Mia Chapman

Desert races of over 500 miles are propelling off-road racer Mia Chapman to new heights. She's already achieved so much, but she's just getting started.When Mia Chapman began racing competitively at age six, she was one of only a few females who entered each race. But that never intimidated Mia and surely hasn't impacted her career in the sport. In short-course racing, she collected seven Trophy Kart championships before advancing to Modified Karts where she won at both the Junior and Senior levels. And at 17 years old, she powered into a whole new world - SXS Off-Road racing - where she surpassed even her own expectations.It all started for Mia when she was six years old and was gifted a Trophy Kart for Christmas from her dad, who had raced Motocross and Quads himself. By that Spring, Mia had entered the world of racing and was competing against others her age. Two years later, she grabbed her very first championship title."That was a milestone for me, because there were a lot of kids in my racing class, and also I was one of only two or three girls. I really worked hard for it," Mia remembers. "That's when I decided to try to make a career of this."Mia's pursuit of additional Championships didn't stop there, in fact that was just the start for her. By 2015 at the mere age of 13, Mia had clinched seven Trophy Kart Championships, a current record for females in the Lucas Oil Series, before taking the wheel as a rookie in the 2016 Modified Kart division, where Mia rounded out her year finishing an impressive ninth overall."2016 was a big year because Mod Karts was my transition to a really fast and competitive class, and it was a totally new car for me," Mia explains. "I was learning how to use a hand clutch, shift, all of that. But I love a challenge, and it was fun to learn and to see what I could do."In 2017, Mia captured her first Mod Kart win on home turf at the Arizona Regional. Mia stacked more Mod Kart wins and podiums through 2018 and even in 2019 when she moved up to the UTV Pro Production 1000 class, racing against a field largely comprised of grown men. But it was in 2020 that Mia launched into her toughest challenge yet: SXS (side by side) Off-Road racing.Mia's transition from a short-course race, which is complete in a matter of minutes, to a SXS desert race, where races regularly last 5-plus hours and hundreds of miles, have posed challenges that are not for the faint of heart. Drivers have to gut it out and find a well-balanced blend of both aggression and control, because without it, both the car and the driver won't make it to the finish. In 2020, Mia finished three of the four events in her inaugural desert campaign, taking 20th at her first race, the Best in the Desert Parker 250, and ninth at the UTV World Championship."The desert is a totally different animal, and I did a lot of big races with 50-plus other drivers that normally you wouldn't go into right away, because they are so brutal and long," Mia shares. "So I felt really good about finishing most of my races, which was the goal. Then to add the Top 10 result was huge."Mia trains constantly to meet the physical demands of the sport, and she feels her early experience in youth competitive cheerleading gave her a solid foundation with its core-activated workouts, concentration and discipline. She credits her family with helping to keep her feet on the ground and her head in the game: "Whenever we go to races, it's family and friend involvement - that's one of the best parts about our team. Having my family there with their support takes away some of the stress."As for her future, Mia will continue to train for and race SXS desert races full time with the goal of finding her pace that's efficient, but faster. She'd love to win a UTV Desert Championship one day, and, she comments, "Overall I just want to keep improving and get into as much as I possibly can."