Holt-Baker teen sets sights on finish line

***Holt-Baker teen Hayden Peak has her sights set on NASCAR. (photos courtesy of Joni Harrington)***

HOLT, Fla., Aug. 24, 2024—Most kids aren’t sure what they want to be when they grow up. If you ask them, they usually just shrug their shoulders and give you an “I dunno.”

But for Baker High School cheerleader Hayden Peak, she’s laser-focused on a checkered flag.

“I want to be a NASCAR driver,” says the 14-year-old freshman.

That’s been her dream, says her mom, Joni Harrington. “Yes, she’s a varsity cheerleader in the 9th grade at Baker, but she’s dead set on racing being a career,” she says.

And Hayden may well be on her way. She was recognized last weekend as the youngest driver ever to race at Whynot Motorsports Park’s annual Southern Street Stock Nationals in Meridian, Miss.

Hayden’s hometown track is the Northwest Florida Speedway in Baker. Driving at Whynot was her first non-hometown race.

“While we were there, before the races, I actually got the youngest driver award,” she says. “I was the youngest driver at Nationals to ever race there, so I got to walk through the tunnel with all the other drivers that made the big show.”

In 12 years of the competition at Whynot, there had never been a driver younger than 16, according to Joni.

“It was pretty cool,” she says. “They made a big deal about her being the youngest driver that had ever drove in Street Stock Nationals. They were excited for her.”

When Hayden registered for the race, she was still 13. She turned 14 two weeks before the race. She didn’t make the “big show,” but she qualified for the second biggest show, she says, the non-qualifiers for Nationals where she maneuvered her number 9 car into the number two slot for a bit.

“I actually got second for a few laps and then stayed in third, then knocked the back bumper off,” she says. “We had to come off for safety precautions. It was fun.”

Hayden often says “we” rather than “I” when talking about her racing.

“Hayden knows it takes everybody. It’s not just her and it’s not just me,” says her dad, Howard Peak, who is a Holt Fire District volunteer and fulltime North Okaloosa Fire District firefighter. “Hayden knows that everybody works on a car, everybody puts in time, everybody puts in money. Hayden’s very grateful, and she understands how much work and money goes into that car. And that’s why she’ll say ‘we’ and not ‘I.’”

“We’ve got so many sponsors helping us out—my parents, Joni’s parents, Kraig. We cannot thank Kraig Crossley enough—all our friends who help us out. We’ve got a big crew helping us.”

Racing at a young age

Hayden’s first trip to a racetrack was when she was 3 months old. She’s been racing since she was 7 after receiving her first go-cart at age 6.

“Even before go-carts, she started out riding with me,” says Howard. “I put a seat in my racecar and I would let her ride during practice laps.”

“I raced go-carts until I was 11, then when I was 12, I got my slingshot,” she says. Slingshots may look like a mini racecar, but they’re capable of speeds over 80 mph.

“When I was 13, I got my pure stock,” she says.

That was last year. She got her car and the next day raced it at the Travis Stowers Memorial Race at Northwest Florida Speedway Oct. 14.

“We had to qualify for the biggest race,” says Hayden. “I made qualifications.”

Her dad told her she could just “putter” around the track for a few laps and then come off, says Joni.

“She putted all right. She qualified,” she says. “And then when she qualified and made the main race, me and both her grandparents all tried to pay her money not to race the big race because she had never been in the car before. And she was like, ‘you’re not getting me out of it.’”

“She was doing so good, I couldn’t pull her off,” says Howard. “I said, ‘I’m going to let this girl run. I mean, why not? She’s doing good.’”

She placed 15th out of a field of 32 in her new car.

Hayden’s goal is to move into modified racecars, the kind used in NASCAR races.

“I want to race a modified. That’ll be our next step. Probably 17 or 18, I’ll get one of those, maybe sooner,” she says. “And we’re getting there. I’m proving I can do it.”

Howard does the majority of the work on Hayden’s car with help from family friend Kraig Crossley, who owns Watermark Pool & Spa and is one of her sponsors. During races, Howard asks himself, “Did I set the car up right? Is it perfect for her?”

A different sort of test

Hayden gets tested on the track by the other drivers, some who will get right up on her bumper, back up and then ram her. But to get bumped from behind only means that she’s in front, not behind the other drivers when that happens.

Once, she was passing second to go into first, and an older driver, who shall remain nameless to preserve the peace, “nailed her in the back and spun her out, so that he could be in first over her. I was so angry,” says Joni laughing.

Hayden returns the favor when she catches the drivers. “If I can get close enough, we do try to return the favor, no matter how mad they make me,” she says.

Hayden races against whoever is on the track, regardless of age. She’s not intimidated by more experienced drivers—all males—who are sometimes three-to-four times older than her.

“They get so mad when I beat them,” she says with a laugh.

She’s racking up the accolades. In March, she got the prettiest car of the year award at Northwest Florida, beating out the previous two-year consecutive winner.

And she’s leading in points for rookie of the year in her division, says Joni.

Racing comes first

The only other outside activity Hayden participates in is cheerleading. But being a varsity cheerleader sometimes interferes with racing, and it’s not even a question which comes first.

“I have to tell my coach, ‘I won’t be there. I can’t come.’” she says.

She missed her first football game to be at Nationals last weekend. “Saturday, I missed the biggest pep rally in Destin. We had to go to Destin for a competition and I was like, ‘I can’t be there,’” she says.

Hayden shrugs off the pressure she feels to cheer rather than race.

“I’ve been racing since I was little. I haven’t been cheering that long. It’s a matter of what comes first,” she says. “Race over everything.”

The Monday after Nationals, people approached Hayden in Baker’s Ritz convenience store, asking how she did at Whynot.

“I saw grown men ask you in the Ritz how your racing was,” says Joni, looking at her daughter. “She walked in this morning [Tuesday] and they were watching her live videos on Facebook.”

Joni is proud her daughter has chosen a different path in life.

“Yes, she’s a varsity cheerleader in the 9th grade at Baker, but she is dead set on racing being a career,” she says.

Is she worried about her 14-year-old daughter racing?

Joni collects her thoughts before responding.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” she says. “But it makes me very proud. It makes me, I guess, just proud that she’s different than all the other kids.”

Howard has the utmost confidence in Hayden.

“I know she can do it. I know she can run with ‘em. I know she can handle the car, she can handle the power,” he says. “I’m very proud of her. As long as she keeps her grades up, and is good and respectful to everybody, I’ll do my best to give her the best, same with all my kids.”

For the rest of the season, the focus will be at Northwest Florida Speedway where Hayden sits in fourth place in her division.

“She’s four points away from second/third because they’re tied,” says Howard.

So far, the highest Hayden has ever place is third. She’s is looking for that checkered flag.

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