Lead-Foot Lady Loses Mark : Auto racing: So what, says Patty Moise, adding she can probably drive faster than 216.607 m.p.h.

Patty Moise thought she had a secure place in the auto racing record book when she lapped Talladega’s superspeedway at 216.607 m.p.h. in a Buick Regal last Dec. 14, setting a women’s closed-course record.

Her speed shattered the world mark of 212.577 m.p.h., set two years ago by Lyn St. James in a Ford Thunderbird. Moise also ran 211 m.p.h. for 10 miles to better St. James’ record of 196.310 m.p.h., but it appears that she may have to do it again to gain recognition.

Paper work surrounding the attempt was not properly prepared, causing the International Automobile Federation (FIA), ruling body of world motor speed records, to reject it.

“That’s OK. I felt like we could have gone faster, so maybe we’ll go back and give them something to really shoot for,” the upbeat, red-haired driver from Jacksonville, Fla., said when informed of the mistake. “But I’d rather be focusing all our attention on the Busch Grand National program right now. That’s my No. 1 priority for this year.”

Moise, who turned 29 on Dec. 29, said she hopes to become the first woman since Janet Guthrie a decade ago to drive regularly in NASCAR’s Winston Cup series. First, though, she plans to pay her dues by driving in the Grand National series, the last steppingstone to stock car racing’s premier circuit.

Her immediate goals are to win the pole for two races next month during Daytona’s Speed Weeks--the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) 300 and the Busch Grand National 300, and to win one of the races.

“I’m not giving up until I get one of them,” she said. “I came close enough last year that they knew we were there. I’ve won three ARCA poles, two at Talladega and last year at Daytona, but never won the race.

“Last year, when I was on the pole at Daytona, I led 33 of the first 34 laps, but I pitted wrong and dropped to the back of the field. Then I worked my way up and was running second two laps from the finish when a tire went flat.”

Two years ago, in her first Grand National start, Moise qualified third behind Winston Cup veterans Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott, and ahead of former NASCAR champions Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt.

“It was on a road course, which was my home turf in those days, but it was still a big thrill to be sitting there on the starting line around those guys,” she said. “I passed Bill (Elliott) on the first lap, but on the next lap my engine blew. So much for fulfilling fantasies.”

Moise will be driving a Buick for Mike Laughlin, a prominent Winston Cup car builder, this season. Laughlin set up her specially built Regal for the record runs, but they are two entirely different species.

“If my regular race car was like a Lear jet, then my record car was like an F-18 Hornet,” she said.

Analogies with aircraft come naturally for Moise. If she were not a race driver, she would like to be a jet pilot.

For thrills, Moise rates flying with the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels second only to her record run at Talladega, Ala.

“We pulled seven G’s in a gigantic loop somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico,” she recalled with relish. “The G-forces are so strong that they tell you to keep grunting so you won’t black out. You’ve got to keep the blood in your head, and grunting is the way they do it.

“I got to work the controls but not for long. You lose all perspective with the horizon up there, and you’re going so fast--we broke the sound barrier--it just feels awesome. I was up 55 minutes and loved every second of it, except the upside-down flying. That was really uncomfortable.

“I just love anything that goes fast and always have. My dad raced cars and flew planes as a hobby, and I guess I got it from him. I used to tag along after him when I was in bobby-sox and ponytails in grammar school. Now, he tags along with me.

“I’ve got two brothers, but neither were much interested in racing. My mom says I’m my dad’s son. When I was 16 and first got my driver’s license, I got a Camaro that my dad and I hopped up into a real hot-rod. I felt like I was the toughest kid in town driving that car.

“When I came within one ticket of losing my license, my dad decided I was so hooked on going fast that he sent me out to California to attend Bob Bondurant’s driving school to tame me down. Well, that really did it. Racing around in those little Formula Fords was the biggest kick I’d ever had.”

Her mother insisted Moise finish college before embarking on a racing career.

As soon as she graduated from Jacksonville University with degrees in marketing and economics in 1981, Moise took off to race her dad’s car in the International Motor Sports Assn.’s RS series against veteran road racers such as Joe Verde, Amos Johnson and Roger Mandeville.

“I was terrible, terrible, terrible,” Moise recalled with a laugh. “I was always getting lapped, but I was learning. The next year I drove an AMC Spirit in the Kelly American Challenge series. I thought it was really a hot car. It went 140 on the straightaway at Daytona.”

Moise raced in the Kelly series for five years, building a reputation that eventually led her to NASCAR oval-track racing. In 1986, she became the only woman in the series to win, driving a Buick Somerset at Portland, Ore. She also placed second four times and finished second to Irv Hoerr in the series.

“I had a crew chief that year (1986) named David Ifft, who had been a Winston Cup mechanic,” Moise said. “He made a car available for me to drive at Road Atlanta. That was the day I qualified third, and, even though it was a road course, I took a liking to those big stock cars and decided to become a NASCAR driver.”

Last year, after struggling for two seasons driving in a variety of races, Moise was approached by Laughlin to drive for him. After a career of building cars in Greenville, S.C., Laughlin had decided to form his own team.

“We had some ‘teething’ problems, which isn’t unusual for a new team,” Moise said. “And we only got in 12 Grand National races, along with two ARCA and two Winston Cups. This year, we want to run the full Grand National schedule, starting with Daytona. You need to be successful in GN in order to move up, and in order to be successful you have to drive every opportunity you can find.”

Moise, 5-feet-7 and 120 pounds, is single and the only woman racing at the Grand National level, but she says she is pretty well accepted by her racing rivals.

“I’ve been taken out twice when I was passing, and it was totally uncalled for, but there are some people who will do that to anyone, not just me. I know who they are and how they did it, and I’ll remember the next time the situation comes around.

“I find that the better the driver is--fellows like Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, Rusty Wallace and Ken Schrader--the more likely they are to accept me as long as I do my job. They’re a lot like the fellows who fly the Blue Angels--very professional, very confident, very alert, but all of them are cutups.

“And probably most of them still think a woman can’t drive a race car.”