Racer Tia Norfleet has qualifications questioned in New York Times exposé

CLUTCH - The New York Times found several signs indicating Norfleet is a fraud, including her actual accomplishments versus public statements...

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From Clutch Magazine:

The National Association of Stock Car Racing (Nascar) has struggled with incorporating diversity, so Tia Norfleet’s emergence was the proverbial blast of electric air. She appeared to be Nascar’s Tiger Woods: Charismatic, attention-grabbing and full of potential. It isn’t often a black woman chooses professional stock-car racing as a career, so the Georgia native was prime for a media blitz. She would draw national attention to the sport’s Drive for Diversity initiative and secure endorsements and sponsorships as well.

Her strategy was successful at first. Norfleet was named the good-will ambassador for the National African-American Drug Policy Coalition Inc. and landed a gig as the spokeswoman for the SafeTeen Georgia Driving Academy at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But a series of troubling discoveries has derailed her ascent in the sport.

The New York Times found several signs indicating Norfleet is a fraud, including her actual accomplishments versus public statements. She told several publications she’s the first and only African-American female driver in Nascar and the Automobile Racing Club of America (Arca), but Norfleet has never raced for either organization. She has never applied to race with Arca or purchased a license from the organization and has never received approval to race for Nascar. In fact, Norfleet’s most notable race to date is the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Virginia, where she only finished one lap.

Norfleet’s website indicates placement in Arca’s Daytona International Speedway race, but she didn’t participate in a qualifying test last December. These conflicting accounts of events and Nortfleet’s statements are alarming for Nascar and Arca officials.

“I am uncomfortable with Tia representing herself in the way that she has,” Marcus Jadotte, Nascar’s vice president for public affairs and multicultural development, told The New York Times.

Read the rest of this story on Clutch Magazine.

Editor’s Note: Tia Norfleet was a part of theGrio’s 100 list of black achievers in 2012. 

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