Racer’s mentality drives Little to pits

Jamie Little likes to wear Chanel perfume but prefers the scent of exhaust spewing from dirt bikes or race cars at the track.

She’ll take a deep breath today when she debuts as a NASCAR Nextel Cup pit reporter during ESPN’s return to race coverage of the series.

“I’ve always loved the smell of racing fuel and racing exhaust,” Little said. “I just like those things.”

The 29-year-old Las Vegan has come a long way since meeting famed extreme motorcycle racer Carey Hart when she was 15. Their friendship helped Little become a ground-breaking woman in motor sports journalism.

An admitted tomboy, Little was hooked on motocross when a high school crush on Hart — a fellow Green Valley High graduate who is three years older — led her to motorcycle dirt bike riding, a passion she continues to pursue on her Kawasaki KX250F.

“I always have had a tomboy side and loved hanging out with the boys on my (dirt) bike. It’s the same to this day,” she said.

Before discovering motorized two-wheelers, Little was an avid horseback rider as a child in Lake Tahoe, Calif., where she was born. She was 12 when she moved to Las Vegas with her mom, Laura Thomas.

A year after graduating from San Diego State with a journalism degree in 2001, Little became a reporter for ESPN’s X Games coverage.

She worked six years as a television reporter for extreme motorcycle races before becoming the first female pit reporter for the Indianapolis 500 in 2004.

Little began working pit road this year for ESPN during NASCAR Busch Series races and returns this weekend to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where she has been an ABC reporter for the past three Indy 500s.

She feels some pressure as part of ESPN’s return to the Cup series and is eager for the network’s first broadcast since 2000 of America’s most popular racing circuit.

“Anyone would be nervous, but it’s a good nervous,” she said. “It’s an excitement.

“I put pressure on myself because I’m the new person on the ESPN team, not because I’m a woman. I work twice as hard to prove to (race) teams that I’m serious about my job.”

Along with being an avid dirt bike rider, Little has competed in 110cc mini-bike races and in 2003 pedaled to three national amateur titles in downhill mountain-bike racing.

She is proud of being a racer and believes it helps her reporting.

“No way I could do this job without my history,” Little said. “If I had never raced, I’d be way over my head. It boils down to having a racer’s mentality. I understand the lingo and the psyche of an athlete who races.”

She prepares for each race as if she is trying to qualify for the starting field.

Since joining ESPN’s NASCAR team, Little devotes at least three hours a day to preparing for the next assignment, whether it’s watching tapes, doing research or participating on conference calls.

“Confidence is everything. What gives me confidence is having knowledge and understanding … knowing what’s happening,” she said.

Little’s drive has powered her on-air career, but she acknowledges that looking like a model didn’t hurt, either.

“I’m here because I love racing, regardless of what I look like,” she said. “I’m also smart enough to know that being attractive — whether male or female — isn’t a bad thing. If it opens a door, or someone is more willing to talk to you because of that, then let it happen.”

Once she crossed the threshold, there’s been little holding her back.

“I’m aggressive when it comes to my work and getting the story. You can’t be timid in this job,” Little said. “It can be intimidating (for a woman) to walk into the garages with all men, but you have to bite the bullet and talk to those guys. You get their respect as soon as they know you’re knowledgeable and have done your homework.”

It also helps to be 5 feet 10 inches, taller than most racers.

“In a sport dominated by men, it helps to have a strong presence,” Little said.

She’ll work the final 17 Cup races this year, and by the time the series finale is run Nov. 18 in Homestead, Fla., she will have spent 27 consecutive weekends at races.

While most involved with NASCAR migrate to the Charlotte, N.C., area — the hub of stock-car racing — Little plans to remain in Las Vegas. She flies home after each race to spend a few days with family.

Her most stressful flight was after last year’s Indy 500. Two days before the race, her stepfather, Dr. Jim Thomas, suffered a stroke. At the urging of her mother, Little continued to work through the race. Then, police escorted her to the airport.

“My job is a priority, and my family wants it that way,” Little said.

The stroke left her stepfather paralyzed on his left side, and last month, a longtime friend, BMX rider Stephen Murray, was paralyzed in a racing accident.

The incidents have given Little added purpose.

She was in Southern California on Tuesday after accepting an invitation from former Supercross rider Ernesto Fonseca to emcee a symposium on spinal cord injury research at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. Fonseca was paralyzed during a practice crash in March 2006.

“I’ve seen it happen to multiple friends,” Little said of racers suffering debilitating injuries. “That’s the fuel that fires the passion I have for all racers. It’s my mission now to help those with paralysis like my dad.”