Ms. Barthelmes is very well known in Hen Hud for her energetic and unique personality. Though many may know about her hobby of race car driving, not many have gone into detail with her about it. After talking with Ms. Barthelmes, many interesting facts and advice about her racing and cars came up.
After growing up in Peekskill, NY, Ms. Barthelmes attended SUNY New Paltz where she majored in secondary education and minored in English. After, she went back to SUNY New Paltz to earn her master degree in Humanistic Education which taught Ms. Barthelmes to work with the students “not just from an academic lens, but from an individualized perspective through the developmental stages in which people learn and grow at moments in their life”, Ms. Barthelmes explained. Post college, Ms. Barthelmes began her Hendrick Hudson career at Blue Mountain Middle school. Since then, she has moved on to teach tenth grade honors in addition to AP literature at Hen Hud high school.
To start off the Interview, Ms. Barthelmes told me about the start of her racing hobby in 2019. She became interested in racing not from the purchase of a race car, but from safety instructions for her Mercedes-AMG. After learning all of the safety features, Ms. Barthelmes was able to drive her Mercedes on a real race track. This led her to “discover that I enjoy the experience of being on an actual track.”
Ms. Barthelmes purchased her first race car, a Porsche GT4, Clubs Sport, MR in 2019 but her favorite race car is her Mazda, MX, 5 Global Cup Car. The Mazda has personalized League of Legends Jinx graffiti all around the exterior which gives her car part of her personality painted onto it.
When asked what her favorite racing memory was, Ms. Barthelmes ironically said it was when her car “went around what’s called a carousel turn, and the back end of the Miata went out from underneath me.” Though this may seem that she wouldn’t be able to get control of the car, she actually was able to “get the car controlled and placed in the right direction..” where she then “got back on track and did my fastest time.” This memory is very vivid to her and she will never forget it.
There are many benefits to racing, one of which being that it makes you a better driver overall. As a result of this, “I’m a safer driver for everyone else, including pedestrians” Ms. Barthelmes explained. Having high control over your car is the fundamentals of racing, so if racing is an interest for someone, they should start with drivers education and take every safety class they can “because you don’t necessarily need to be a race car driver or learn how to race to be safe.”
To people who can’t afford a hobby like racing, Ms. Barthelmes recommended that go karting and race-simulating video games can help those understand how to control a vehicle like a race car. Another thing extremely helpful to knowing more about racing is learning physics. “Physics is actually integral to be a better race car driver” Ms. Barthelmes said.
No matter if you can afford to race or not, just remember Ms. Barthelmes came from humble beginnings in Peekskill, but is now able to pursue racing which she never thought she would’ve beforehand. “Where I am now in life is so different from where I was beforehand.”
