The leader of the pack

CLAREMONT, N.H. -- Tayla Orleans is radiant when she returns from an autograph-signing session. It wasn't just the little kids; it was the grownups, too, who wanted her signature, says the 13-year-old from Wrentham.

``I even got to sign two T-shirts!" she exclaims before taking a sip of water in her trailer.

But there's not much time to talk, because the evening's race is about to start. Tayla is the youngest competitor -- and the only girl -- in the Allison Legacy North Race Series, a string of competitions across the Northeast featuring three-quarter-size stock cars that can reach speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

It is just getting dark, and the constant roar of race-car engines is broken only by the occasional squeal of brakes and an announcer's voice on the loudspeaker. The smell of burned rubber circulates periodically. Tayla and her father discuss strategy one last time.

Then, wearing her red jumpsuit, she squeezes into her car -- it's fastest to step through the window -- re attaches the steering wheel, tucks her light-brown hair under a helmet, straps herself in, and slowly backs No. 93, a white and orange Chevy Monte Carlo, away from the trailer.

Her car joins a small traffic jam of decal-adorned cars muscling their way toward the entrance to the track.

The Allison Legacy races are semi professional, a kind of minor league racing, said series director Michael Vasquez. Winners receive small cash prizes, with weekly payouts from $90 to $200, and another $8,000 divided among the top 10 racers at the end of the season.

One driver is in his early 40s and another is 26, but most are so young that, like Tayla, they have yet to earn their driver's licenses.

The cars are slightly smaller versions of NASCAR Nextel Cup cars, designed by the Allison brothers, sons of stock car legend Donnie Allison . But that doesn't mean they're slow.

The Mazda B-2200 truck engine in each car produces 125 horsepower, and Vasquez said they've been known to reach 135 miles per hour in races on larger tracks in the South.

In this night's race, on the one-third-mile track at the Twin State Speedway, Tayla said she will go about 90 miles per hour.

She acts like it's nothing. ``I like passing people," she said. ``Who doesn't?"

Fear never enters her mind, she said. Once, last season, her car was simply idling on the track during a practice session when it was struck by another car. She blacked out for five seconds.

``The people from the ambulance came over and said, `Are you OK?' and I wanted to make sure that my car was OK."

She doesn't remember the rest of the day, but her father said she took aspirin and raced anyway.

Tayla has been racing for more than half her life. She began racing go-carts when she was 7, inspired by racing she saw on TV. She joined the Allison series last year, the first year she was old enough, and took seventh place for the season. This year, she is in first place and hopes to hold onto that spot through the last of the 18 races in October. Eventually, she wants a career in racing.

Vasquez said some Allison racers do become full-fledged professionals.

``It's a stepping stone to a larger-sized stock car," Vasquez said. ``It's very common for the youngsters to move up."

For example, NASCAR driver Brian Vickers , 22, is a former Legacy driver, Vasquez said.

Vickers is among Tayla's favorite drivers to watch, along with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. , a teammate of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Among the female drivers, Tayla likes watching Erin Crocker , who mainly races trucks.

The Orleans family has made a big investment in pursuing Tayla's dream. Most weekends mean a trip in the motor home, with the race car nestled safely in an attached trailer. Once, said Tayla's father, Barry, they arrived home from a race in Georgia just in time for Tayla to shower during the last few miles on board and make it on the bus to King Philip Middle School.

``Our whole life kind of revolves around this right now," said Orleans, who ``spots" Tayla, meaning he advises her via radio while she races.

Last year, Orleans raced in the Allison series, too.

On this night, as he waits for Tayla's race to begin, he stands at the chain-link fence that overlooks the track from the racers' preparation area on a nearby hill. The grandstands, about half full at this point, are on the opposite side of the oval.

Orleans, 44, is a broadly built man wearing a black Legacy series polo shirt with a checker-print collar. He recalls his and Tayla's competing days with a mix of pride and mock jealousy. ``I won four heats in a row. She had to do better; she had five."

This race day for Tayla begins at 8:30 a.m., when the family sets out from Wrentham. Tayla and her 3-year-old sister, Michele, who slept in the motor home's bedroom the night before, don't wake up until mid journey. Everyone is tired, having just flown home the night before from a trip to watch the Pepsi 400, a NASCAR race in Daytona, Fla.

Orleans owns a trucking company, Intimidator Transport, named after famed driver Dale Earnhardt Sr., the ``Intimidator" of NASCAR. Tayla's stepmother, Beverly, 41, runs a dog-training facility at the house.

They arrive at the track at lunchtime, which gives Tayla plenty of time to relax in the air-conditioned motor home, which is outfitted with couches and a television.

Just before 3 p.m., the gates to the racing complex open, and the Orleans clan pulls the trailer into the preparation area, lining up with other families. Everyone starts unloading race cars, checking engines, tires, and gears, and perching folding chairs on the trailer's back hatches to sit out the afternoon.

``It's a lot of hurry-up-and-wait," Vasquez said of the schedule.

Practice rounds are at 4:40 and 5:40 p.m., which gives Tayla and the others a chance to adjust to the nuances of the track.

Then it's time for dinner, which means hot dogs for the parents, oatmeal for Michele, and a TV dinner for Tayla. She wants a hot dog, too, but Beverly reminds her that last time, the hot dogs made her stomach hurt.

``No! That was macaroni and cheese, the rubber kind," Tayla says. Still, she eats her dinner and talks about rumors circulating outside.

``I heard there's going to be another girl," she says.

She says she'd rather be the only one. ``I wouldn't want to have another girl beat me."

Another girl has registered in the series, Vasquez said, but she hasn't raced yet. There are about six girls racing Allison Legacy cars nationwide, he said, out of 75 to 100 total racers.

Statistics raise questions about the driving abilities of the average teenager, and some people have campaigned to raise the age at which teenagers can get their licenses. But Vasquez said the teenagers in his races are special.

``These kids are very young, but very mature for their age," he said.

He noted that a number of them already have had years of experience driving when they show up at the track. ``Some of these kids have been racing go-carts since they were 5," he said.

There is no formal training or test for the racers, but Vasquez evaluates all of the rookies during practices at the beginning of the season in April.

The drivers, he said, use the latest safety equipment, including a HANS device, or head and neck support, as well as a helmet and heavy-duty seat belts.

He acknowledged that racing is a dangerous sport but said the worst injury suffered in a Legacy car was a broken leg.

Since she has no license, Tayla never leaves the property when she practices at home in a 1988 Nissan Sentra her father bought for her.

``I practice shifting up and down the driveway and in the yard," she said.

It's race time now, so Orleans turns his attention to the track. Tayla has to begin in the back since she's leading the series. The cars circle for a few pace laps, and shoot ahead as the green flag drops. Tayla seems to get a slow start.

``What happened?" Orleans says into a radio headset that connects him with Tayla. He sounds a bit concerned.

But he stays calm, and so does Tayla, evidently, because she works her way to fifth in the field of eight.

``Keep going, keep going, keep digging," Orleans says into the headset.

One car spins, provoking a caution flag that forces everyone to slow down and set up for a restart.

``It's what you needed," Orleans tells his daughter. ``All right, just be patient."

Soon, Tayla's in third, and then second, as the leading car spins coming off a turn.

She completes the 30-lap race in second place, keeping her securely ahead in the series.

Anthony Frissora , 15, of Shrewsbury, wins the race, bringing him to second in the series. This is Frissora's third year racing with Allison Legacy North, and he, too, wants to go pro one day.

Tayla has finished all races this season in the top five, with two first-place victories.

``My first win this season was really exciting," she said. ``I was screaming on the radio."

Beverly Orleans is in charge of taking pictures and videos of the race. ``Did you see how smooth she is?" she asks. She says she can't help but worry a little.

As Tayla, Barry Orleans, and race officials finish a post race inspection of the car, Beverly Orleans goes inside the motor home to make coffee for the ride to Wrentham. Then, like any other 13-year-old, Tayla has her parents drive her home.