Three women show up at a racetrack with a hot tub.
That sounds like a setup for a joke, until you realize it’s a true story from a NASA Texas race. The Price sisters are known for bringing the fun to the paddock, but once the Spec Miata goes on the track, it’s all business for the trio.
“They’re an absolute blast. It makes going to the track interesting,” said Bill Agha, a friend and mentor who sold Erin her first Spec Miata. “You want to go race, have fun and be with your track family.”
While Erin, Sophia and Cassie Price have elevated track nightlife since joining NASA, they’ve made it clear they’re out to race. Now a front-of-the-pack Spec Miata racer, Erin has earned her success through hard work and disciplined preparation.
Inspired by COTA
As a child, Erin loved summer nights at the dirt track with her grandfather, watching her uncle race. But it was a confluence of events that got Erin to take the wheel. Construction had started on the Formula One track Circuit of The Americas and Erin had just purchased a Cadillac CTS-V.
“I decided I might need to learn how to drive it to not die,” Erin said with a laugh.
That led Erin to the now-closed track and racing school Driveway Austin, operated by Bill and Scott Dollahite. The Dollahites were instrumental in Erin’s driving education, recruiting her to help with logistics and program management for the Lotus Evora team.
Erin said working on the team in 2016 was “the best and the worst experience” of her life but the motorsports education was invaluable. Her sister Sophia helped with the team’s marketing.
“The thing that I loved about it is it’s truly a team sport,” Erin said. “There are not many things as an adult that you can do that are just so team oriented.”
It Takes a Village
Prior to getting into wheel-to-wheel racing, Erin had participated in driving schools and gone through the HPDE program. She credits Agha and the late Tim George, who passed away in 2019, for steering her toward Spec Miata racing.
“Tim was telling me all the time to stop doing a street track car and just go get a race car,” Erin said. “He cycled through about five cars that he thought I should have and one of them was a Spec Miata.”
After briefly owning a Spec E46, Erin made the change to Spec Miata. The Texas region regularly boasts one of the largest Spec Miata classes in the country. It features a mix of veterans and young drivers coming up from the karting ranks.
“On one hand, you have all this support,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s fierce.”
Erin knew that if she wanted to improve her race craft, Spec Miata was the class. It gave her an opportunity to race no matter where she fell in the pack.
“I joked that a Spec Miata is an easy car to learn how to drive, and it’s a very hard car to drive fast,” Erin said. “I’m still figuring that out to this day. But everybody wants somebody to race with, and they want you to get faster and be competitive.”
Sisters Make the Team
Early on, Erin kept her racing life private from her siblings as she worked on improving her racing skills.
“I was struggling to get the car to go in the right direction, so I never invited anyone out,” Erin said. “One day Sophia is like, ‘I’m coming out.’”
Sophia, Erin’s middle sister, was fresh off a breakup and a NASA Texas Halloween party was the antidote. Soon after hearing about the meetup at the track, the youngest sister, Cassie, joined in.
There is a 16-year age gap among the three sisters. Cassie is an old soul. Dubbing herself the “general chaos coordinator,” Cassie handles logistics, supplies and keeping the team on schedule. Sophia serves as the spotter, calling flags and any incidents for Erin on track.
“One of the biggest challenges I find is Erin doesn’t like you talking to her when she’s driving, so it has to be really important,” Sophia said, laughing.
Sophia and Cassie have served as Erin’s support crew for more than two years and know their sister’s track routine, understanding when to give her space to focus or bring some levity to the paddock.
“Erin is definitely more business-like, but as she’s gotten better, she’s kind of lightening up,” Sophia said. “When Erin doesn’t feel like being social, I’m her designated social person.”
The Price sisters welcomed another female driver into the Spec Miata ranks, with Krystin Jaenicke returning to Texas region. Krystin pits her car next to the Price sisters and they often share a rental house near the track.
Working in the tech industry, Erin is used to being around men. The paddock isn’t much different. The sisters hope to change that.
“They’re thrilled to have women interested in the sport and out there every weekend with them,” Cassie said. “They’re extremely accepting, extremely patient and just welcoming. It’s a close-knit group, and we’ve met a lot of really great friends.”
Track Festivities
The Price sisters bring the energy to a NASA Texas weekend, which already has a reputation for lively events.
“They walk around the paddock and just kind of spread good cheer, visiting everybody,” said Pat Welch, who races in Spec E46 in NASA Texas. “They’re active and cheerful, and they’ve done a few antics before.”
By antics, Welch was referring to the stickers and the High Maintenance Motorsports website the Prices made that was a spoof on GoFundMe and OnlyFans to raise money for car parts. In the campaign story, they describe it as “serving premium engine thirst traps, high-octane drama, and behind-the-scenes grease glam you didn’t know you needed.”
It’s this sense of humor the Price sisters bring to the Saturday night roast for the Spec Miata group. The trio handles all the logistics from the location to the food. Drivers’ racing videos — good and bad — are projected onto the side of the trailer and when the cocktails start flowing, the jokes start flying.
“It was happening before Cassie and I came on, but it was like four guys on the side of a trailer with a projector,” Sophia said. “We just juiced it up. We saw it and we’re like, ‘This has potential.’”
NASA racers are still talking about the women’s decision to bring a hot tub to the Texas and NASA MidAmerica crossover event at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma. The family-friendly event often has slip-and-slides, so an inflatable hot tub wasn’t too far astray. It was Erin’s idea, but Cassie made it happen.
“Three women show up at the racetrack with a hot tub,” Erin said. Cassie adds, “It’s still talked about today.”
If the trio isn’t the center of the party, Cassie is fine with a supporting role.
“I’ve driven quite a few trucks in the Spec Miata paddock after a night out, so I’m fine with that,” Cassie said. “It just fits into my role of a general chaos coordinator and a little bit of babysitting. I do it well.”
From Learning Curve to Results
As fun as Erin, Sophia and Cassie are in the paddock, they take the racing seriously. Racing Spec Miata in the NASA Texas Region is like playing football in the Southeastern Conference. You better bring your A-game.
Erin works with Bob Stretch and Wheels America Racing for trackside support, and they were busy during the 2025 season. The car went through two engines and a transmission. (Cassie trailers the car to the track.)
“Texas Spec Miata support is a booming business,” Sophia said.
Erin went over data with the Wheels America team after each track day and the work has paid off. In 2025, she finished fourth overall in regional points in Spec Miata in the Texas region. That’s impressive, considering 49 drivers ran at least one Spec Miata race over the season.
Christopher Shaffer, who has won the last three Texas Spec Miata championships, said Erin’s on-track improvement has been noticeable.
“She’s really put a focus on trying to improve as a driver and becoming more comfortable with the car,” Shaffer said. “Now she’s starting to focus on results, rather than just being safe and quick. It’s obviously yielded results, because she almost podiumed for the season.”
Erin focused on improving her braking, coming out of turns and results that showed up in the final standings.
“I’m really learning how to drive the car when it’s not perfect and change my driving style to the car,” Erin said. “It’s always nice if you’re given a perfect car, but things happen during the race. But it’s really been fun to make so much progress this past year.”
Erin and her sisters plan to run a full NASA schedule in 2026, and Shaffer welcomes the challenge of someone snapping his winning streak.
“I would love for her to finish in front of me,” Shaffer said. “That would be amazing seeing her progress and the dedication that she puts in. I would be nothing but happy for her to finish in front of me and hopefully everybody else.”
