During National Women’s History Month in March, the Urban Youth Racing School is honored to join in on the worldwide celebration of women from across the globe. The 2021 Women’s History Month theme is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced.” This theme highlights why so many women have gained the admiration of their counterparts in male-dominated sports. We are truly blessed and honor for the hard work of all the women who paved the way for today’s and tomorrow’s motorsport industry. Today we honor motorsport women for securing our future, a future for women with more opportunities than ever before. This theme has Alba Colon written all over it, based on her impact on the Motorsports Industry.
Born in Salamanca, Spain, Colon was an engineer by trade who grew up in Puerto Rico and attended the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. The aforementioned is known to be the starting point of the solar car project, which would become the foundation for Colon’s structure and portentous in Formula SAE cars. She currently champions and occupies a unique position in the motorsports industry in the United States of America. Since becoming the lead engineer and analyst for racing companies and units, Colon has learned to exploit and influence the power of engineering techniques and strategies such that vehicles and drivers become better and can race their cars in shorter periods, in more safe environments.
“As director of the competition systems group, I take care of everything that has to do with the simulation side of the business. We also work on the tires, data acquisition, strategy tools, all the tools that the race teams need to be able to win races and championships” said Alba Colon on Sep 21, 2020. Truly the mindset of a leader and a champion and why her presence in a male-dominated sport goes far beyond the impact you and I see daily in the motorsports industry. Since becoming a risen star, she has impacted the industry in many ways. Because of pioneers like the Alba Colons, motorsports have become more welcoming of women, recognizes women’s technical capabilities and capacities of women, and has realized that women can champion the sport, and play a positive role in the industry. Today, at least 118 women have qualified for or started a race in one of the National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR), events but not many who will welcome the challenge of working behind the scenes and away from the wheel. Colon’s position as an engineer who analyzes informational data has opened additional opportunities for more women engineers to become a part of. In contrast her diversity has brought significant changes to motorsports and shows that being born a woman and outside the United States does not make a difference. What makes the difference is the dreams that you see and follow to completion.
