Drag Illustrated Issue 118, February 2017 | Page 94

TheHOTTEST2017
WALKING
the WALK
L
ike watching a child open
gifts on Christmas, there is a
similar joy when watching one
become a drag racing fan. Many
of the stats and milestones you,
as a learned steward of the sport,
take for granted create wonder
for the neophyte. We’re getting to watch Amanda
Busick’s burgeoning love affair with our world
and it’s been thoroughly entertaining thus far.
Since NHRA moved its television property to
FOX Sports in 2016, Amanda has been a little
bit of everywhere. As the multimedia reporter,
she shows up on TV, online, on social media, and
anywhere video streams.
Growing up in North Carolina with a family
involved in dirt racing, Busick is no stranger to
motorsports. She had great taste in drag racing,
attending events at Rockingham as well. However,
the world of racing wasn’t what she was looking
for necessarily while trying to break in to the
world of sports broadcasting.
“Motorsports is such a mixed world that when
I started my career, you know, it kinda seemed
almost—It’s not intimidating and impossible to
get into, right?” she said with a laugh. “Everyone
has some sort of background into it, so no, my
route into this was completely unconventional.”
Her breakthrough came when the assigned
TV talent to a project she was working on didn’t
show and one lost opportunity for Ms. We’ll Never
Know turned into a huge opportunity for Amanda.
When she realized her flair for it along with the
financial benefit (“Why are we paying someone to
do this? I can just do it!”), Amand a would go on
to interview such stars as Shaquille O’Neal and
Charles Barkley. The interactions turned into an
audition reel and she was on her way.
”(I) moved to New York and worked at a restau-
rant at night to afford living there and interned
by day, so it’s kind of a crazy story,” Busick said.
“I was in New York for a little bit and then I got
my first PA job in Chicago, and that’s when I was
doing the college sports stuff. And then I was in
Boston for just a quick stint before coming (to
Los Angeles) last January for last season.”
Her move to NHRA came at a time of upheaval.
Still freelancing and in talks to possibly cover
college football in 2015, her mother suffered a
severe financial setback, necessitating a move
from Chicago to be closer to her.
During this time, bartending and selling meat
from her apartment (absolutely not kidding),
Busick and her mother were living together in
Boston. Amanda had given up on returning to
television, assuming her window had closed. For
anyone who’s been in racing long enough, there’s
the knowledge that the best way to advance in
racing is to get out of it for a while. If you’re
good enough, they’ll come calling. If not, maybe
it wasn’t meant to be.
Amanda’s call came during a meeting with Ken
Addelson, who had just been hired by NHRA
as the vice president and chief content officer.
Their chat, at his son’s hockey game, turned into
a 90-minute conversation that sent Busick to
the Texas Motorplex two weeks later to create
a video package for the track’s anniversary. She
impressed them enough, they invited her to cover
the official NHRA red carpet prior to the banquet
in Los Angeles.
“I guess you get a second opportunity,” she said,
“at your dream or what you wanted to do; you’re
not gonna let anyone beat you to it. So I dove
right in.”
Diving right in also included a trip to Frank
Hawley’s Drag Racing School to earn her Super
Comp license in an effort to better understand the
racers she would be covering. As anyone who has
attended Hawley’s school can attest, she discov-
ered with a quickness why drag racers drag race.
“I woke up that morning beaming at the idea
that I get to do a burnout today,” she said, the
excitement in her voice sounding as though she
was strapped in, about to do it again. “Like just a
simple idea, like oh, I get to do a burnout today!
“It is amazing just how when you’re going to
pre-stage and staging the car, this anxiety and
nerves come out of nowhere. I was having a hard
time breathing, (thinking), ‘My seatbelt’s extra
tight, it’s hot!’ It just hits you out of nowhere, you
realize that you’re inside of this machine that is
going to launch you from the starting line.”
But for Amanda, like for many drawn into the
orbit of our sport, it was the down-to-earth atti-
tudes of the biggest names in the world of racing
as well as unheard-of access to those names that
provided her the assurance she made the right
decision.
Trips to the bayou with defending Pro Stock
Motorcycle champ Jerry Savoie and going, er,
inverted in Jim Head’s plane are just a few of
the stories she’s been able to tackle since joining
the team. But it was a conversation with one of
the sport’s least verbose figures that gave her a
true respect for the world in which she has im-
mersed herself.
“Sitting down with Connie Kalitta was really
cool,” she said. “Even their PR side was pretty
surprised that Connie okayed the interview. I
tried to have a conversation him…when I’d see
him on the starting line and introduce myself,
and to me, my favorite part of being a reporter
is those one-on-one situations.
“I mean, that’s the chasing the story, the anxiety,
you don’t know where things are going. But the
one-on-one, and really being able to encapsulate
someone’s life and their career, and you think of
all of Connie’s accomplishments and the heart-
break and what that man has gone through, that
was a really, really neat opportunity for me.”
- BRANDON W. MUDD
DI DI
DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Dr ag Illustr ated
94
D r a g Il l u s t r a t e d . c o m
Amanda Busick