- Sara Price and Chip Ganassi Racing Extreme E Series teammate Kyle LeDuc make up Extreme E's only all-American team.
- This 29-year-old Price has raced for 15 years and now fully embraced electric/low-carbon-vehicle technology and the series’ commitment to raising awareness of climate-change issues.
- She and Le Duc and Ganassi are all-in with Extreme E, excited about the chance to continue with the series in 2022.
She owns her own auto-painting business that enabled her to buy her own home and first off-road truck.
She’s an X Games medalist and stunt professional, performing on motorcycles and vehicles in precision-driving assignments for television and commercials. Her resumé even includes working in a video with Lady Gaga.
What’s more, this never-before crusader from Riverside, California, is helping save Earth in an electric GMC Hummer.
She’s Sara Price, half of the Chip Ganassi Racing Extreme E Series duo with Kyle LeDuc—the global endeavor’s only all-American team. And she’s is about to wrap up a life-changing racing season this weekend with the Jurassic X Prix near Dorset, England.
This 29-year-old who has raced for 15 years has fully embraced electric/low-carbon-vehicle technology and the series’ commitment to raising awareness of climate-change issues.
“I wasn't aware of any of this, and I'm full-bore in it, learning it,” Price told Autoweek. “I believe in this. If I can believe in it and if I'm doing this and it makes sense and this is helping our world, you can, too.”
She has seen the power of action.
“Every trip, we have a ‘legacy project.’ It's when they take us into the environment, and whatever the cause is that they're trying to highlight for that race, they put us in the middle of it,” she said after this revolutionary form of motorsports took her to Al’Ula, Saudi Arabia; Lac Rose, Senegal; Kangerlussuaq, Greenland; and Sardinia, Italy.
“When I went to Greenland, I camped on a glacier. Like, I've legit camped on a glacier, and it was crazy. But I got to learn firsthand why we’re there and what we're trying to tell the world about what's happening to climate change.” Price said.
“I always cared about the environment. I always wanted obviously to take care of our deserts, because I was in them all the time and they closed them down because of people who don't care about them. So I always try to stand up for ‘Take your trash out. Make sure you aren’t causing fires everywhere. Take care of it—don't just make crazy trails on people's property’ or whatever the case is.
“I always focus on that type of stuff, but I wasn't as nuts about it. I am now,” she said. “Now, there's definitely been a change in my life because of it, because I'm more aware of it. It feels good to do something for your planet,” she said. “I might not go vegan or vegetarian, but I very much believe in certain things now, because of my experience.”
Price said, “I think a lot of it to comes down to there are so many ways we can live differently and better. These manufacturers, maybe if they had research and development, they could [increase the use of] recycled-plastic bricks that they're making homes with and then we can provide housing for the homeless or whatever the case is. I think people just have to be more open to it and talk about it and maybe do something about it.
“I’ve never thought of like actually doing something myself. You know, I always thought being involved was kind of educating myself so far. It’s kind of the only thing I've done. But I think there is definitely ways, especially in the off-road world. Right now, we're racing big V8 trucks still, so there has to be another way. Right now, the only trucks you can race are the V8s,” she said. “For me, it's about balance, because I'm going to race those but I'm also going to race electric cars. I also want to do good for the environment. So let's race these trucks while they still exist, and then I will do something else that can help the world, too.
“They're already working on electric trophy trucks. I race trophy trucks. But right now, they’re engines. So I'd be interested to see whether electric ones actually come out, because it is in the process right now,” she said.
“We're at the pinnacle of EVs actually being able to do these radical, awesome, extreme things. And we're at the front of it, because there's not too many EVs racing now in off-road. I think there's been a few that try. But we're in the Hummer EV, too, inspired extreme E vehicle, and so right there just goes to show these manufacturers are proud to be behind us,” Price said. “I'm proud to represent Hummer and GMC with the team. I can't wait to see how they compare from the Hummer to the actual extreme E, because all the manufacturers are going that direction. They're going towards the EV markets. I think they're all standing up by a certain date or a certain year [that] they're only going to be electric.”
Ganassi raced dirt bikes in his early days in motorsports (“Chip himself is a full-blown dirt person. He loves the off-road,” Price said). So, she said, it’s only natural that the Extreme E Series would have captured his fancy—and that she considers herself the lucky beneficiary.
“Even just being around the new sort of racing, the people, like we're off-road desert rock. We're now around high-end teams that have funding that I've never seen before. These huge names . . . it's just crazy, because we don't have that in off-road racing. And that's why it's been so awesome for me.
“Chip is very involved, and I really love that about him. I absolutely adore Chip. I have nothing but great things to say about him, and it's pretty cool what he's built and what he stands for and the team he's built to run his race programs. And he's very much involved. I'm a business owner myself. So I respect that [in] other business owners. I'm proud to be a part of Chip’s program,” Price said.
She and Le Duc and Ganassi are all-in with Extreme E, excited about the chance to continue with the series in 2022. (“Right now, I think we're still finalizing stuff for the next year. So everything's kind of just in the works right now. We're excited, though,” she said.)
It would be no surprise if Price purchased an electric Hummer. She said, “I’m not just saying this because we’re sponsored by them. I actually really want the Hummer. My mom has an older Hummer, and she's so obsessed with it that she won't get rid of it. But I’m like, ‘You have to get rid of it to get the new Hummer EV, because I want one, and we can have two Hummer EVs.’ I’m obsessed with it. It's so pretty. It's off-road-capable like, it crab walks. No car ever has done that. It’s just super-cool.”
But arguably, what could help the series and raise the awareness level is having a race on American soil. The original schedule called for events in South America’s Amazon region in Brazil and Patagonia in Argentina, but those were canceled because of coronavirus concerns. Sardinia and the U.K. replaced those. The others took place in the Middle East, on Africa’s Atlantic shores, and in Greenland. But a race on U.S. territory could highlight some of North America’s environmental concerns and attract a media contingent more willing to shone the spotlight on Extreme E.
Price said, “I think America is taking a little bit longer to catch on. But I definitely think eventually they're going to be coming this way. I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling they would.”
She has voiced her suggestions to series architect Alejandro Agag: “He’s asked me and I’ve full-on told him, ‘You need to go to two places.’ They had some ideas already in the U.S. on the East Coast, but I was telling them Baja is one that I think would be really great in North America, just because of the fact that their whole country lives for racing. That’s their football. That's their Super Bowl. And then, in the actual States, I’d love to see them in California. Obviously, we're super-overpopulated, and there could be a lot of things that they can highlight from that. If there’s more people, there's more trash. You got to be more clever, I guess, with how you live to help the environment.”
