by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
“Woman driver” may be a derogatory term, but it won’t be said by the 43 men who got bashed by Jodi Schoenfeld in a car-crashing contest recently.
The only female in the event, Schoenfeld was the big winner of the third annual Builders Care Demolition Derby at Jax Raceways. After every other car had been beaten into submission, Schoenfeld and her pink and purple Lincoln Town Car were still running. She went home with three trophies — one each for winning the first heat, the overall and the smash-off titles.
As the only woman in the 44-car fund-raising event, Schoenfeld said she received plenty of ribbing and “woman driver” jokes from the other male drivers but the trash talking didn’t bother her too much.
“I always attend the event and have always wanted to drive but I never imagined that I would actually win,” said Schoenfeld , vice president of Interior Design Solutions, the design center for Woodsman Kitchen and Floors. “My office is now calling me the ‘crash test dummy’.”
She made a last-minute decision to drive in this year’s derby but is glad she did, even though she was a little sore for a few days after the event.
“It is a great charity (Builders Care repairs homes for low-income people) and we thought it would be a little fun to go out and try it,” she said.
While sons Dylan and Cole were excited, her husband Mike was a little more resistant.
“He wasn’t excited until I won the first heat,” she said. “Then he really started getting into it.”
If winning the overall derby as the only woman in the field wasn’t bad enough for the men she beat, Schoenfeld added insult to injury with the design of her car.
Besides being painted pink and purple, her car featured a Barbie doll for a hood ornament, an area rug glued to the hood and a taunting memo to the male drivers painted on the side: “Designing Women Rule.”
Schoenfeld said she hasn’t decided if she will enter next year’s derby yet but said it is a distinct possibility.
“I don’t want to let them know because they will definitely be after me then,” she said. “They don’t want to lose twice in a row to a woman.”