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Coral Gables couple not afraid to race Goliaths
By CARLOS FRÍAS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007
HOMESTEAD - Until she took off her helmet, most of the boys didn't realize they'd been beaten by a girl.
Beth Ann Coulter, the 12-year-old with the dusty face and gravel in her gut, wore a proud smile as she held up her go-kart trophy. The oldest of four siblings, she had a bug for racing, but nobody is quite sure how she got it. That was 50 years ago, when you didn't find many debutantes at a racetrack.
Her father was torn between pride and consternation. His daughter raced anything and everywhere. Catamarans in the open water. An old Jaguar against Cuban racers on a dirt track out west in undeveloped Miami. Speed boats in the Miami Marina. And in her down time, she watched racing legends Bobby and Davey Allison at the old Hialeah Speedway.
If it went fast, Beth Ann was up for the challenge.
"Guys would lend me their go-kart to go racing and I'd come back with a trophy," said Beth Ann, a 1966 graduate of Miami Springs High.
Still, there was no way that her father, an innovator who made his money in medical equipment in the 1950s, was ever going to let her chase that dream.
"Beth Ann, people die racing those cars,''" she remembers him saying. "My father was never going to put any of the company's money into racing."
Fifty years later, her husband did.
Tony Morgenthau and his wife, Beth Ann, own NASCAR's only South Florida-based team and they're one of the sport's few single-car teams. The "60-ish" Coral Gables couple's operation is small, but their passion for the sport is unmatched.
For Beth Ann's birthday on Feb. 24, 2000, Tony handed her a dress box that rattled in a way a dress shouldn't. She tore open the box to find dozens of metal race cars bouncing around inside.
"The real one's in Charlotte," Tony, an investment banker, told her.
They used her initials to name the team - BAM Racing - and started running a full Nextel Cup schedule by 2003.
As a single-car team, BAM always is up against big spenders. It's a challenge. Race weekends are hectic, like Friday's schedule at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Tony headed to the pits to be with his driver, John Andretti, who was trying to qualify for Sunday's Nextel Cup finale, the Ford 400. Beth Ann, wearing a headset, watched from a covered patio on the infield, listening as the qualifying times were announced and recording each one.
"It's stressful, because we want to be in the race," she said. "I'd like to be in there pushing the pedal down for them sometimes."
Still has the bug. So much so that after pestering Tony about racing again, he signed her up for the Richard Petty Driving Experience.
"We didn't want her to drive one of ours," Tony joked.
Beth Ann drove directly behind the instructor, tailed by several other drivers. At one point, she was tempted to pass the lead car. "If I had had a radio, I would've asked to let me pass," she said. "I could've passed him and he knew it."
BAM has found the real racing world tougher to navigate. Using five drivers this season, BAM qualified for only 17 of 36 races. Their best start was seventh on Oct. 7 at Talladega and their best finish was 17th at Bristol in March. Still, they managed to earn just over $1.4 million. Friday, after qualifying to race at Homestead the past two years, BAM ran out of luck. Andretti couldn't get the No. 49 into Sunday's lineup.
"It's like David and Goliath. Except in racing, Goliath always wins," said driver Chris Chaffin, who qualified cars twice for Tony and Beth Ann this year, but is now racing in the Truck Series. "I think they think that one day they'll win a race, but they know that's a long time off and that this is a building process."
As the sun began to set, Beth Ann walked back to the garage area with her headset dangling and hugged Tony. The BAM crew began packing its trailer, but Beth Ann already is looking forward to next season.
"I'm not afraid of anything," she said, "especially not speed."
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