25-year-old Becca Monopoli is not a well-known name in short track racing but her credentials in the Sunshine State have made her a force to be reckoned with when she is on the racetrack, whether it’s on the Atlantic Coast or on the Gulf Coast.

Monopoli, from Lakeland, Florida, has won multiple championships and over two dozen races all across the state of Florida at tracks such as Auburndale Speedway, Desoto Speedway, the now-defunct Orlando Speedworld and the recently re-opened Three Palms Speedway.  This season, she has already scored seven feature wins and has recently been competing in the Southern Pro Am Truck Series (SPATS), where she recently added to her win count at Three Palms Speedway.

Monopoli’s credentials are even more impressive considering she has only raced for five years.  For her, like many drivers, racing was passed down from her parents and grandparents.

“I race all over,” Monopoli said.  “This is my fifth year in racing.  My dad’s worked on racecars for over 30 years and my mom and grandma used to do Powder Puffs and my uncle races up in Massachusetts.  My dad used to work on Super Late Models so we went every weekend with him to watch.  He never gave me a chance to race until five years ago.  Here I am now.”

Monopoli does not take all the credit, or even most of the credit, for her success.  She says that much of the credit goes to her father, Tom, and her crew.

“There are people younger than me and people in their 40s and 50s,” Monopoli remarked.  “It’s different talent levels.  I have an awesome crew chief in my dad and he sets the cars up perfectly.  It’s not all me, a good handful of it is him.  I’m more patient than some of the drivers.  You’ve got to have that good setup too.”

Despite her success, Monopoli says she often gets a lot of disrespect from her male competitors because she is a female, but she says that that respect she gets has grown and that she has also gained a respectable fanbase.

“A lot of people cheer for me,” Monopoli explained.  “I get a lot of fans.  I’ve got a lot of respect from the drivers then there’s a feel that, when I’m beating them, they don’t like it and they think I don’t have the talent and think I’m cheating.  They don’t think the girl can win unless she’s cheating.”

Monopoli has raced most recently at Three Palms Speedway, where she scored a win and a second place finish, and at Desoto Speedway where she finished inside the top-five.  She hopes to race more at Three Palms as well as in the SPATS tour, but she says she will race wherever she can.

“We go wherever we can race.  If stuff works out, I’d love to win the championship.  We show up to win every week.  It’s just a matter of getting up front.  We do have some tough competition.”