Jacob Goede will field seven race cars out of his home this upcoming season.
Yes, the 2019 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion will continue to race his traditional orange-and-white late model at Elko Speedway, the NASCAR Home Track in Elko New Market, Minnesota where he’s won 10 consecutive titles. But the other six cars in his shop will be quarter midgets, two each for his three daughters: 11-year-old Reese, 9-year-old Johanna and 7-year-old Audrey.
The three Goede girls will race at Little Elko Speedway, home of the Minnesota Quarter Midget Racing Association. Reese is in her fourth year of competition and has already set two track records. Audrey, in her third season, is coming off a year in which she finished second in both of her classes and had multiple wins. Johanna was a rookie last year; she showed improvement in one of Little Elko’s most competitive classes.
“It’s been a lot of learning. Reese is getting pretty competitive,” Goede said. “Audrey came a long way again. She won a few races again. Johanna, her rookie season. … By the end of the year she moved into the competitive class and was doing pretty well.
“That’s always the most interesting watching them start from basically barely being able to go around the race track to picking up racing, making passes, lining up correctly, doing all that kind of stuff.”
All three of the Goede sisters are involved in other athletic activities, from softball, volleyball and dance to horseback riding and gymnastics. Even though Goede has been racing for several decades, for his daughters, it was seeing other drivers their own age that made them want to give the sport a try.
Reese, for example, said she wanted to race after watching Goede’s nephew compete in quarter midgets. Goede recalls setting up cones in a parking lot to teach his oldest daughter how to get around in the car. She experienced some setbacks in her first season, including a wreck in which she flipped her car.
With no damage to the ride – and just a sore elbow – she was able to come around and still finish third.
“That was pretty cool,” Reese said. “I knew if I kept on going, I knew how it happened and that doesn’t happen often.”
Reese’s success encouraged her sisters to get behind the wheel, too.
Said Johanna: “Watching people who raced before me like my dad, Reese and Audrey, it looked fun.”
And Audrey: “Watching my dad and Reese and everybody else, it made it just look fun to try, so I got in the car and it was just fun to me.”
The sisters are competitors on the track, but they’re also each other’s biggest cheerleaders.
“When I watch Audrey, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Reese said. “Obviously there’s stuff she can fix, but at the same time she’s getting really good for how old she is.”
Said Johanna: “Watching Reese be competitive, it makes me want to be competitive.”
Elko Speedway has seen a rise in female racers in recent seasons. Taylor Goldman became the first woman to win a track championship when she took home the Power Stock division title in 2018, and she most recently finished fourth in Elko’s Thunder Cars division. Julie Jorgenson became the second woman to win a title when she won the 2023 Elko championship in the Power Stocks division.
Goldman has become a mentor to the Goede sisters, helping them strap into their cars before races and offering any advice they may need.
“At the beginning of the season, I would not pass right away,” Reese said. “And she told me to pass right away because you’re going to get passed if you don’t pass.”
Added Johanna: “She told me it’s OK to sometimes make mistakes. Don’t be scared to pass. Be confident in yourself to win.”
And Audrey: “She told me I can do this and she cheers us on, too.”
The women who drive at Elko serve as inspirations to young girls in the car. Said Reese: “When they cheer us on, obviously they’ve gone really far, so watching them cheer us on is good because they got to where they are.”
The biggest lesson Goede tries to teach his daughters is how to be competitive, how to win and lose, and take the good with the bad. He wants to make sure they continue to show a desire for racing. He aims to show them that, if they want a successful career in the sport, they can have one with hard work.
All three Goede sisters have big goals they’re working toward in 2024. Reese wants to run for a championship this summer. Johanna wants to get to Victory Lane in an older class.
Audrey said simply she wants to “try to win every race.”
Goede is just looking to see his daughters continue to learn and have fun.
“Lots of learning. That’s how it always goes, I think, every season with kids,” he said. “We’re getting close to being competitive, and we hope to win races.
“They’re picking it up, and I don’t know where it’ll go, but we’re going to enjoy it right now while it lasts.”
Both of Elko’s tracks will open for practice at the end of April. Elko Speedway will open the season on May 25. The first race at Little Elko will take place May 12.