Lady bug racer
Squinting in the sun, Megan Tribble prepares to leave the pits behind other slug bug drivers at Sandia Motor Sports. Megan, 16, started working in the pits two years ago and started driving when she was 15. "They're like dads to me, the other racers," she said. "I look to them as people I want to be like. I try my best to drive like them and follow their path. I really admire them. They're really awesome people."
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Vanessa Tribble blows a kiss to her daughter, Megan, as she secures the screen on Megan's race car. "When Megan goes onto the racetrack, we always say `I love you' to each other, kind of like it is our last time to say it," Tribble said. "Our relationship is very close, always has been. I like how when she is out on the race track I can almost know what she is thinking in the car."
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Megan Tribble, 16, leans on the bumper of her Volkswagen bug as her pit boss Robert Anderson (right) and fellow slug-bug aficionado Ken Myers dig into the engine to diagnose the car's poor performance during practice laps. "Robert's really good for us, because he helps build her self-confidence," says Vanessa Tribble, Megan's mom. "He makes her do things she feels uncomfortable doing, like loading the car onto the trailer, so she can learn how to do them."
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Megan Tribble and her boyfriend, Daniel Diamond, both 16, snuggle against the trailer that carries Megan's car to Sandia Motor Speedway during racing season. Diamond has missed only one race since the two started dating. "My friends don't treat me differently because I race, but they don't really see how I can love cars," Megan said. "I'm just like any other 16-year-old girl, but it's cool because it's something that I can share with my boyfriend, because he also loves cars."
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