using my car as my workspace doing Tandem Tech for Winter Jam, 2019:
Photo by Jessica J. Miller.
Learning to do donuts and figure-8s, 2019:
Working as a set medic for a VISA Olympics photoshoot (Go Atticus, 2019):
Working Black Flag for HMSA at the 2019 Monterey Motorsports Reunion, the second time I got to meet Mika Hakkinen!
Photo by The Loud Pedal blog.
I worked Grid for the Sonoma Speed Festival, 2019. I had some communications I needed to do with the Mercedes AMG Formula 1 team, and they insisted on taking my picture!
Being at the pit wall when Gutierrez set the lap record was incredible!
Getting to go aboard firefighting aircraft during my EMT training (during the Chico fires in 2018), thanks to our track’s safety training coordinator’s work at another college:
Ice karting at night in Italy, 2018… The most fun ever!!!
I was supposed to work Recovery for the 2017 USGP but wound up being a light panel operator on the back straight instead. Training took place on the pit lane!
Ran into Jackie Stewart on my way to lunch with HMSA at the 2017 Monterey Motorsports Reunion… My first selfie!
My friends gathered up my SCCA Board Award for me at the banquet in 2014 for my work with the club.
I was Chair of two Street Survival programs for teens in 2010:
I was the most nimble one crewing for Gold Star Racing back in 2008 when they needed someone to retrieve a master switch key…
Shot from my dad, Bill Skadsen, checking out a dominant Donohue when I was around three-years-old at Laguna Seca:
Reunited with the car at Canepa thanks to Big Ron, 2017:
Photos by Harry Chriest.
For more information, please contact Heather Taylor: