Henderson’s Bekki Freeman achieves success against off-road racing’s big boys

Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.

BEKKI FREEMAN IS poised to make history as the only female driver to win a class championship in the male-dominated SCORE Desert Series and, later this year, as the only woman to drive the treacherous Baja 1000 by herself.

But the attractive 27-year-old Henderson resident insists her goals are not gender based or to prove a point.

"I have been around racing since I was three months olds," the second-generation racer said as she prepared for Saturday's Primm 300. "I do this for personal accomplishment, it's not so that I can be the only woman to have ever done it or this or that.

"When I got into racing, that was never a goal. I just do it because this was what I wanted to do and I loved it."

Freeman enters Saturday's race trailing Jason Hatz of Laguna Beach, Calif., by 38 points in the battle for the Class 1/2-1600 points championship with two races remaining. She also is one of only a handful of drivers in the series who has completed every mile of every race this season.

"There has never been a woman to win a points championship in SCORE ... but for me, I want to do it not because I'm a woman, it's because I want it bad," Freeman said.

Attempting to become the first woman to drive the treacherous Baja 1000, which will be run in November, was an afterthought, Freeman said, after she realized that she had a shot at the class championship.

"At the Baja 500 (in June), somebody came up to me and said, 'Well, what do you think about this points championship?'" Freeman said. "And I said, 'Man, are we in a points championship or are we just trying to get through each race?'

"Then, all of a sudden it dawned on us, at the Barstow race in July, that we're in a points championship. We decided to run the 1000 because of the points (battle)."

She already has driven all 500 miles of the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 earlier this summer after hearing naysayers maintain it couldn't be done by a woman.

"When we got to the 500, I said I wanted to do this race by myself and people said I couldn't do it," she said. "So, I went out and did it."

It now seems only natural that Freeman wound up as one of the top competitors in off-road racing. The daughter of racing parents, Freeman rode on her father's lap while her parents pre-ran the Mint 400 -- at the age of three months.

"This has been a family sport; my parents just brought me out, dumped me in the dirt and here I am," Freeman said, her passion for the sport clearly evident. "So why don't I do anything else? That's easy, I don't know anything else. It just becomes a part of your life."

Not that it was easy for Freeman when, as a 16-year-old, she first climbed into an off-road vehicle and started racing.

"All these guys I raced against, we grew up together but there were always a few that thought a girl doesn't belong out here," she said. "When I first started, it was like, 'girls shouldn't be doing this,' but I just kept going out. I was determined.

"But it's not like that anymore for me. Obviously, because I've won enough races and I have been a competitor long enough with these people, that we all look at each other the same now. It's not 'she's the girl,' anymore, we're just competitors."

That point was brought home in a rather touching way earlier this week. When Freeman's competitors learned that she was going to attempt to drive all 1,000 miles in the Baja 1000 by herself, the company that prepares her car was flooded with telephone calls offering support.

"That gives me chills because it means so much to me, more than they'll ever know or that I could ever explain to them," she said. "For someone who I don't even really even know to say, 'Hey, we really want this for you,' that's awesome."

Freeman, who runs Freeman's Carpet Services in Las Vegas with her racing brother Kenny, has another goal before she turns her attention to the Baja 1000. She said she is going into Saturday's race in Primm with only one objective.

"I have to win this race to make (the championship) happen," she said. "I don't feel a lot of pressure, though, because of all places if I can win, this is where it should be. This is my hometown and I'm more familiar with this desert probably than anybody."

Although she drew the sixth starting position in her class and Hatz will start second, Freeman is confident she can leave Primm with her first SCORE victory after placing in the top five in each of the first four races.

"It's really to my advantage that (Hatz) starts in front of me because the pressure is on him and all I have to do is catch him," Freeman said.

Although running second in points might seem like a great accomplishment considering she is breaking in a new car this season, Freeman feels otherwise.

"I'm actually a little disappointed that we haven't been finishing a little more up front," Freeman said.

"At (the season opener in) Laughlin, I told everybody we're going to win this race hands down and we finished in fifth place. To me, I might as well have finished 15th."

Spoken like a true racer.