On May 19th, Miranda Throckmorton took the win in the sprint car feature at Paragon Speedway, apparently racing her way into sprint car racing record books.

Research by this author would indicate that Miranda’s victory was the first 410 non-winged sprint car feature ever won by a female racer.

Determined 15-year-old Miranda Throckmorton just completed her freshman year at Indiana’s Avon High School.

“I just tried to stay calm. I didn’t want to get excited and do something to throw it all away,” Throckmorton recalled of her winning run.

Miranda had worked her way up to this night with a successful open-wheel career consisting of quarter-midgets, mini-sprints, and Kenyon midgets, running on both pavement and dirt.

It was a strong career in the quarters that first earned her attention. The quarter-midgets started at age 4-1/2 and lasted for six years, most of it competed on dirt. In all, there were well over 100 wins in local through national competition in three different classes with the horsepower varying from four to 14.

Miranda brought home the gold with five QMA Regional and five Indiana State championships. She also qualified for eight National Grands and for the A-Main in every one of them. Her best finish was a 3rd in 2002, her final full year in the quarters.

In 2003, Miranda started with the 600 winged mini-sprints at US 24 Speedway. The following year, she had learned her trade with a win and numerous top-three finishes. “During five of those races, I was leading but didn’t get the job done,” she lamented.