Open-wheel racer Taylor Ferns had an interesting season in 2024, including earning her first 500 Sprint Car Tour triumph.
Ferns, who has been a mainstay in USAC Silver Crown Series and non-winged sprint car events on asphalt in recent seasons, also added competing in the Indy NXT series to her résumé during a busy season.
But there were two highlights for Ferns. First came graduating from law school and second was a victory on the daunting high banks of Indiana’s Salem Speedway.
“I had such a good run at Winchester in the Silver Crown car that I kind of felt that Salem would be good for us, and we were long overdue,” Ferns said during the recent PRI Trade Show. “The past couple years have been a real struggle in terms of overcoming the adversity. The speed has been there. The results just have not.
“A lot of it was a matter of circumstance. I feel that we did everything we could to show up and compete and contend for wins, but it just didn’t work out.”
Though she led every lap en route to victory at the historic half-mile asphalt track, she still faced some adversity along the way.
“Even during the race at Salem, I was overcoming a ton of hurdles. I lost my brakes about 15 laps in and one of my zeus (fasteners) buttons on the hood came up and the hood was flapping up and down,” she explained. “I was leading the race and I thought to myself, ‘No, I’m not backing down. We are going to win the race. It came to fruition and I was glad to knock that mountain off of our back.”
Still, Ferns is annoyed that she’s yet to win a USAC Silver Crown Series race.
“It is really killing me that we do not have a Silver Crown win yet,” she said. “I feel like we are long overdue for that. I am excited that we are taking the Silver Crown cars to Salem and Winchester next year. I have been really strong at Winchester in the Silver Crown cars before. Hopefully, we can seal the deal.”
Ferns, 28, also competed in multiple formula car events in 2024, including some oval races in the Indy NXT division as she chases her dream of one day running the Indianapolis 500.
“This past season, I dabbled in the formula car stuff a little bit and I did some of the Indy NXT oval races,” she said. “That didn’t work out the way I had intended it to. I feel like I am a really strong competitor in my sprint car and Silver Crown stuff and I expect the same of myself when I show up at any race track no matter what the car is.
“It just didn’t work to where I had enough tested to what we had planned on, so it was kind of just showing up to the Indy NXT races to practice while everyone else was there to race.”
Still, Ferns hopes to get another crack at formula car racing.
“I don’t want to do it until I can get a lot of practice in,” she explained. “We will see. I will probably have a hodge-podge of different things that I am doing. I just really love racing. As long as I am in the seat, that is my therapy.”