'Passion and purpose': Black Mountain-based driver Ryan Cheek races to raise money for ALS

Ryan Cheek was born and raised in Buncombe County. She now lives in Black Mountain, but she’s got her sights set on Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.

Cheek has been racing for only a handful of years, but she said she has always liked cars. She said she isn’t sure what drew her to racing, but it’s something she now loves.

“My favorite thing was to just go drive curvy roads,” Cheek said. “It’s always going for a drive. It’s always been my release.”

Cheek said her now-husband, Kyle Quattromani, started noticing that she enjoyed driving and encouraged her to look more into driving as a hobby. She was driving a BMW at the time and joined the BMW Car Club of America where she said she was able to “explore (her) driving passion.”

A mother of two, Cheek said her original plan was to focus on raising her daughter until she graduated high school and then explore her driving passion more after her daughter’s graduation. At the time, Cheek only had her daughter, but she said “plans changed and life got turned upside down” when she and her husband found out she was pregnant with her now 8-year-old son.

As Cheek and her family were preparing for a new baby, she lost her job and her car broke down. In 2016, Cheek said she purchased a Mustang.

“I think the moment I got into a Mustang, everything just changed,” Cheek said.

She said she used driving on her own as a stress and anxiety reliever, but she wanted to do something related to motorsports with her new car. To start, Cheek turned to autocross where she said she was quickly able to excel and won her series.

Cheek said autocross can be done as slow or as fast as one cares to do it, but the feeling you get when you finish is just the same.

“It really feels like you’re doing something when you get done,” Cheek said. “Your hands are all shaking, and I loved that feeling.”

Cheek said she made the decision to spend more time with her family in 2019, especially as her daughter was getting older.

In 2020, Cheek decided it was time to get back into motorsports, and she started doing track events. By the end of the year, she had bought a new track car that she built in her Black Mountain garage.

Cheek said in the middle of her trajectory as a racer, she and her family found out her father was diagnosed with ALS in 2019. He died in April 2020 from the disease.

In 2021, Cheek met Scott Lloyd, a founder of Racing for ALS, a nonprofit he founded with his brother David Lloyd Jr.

In what Cheek called “a confluence of passion and purpose,” she now races to raise money for Racing for ALS in memory of her father.

Cheek described her racing career as a “hobby,” but she has been recruited to be a factory driver for American X Kart, a small company based in Virginia. Cheek said American X Kart wants her to race their vehicle at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. She described the climb as “ridiculous” and one of the “craziest” hill climbs in existence. Cheek said she finds it “unbelievable” the company would want her to race their vehicle, but she is grateful for the opportunity.

American X Kart and Cheek have applied and must be accepted to complete the hill climb, but she said the company is confident in their placement. Applications for the event close in January, and Cheek said she should find out soon after.

American X Kart will sponsor Cheek to drive their vehicles, but she is also sponsored by Racing for ALS, Black Mountain Tire Connection, Trinity Pharms Hemp Company, Hawk Brakes, Vorshlag Motorsports and Big Shot Sticker Company. Black Mountain Tire Connection and Trinity Pharms Hemp Company are both Black Mountain-based businesses. Cheek said Black Mountain Tire Connection ahs been a sponsor and supporter of her since her beginnings in 2018 and Trinity Pharms Hemp Company has been supportive since 2021, a short time after that company was established.

Cheek said her goal with racing is to have “a lot of fun and experiences,” but that she also wants to be an example of finding a passion late in life.

“If young kids can see it, they can believe it and they can be it,” Cheek said. “Young girls can be it and little boys can believe that women can be race car drivers. It’s just about the perception.”

Cheek said that she is grateful to have the support of her family and appreciates the “hard choices” that have been made. She said she is “fortunate” to have the support of her entire family.

“I’m grateful that I found my passion and I found my purpose,” Cheek said. “If you really focus and you really set your mind to it, you can do it. It’s not all fun and games, but it’s a lot of fun.”

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Karrigan Monk is the Swannanoa Valley communities reporter for Black Mountain News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kmonk@blackmountainnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Black Mountain driver Ryan Cheek aims for Pikes Peak Hill Climb