Las Vegas Weekly

January 19, 2009 · 7 AM

Morning Call Photo Gallery: High-speed thrills and chills, but no spills, for Miss America Pageant queens as they battle on the racetrack

By Robin Leach

Miss Michigan (second place), Miss South Dakota (first place) and Miss Wyoming (third place).

Photo: Pole Position Raceway

Race car #13 turned out to be a lucky omen for reigning Miss South Dakota Alexandra Hoffman when she took to the track last night at Pole Position Raceway opposite the Palms. The fans who watched her daredevil drive against nine other finalists even predicted that she had the necessary talent to win this week’s 2009 Miss America Pageant.

All 52 contestants turned up, and each raced 12 laps of the quarter-mile track. Then the single best lap times were calculated by a computer to get a Top 10 pack of princesses. Qualifiers for the main event at the grid start were Miss Arizona Erin Brittany Nurss, Miss Oregon Danijela Krstic, Miss South Dakota Alexandra Huffman, Miss Michigan Ashlee Baracy, Miss Wyoming Courtney Gifford, Miss Utah Kayla Barclay, Miss West Virginia Kayla Lynam, Miss Connecticut Ashley Glenn, Miss Kansas Emily Deaver and Miss Virginia Tara Wheeler.

Miss Michigan in car #35 and Miss South Dakota in car #13 battled it out all the way in the electric go-karts at speeds over 35 mph. The only rough-and-tumble incident was when Miss Arizona’s vehicle was rear ended and sent under a safety wall barrier with the foam rubber bricks crashing around her. “The wall won that one,” our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue, who shot all these incredible photos, told me! “But nobody was hurt at all.”

For the final 10 laps in the main event, the glamour girls were judged by end position and not by time. Miss Wyoming placed third, Miss Michigan placed second, and Miss South Dakota won the event. Her top speed was logged at 37 mph, and her best quarter-mile lap time was 31.17 seconds!

Before hopping on the bus back to the Planet Hollywood headquarters, Alexandra told me: “It was really exciting. I’m a risk-taker anyway and I grew up racing all kinds of cars, so I was ready for this fun. I knew I wasn’t in any danger, so it was full pedal to the metal and just go for the winning line.

“I’ve played many sports and dealt with falls and spills in basketball, hurdles, so this was just plain fun. It was by far the most fun we’ve had so far in Vegas. Now the real competition begins for Miss America! It now gets really serious after a fun weekend.”

Today is a full session of rehearsals and then three consecutive nights of preliminary competitions tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. The live TLC broadcast starts at 5 p.m. local time Saturday night from the Theater for the Performing Arts at Planet Hollywood.

Alexandra was presented with a winner’s trophy after completing a victory lap with the winning flag that Tom Donoghue captured for the history books!

Pole Position executive Bryan Kroten told me: “They all did a great job. It was far better than we anticipated. They respected the equipment and each other. It was so successful we’ve decided for as long as Miss America returns to Vegas, this will become a new annual challenge! The girls absolutely loved it. They kept their sashes on for the racing but fortunately packed their tiaras safely before getting into the racer cars!”

Former Indy racer Sam Schmidt turned up to watch and obviously had to say hello to Miss Indiana Kate Stam! In our other ever-watchful Miss America Pageant news: Today reigning Miss America Kirsten Haglund makes a dramatic 24-hour round-trip dash to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Inaugural Day ceremonies of new President Barack Obama. She’ll sing the national anthem at the Commander in Chief’s Ball in the National Museum. Kirsten also will ride on the USO float with wounded servicemen and honor them by appearing at the Heroes Red White and Blue Ball. She’ll jet back here early Wednesday morning and has promised us a front-line interview from the nation’s capital.

Fans and photographers joined in the fun of the high-speed race-action event and cheered on the pageant contestants at the winners’ ceremony. Brian summed up: “This final 10 and the three winners might even wind up in the same order on Saturday night. Maybe this turns out to be an accurate prediction of the pageant, too? Wouldn’t that be an incredible coincidence?

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