Seventeen years ago, Taylor Goldman was a 13-year-old running her third race in a full-sized Power Stock car when she flipped going from Turn 4 into Turn 1 at Minnesota’s Raceway Park.
As she laid upside down on the hood of her car, she opened her eyes for a split second and saw Victory Lane, also upside down and lit up under the night sky.
“It was the most bizarre thing, because I didn’t really understand what happened because I had closed my eyes,” Goldman said. “I could see my dad trying to get on the race track. He’s freaking out. He’s trying to ask me if I’m OK, and here I am asking questions like, ‘Is the car OK? What can we do to get the car fixed? Can we go race again?'”
When asked if she was afraid to get behind the wheel after crashing so early in her career, Goldman was emphatic.
“Oh, God, no,” she said. “No, absolutely not.”
Her night may have been done, but her race career was not. A week later, Goldman was back on track, and two weeks later she was standing in that same Victory Lane — this time right-side-up — after winning her first race.
That season, thanks to her roll-over mishap, a fan started calling Goldman “Rollergirl,” a name that stuck.
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Rollergirl has proven throughout her nearly 20-year racing career she’s just as fearless now as she was that night as a teenager. Not only is she fearless on the track, but she has no fear of any competition.
Goldman became the first woman to win a track championship at Elko Speedway when she won the 2018 Power Stock division championship at the NASCAR Home Track in Elko New Market, Minnesota.
This season, she’s fourth in the track’s Thunder Cars division with two wins and six top fives in 15 races.
Goldman in 2008 began racing at Elko, the same track where her dad David competed. When she started her career, she didn’t go the traditional route of beginning in a go-kart or other smaller ride.
“I just went right from being a kid in the stands to a big car right away,” she said.
Her limited time in a go-kart was spent driving around a make-shift course her dad set up at the gas station he owns.
“He would set up a little pretend race track around the pump islands, and that’s kind of how I got pumped up,” she said. “I felt really cool. I felt like I was like my dad, and when I got the opportunity to do it, there were no questions about it. There was no hesitation. I was like, ‘Absolutely, yes, get me behind the wheel right now.’
“It just felt cool to be able to go do something my dad did and try to carry on his name and try to be as successful as my dad was.”
Goldman’s mom Jane is in the pits every weekend, and David serves as crew chief and mechanic while also playing the role of parent on race days.
While competing as part of the Busch-sponsored Women in Motorsports program, Goldman has had the chance to branch out and try some new tracks for the first time. She’s competed six times at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway, a NASCAR Home Track in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, and came away with four top fives.
This past weekend, she also raced at Rockford Speedway, a NASCAR Home Track in Loves Park, Illinois, and came in seventh in the NASCAR Road Runners race.
She’s cherished the opportunity to try new tracks this summer and is excited to compete in LaCrosse’s fall special, the 54th Oktoberfest, on Oct. 5-8. Oktoberfest is a four-day race event that is “pretty much like the last hurrah of Wisconsin tracks,” she said. It also happens to fall on her birthday weekend.
“I absolutely fell in love with LaCrosse because it’s a really big track,” Goldman said. “When you come out of the corner and you step on the gas, it’s a wide-open experience.”
She also cherishes being the only woman to win a track title in the 57-year history of Elko, but she’s more excited to see that number grow. Goldman’s best friend Julie Jorgenson is currently second in Elko’s Power Stocks division standings, three points out of first place. Jorgenson has three wins this season.
“I feel like she’s definitely got a really good chance to be the girl that’s the second female track champion,” Goldman said of Jorgenson. “She’s one hell of a wheel lady.”
While Goldman loves getting in the car and racing herself, her main goal is to show other young girls racing and winning is possible.
She mentors young drivers competing in quarter midgets at Elko’s smaller track, Little Elko, where her biggest message is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a girl or a boy driving the car; what matters is “when you put that helmet on are you a fast driver?”
“And girls can be,” she added. “Girls can absolutely dominate an entire field of men. I’ve proven it; Julie’s proven it. I want to show little girls, even little boys, too, little kids in general, there should be no fear if it’s a girl or a guy that’s next to you.
“The question is, is that race car going to beat me? No, I’m going to beat them, because I’m the better driver and I’m faster. I want to do what I can to help develop that.”
Goldman thanked her mom and dad — and crew guy Chad — for their support throughout her career. She also thanked the Women In Motorsports program.
“The opportunity that Women In Motorsports has given both Julie and I is really incredible,” she said. “To be able to have even the tiniest bit of light shined on you, I hope I can take that light and shine it on other people.”