[driving rock music]
[announcer over PA]
[race car Doppler Effect]
- Good luck!
- Bentley Knaack: It's excitement, it's fear.
[announcer on PA]
- It's exhilaration.
It's a vast array of emotions.
- Angela Fitzgerald: Behind the wheel of her race car,
Bentley Knaack is managing those emotions
and much more.
- Bentley Knaack: There's just so much going on at that time--
the speed of the car, the roll of the car,
whether it's losing traction or not,
and it's nose diving and it's sliding.
[tires squealing]
And then, we're picking back up out of turn four
and I can accelerate like a rocket.
- At La Crosse Speedway, Bentley races for herself
and those who see the track as open to all.
[announcement, engines revving]
- It doesn't matter if you're straight, gay, trans.
Doesn't matter what you are, who you are,
that you are welcome in the sport,
that if you strive to achieve in the sport, you will.
As it says on the car "Beyond Gender."
- The car, decorated with inclusive stickers,
is also the color of the Trans Pride flag.
That visibility conveys a message.
- It keeps it fun,
and it's easy to notice
so people spot it everywhere.
I eventually want to make one that's a rainbow-colored car.
I would love to.
[laughing together] - Oh, that, oh, okay.
Must have came off in the Double-O.
- That inclusive message
helps Bentley build a team of people new to the sport.
Ryan Isensee is happily along for the ride.
- Ryan Isensee: She recruited me kind of
after we started talking and hanging out more often.
You know, those types of friends if that
just you meet someone and they click.
Their team is called Equality Motorsports,
and it's open to all.
- Bentley: There's got to be more people like me out here
that like cars and like to go fast.
- The LGBTQ+ community supports the team,
and the #77 car is a fixture at Pride events.
- Bentley: We got a lot of visibility this year.
- Ryan: The support is there in La Crosse.
- It's the last hurrah.
- The team is wrapping up its first full season
racing for Pride at the La Crosse Speedway.
- Announcer: It all comes down to this!
- Bentley: Very nervous... - You got this, though!
- This season was just basically
my season to come out here and breakthrough
and show people what I can do.
- Announcer: Bentley Knaack in the 77!
- Bentley has shown what she can do,
who she is,
and who she represents.
But it wasn't always easy.
- Bentley: Entering that space was difficult
for the first time out there really.
Once you break through
some of the tough exteriors of some of the drivers,
you'll see that they're just like you.
They go home, they work hard,
they put their money into their car,
and they come out here
and put on a good show every week for people.
- Tonight's show reveals how the team performed.
- Our goal was to, for the first year,
at least finish in the top ten.
We finished tenth-- exactly tenth,
but we finished. [chuckles]
- Angela: With the race done,
[applause, announcement]
Bentley can at last ride those waves of emotion.
- This is crazy!
Over the moon...
Emotional.
- Ryan: Just watching someone do what they love to do.
If you love to do what you love to do,
you're going to do it well.
And everyone with you is going to have a great time.
- Bentley: It was a blast.
I'm very grateful and very happy for all the people
that I've had helping me get here.
[high-octane rock music]
[cheering]
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