Sisters score first career wins in Carteret opener

Opening day at Bobby Watson’s Carteret County Speedway was bookended by first time winners – a pair of siblings from nearby Stella, North Carolina.

Maci “Moo Moo” Stancill,9, picked up the victory in the Jr. Mini Cup feature which kicked off the day’s racing program, leading every lap.  A few hours later, her older sister, 15-year-old Deanna Stancill, would go on to score her first win in a Bomber feature race.

“It was really exciting,” Maci Stancill said.  “I came out of my car, I put my arms up.  I was screaming.  I was so happy.  My radio fell out but I was telling my dad, I was screaming to him, ‘Daddy, I won, I won.’  I’m hoping to win every race now.”

While the younger Stancill sibling was making her debut, the older sister had been trying for a year to get to victory lane.  After celebrating, she took a moment to appreciate the journey.

“I think it feels a lot better to win after you fail a whole bunch than if you come out here and win right from the start,” Deanna Stancill said.  “Looking back, it really did take a lot of practice and a lot of courage I think to get where I got.  Everything with racing is trial and error.  Hopefully we will win a bunch more.”

Deanna Stancill got her start in racing through the Kids Racing Camp program Carteret County Speedway does each summer.

“I came out here the summer of 2023 and did the kids camp,” she explained.  “Me and my dad came out here and watched the races sometimes.  On the last day of camp, I told my daddy that he better build me a car so we could get started.  In the kids camp, running a kart is much different from running a Bomber car but I learned the rules of the track, the different flags, the safety of it and everything like that.”