Life at Full Throttle
Balancing baked goods and race cars
Jessica Vetch lives life at full throttle. She’s up at 2 a.m. and arrives at Rae Rae’s Gluten Free Bakery an hour later. Before the city awakens, Jessica and her employee pull an array of freshly baked breads, cakes, cinnamon rolls, donuts and cookies from the oven. But when the weekend comes, she turns off the oven and pursues another passion.
“I’m not a cheerleader,” Jessica says. “I’m a racer.”
When Jessica shows up at the Yellowstone Drag Strip with her husband Luke, she isn’t sitting in the passenger seat. She’s driving her sporty, bumblebee-yellow ’05 Chevy Cobalt SS. Luke drives a black ’05 Cobalt SS. These two spit-shined vehicles are used for Autocross, a motorsport where drivers navigate tight corners through a paved course outlined by traffic cones. Racers use the parking lot at the Strip for some of their competitions. Cars run solo and a timer tracks each run down to the tenth of a second. Hit a cone and a two-second penalty is added to your time.
When this thirty-year-old with an ever present smile steps out of her car, she gets right down to business, Luke says.
“Jessica swaps her own tires out (replaces street tires for racing tires) and checks the fluids,” he says. “She’s not one of the guys. She’s a club member.”
Both she and Luke are members of the Yellowstone Region Sports Car Club of America, a 50-year-old club that’s run solely by volunteers.
The smell of motor oil and the rumble of race cars fueled Jessica’s childhood, thanks to her dad who was a mechanic. “My dad took me to classic car shows and to dirt tracks every Friday night,” she says.
It’s a skill her husband also tinkers around with, when not serving as the manager of the Lockwood IGA.
“I’m a hobby mechanic,” Luke says. “I’ve been a car nut a long time.”
The two met at college in Nebraska, Jessica’s home state, working together in the grocery business in Lincoln. “They were college jobs for us,” says Luke, a Billings native. “But after college, I got her to come to the mountains with me.”
That was over a decade ago. Four years ago, Jessica jumpstarted two things that would come to define her life. She bought Rae Rae’s, and she and Luke started racing. “It’s our main hobby,” she says.
The racing bug for Jessica started with RallyCross, where drivers race on a closed course marked by traffic cones. “You build a course out of cones on the dirt,” Jessica explains. “The owner of the Acton Drag Strip lets us (Yellowstone Region SCCA) build our course in the corner. We’re at the drag strip three to four times a year.”
Big Sky Speedway, located north of Billings in Shepherd, allows the club to use its pit area and its large, oval track. “We’re probably at the Speedway twice a year,” she says. “We also have a property owner in Bridger who enjoys racing and he lets us use his track.”
With a playful smile, she admits, she’s “taken out a few cones.”
RallyCross takes place October through April. That’s when Jessica gets behind the wheel of her ’93 Ford Probe GT for a little dirt-track competition. “It’s fun because it’s community-driven with all the friends we have,” Jessica says. “There are usually 15 to 20 guys and seven to eight ladies who race. The course takes about two minutes, (a dozen laps) and you’re racing against the clock. It’s not wheel-to-wheel.”
Her first race came with an unexpected twist. “I didn’t know how to run a manual, drive a stick shift,” Jessica says.
Fortunately, luck was on her side. The club happened to have a loaner vehicle available that day — a well-worn 2004 Toyota Prius with no bumpers.
“I used it the full day and it was a blast! For the next race I learned how to use a stick shift,” and from then on, Jessica says, “It wasn’t safe to be in town.”
The idea that a new member without racing experience was loaned a car is almost inconceivable. Yet, that’s what the motocross club is about. “We all coach a new person,” she says. “When I was new, they helped. When there are new drivers, we want to make it fun for them.”
Whether Jessica’s sliding around the dirt track during a Rallycross race or zipping around the traffic cones on paved surfaces in an Autocross race, she lives life on her terms. Her eyes light up as she says, “It becomes more fun once you learn what your car can do.”
As she weaves through a maze of bright orange cones, she reaches speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. Success isn't about raw speed. It's about precision, car control and navigating the course without damaging either the vehicle or the driver. Wheel-to-wheel racing, by comparison, is an entirely different adrenaline rush, with cars reaching speeds of up to 100 mph.
“I haven’t done wheel-to-wheel,” Jessica says, “but Luke has.” Luke is quick to add: “My top speed was 125 mph at a track outside of Denver. Jessica was in the car with me.”
Flashing a smile at her husband, Jessica adds that “it’s not my cup of tea. I just want to have fun.” She understands the rush and why her husband likes it.
If Luke and Jessica aren’t at the track, you can often find them taking in a classic car show or even tinkering on their own cars in the garage. Not only do they have the two Cobalts, but own a 1984 Thunderbird and a ’69 Mustang that is waiting to become the next project. They will often buy a car and then swap out parts that are more suitable for racing.
Jessica loves to fine-tune motors and help Luke replace transmissions.
While there is more than a half-dozen women who race, Jessica urges any woman with an interest to come to one of the club’s events.
“You can ride with anyone or watch for free,” says Jessica. “Come and see what it’s all about. Find a $2,000 car, put good tires on it, and you’re ready to go.” She adds: “And if your husband likes cars, pursue the hobby and race with him.”
That’s exactly what Jessica did, and she and her Chevy Cobalt haven’t slowed down since.
