Racing is in the blood of Joshua and Taylor Herringdine

Published 8:00 am Sunday, October 11, 2015

Joshua and Taylor Herringdine have a unique relationship as brother and sister. They both love the outdoors and racing cars around a track every chance they get.

They both are winners at the sport, too.

Joshua, now 19, and a graduate of Putnam County High School in nearby Eatonton, has been racing longer than Taylor, 15, and a sophomore at Baldwin High School, each knows what the feeling is like to win a race, too. For both of them have experienced such a thrill of being in the winner’s circle.

But Taylor’s feat is a little more astonishing, perhaps, when you consider that she didn’t begin racing until May of this year.

“It felt good; real good,” said Taylor after she won her first race last month at Cochran Motor Speedway (CMS). The dirt track is about a 90-minute drive from Milledgeville.

She drives a 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a .350-cubic engine.

“It’s about a football field long,” Joshua said of the size car that his sister drives.

One of Taylor’s biggest fans is Camden Boston, a 12-year-old boy, who thinks the world of Taylor, and who has been like a member of the Herringdine family. Camden lives in Cary, Ga.

“He (Camden) was, I want to say, the proudest one out of all of us the other night,” Joshua said. “He was balling. He was just proud. He got up on the trailer, jumping up and down. He was the first one over there to her when she got the trophy and all. He was happy. He’s a mess.”

Joshua said Camden’s dad says he has a crush on the girl with a pink-colored car.

“He got his name put on her car as the crew chief,” said Jennifer Herringdine, the mother of Joshua and Taylor. “He’s so dedicated. He just took to her.”

Camden helps in the pit crew when Taylor is actually racing.

“He’ll scrape mud off the car and hand me my stuff when I’m getting ready to go out,” Taylor said with a big smile.

Jennifer said he acts like her coach in that he tells her what to do and what not to do.

“He’s really into racing,” Taylor said.

Camden has even driven Taylor’s car around the track a few laps, Jennifer said.

“That just made his night,” she added. “The first thing he said was that he had to get him a race car.”

Taylor’s win came against three male drivers on the track.

Camden wasn’t the only one excited about her recent victory. She also was congratulated her parents, her brother, grandparents and many others.

Ironically, Joshua won that same night, too, in his bomber car, a 1976 Chevrolet Malibu, which has a .350-cubic engine. He now has three wins to his credit.

Asked if they’ve been competing, Joshua was quick to say with a big grin on his face, “I ain’t been competing, but I guess I’m going to have to stand up and do something.”

Although they don’t compete in the same class, he said he didn’t know what he was going to do if his young sister ever eclipses him in the win column.

“I guess I might have to give up racing,” Joshua laughed, noting he wasn’t serious.

Joshua, who drives a log truck for his dad, Charlie Herringdine, was there to root his young sister on to victory along with his mother, Jennifer, a local hair stylist.

“She did great; we were all so very proud of her,” recalled Jennifer.

The sport of stockcar racing runs deep in the Herringdine family. It actually spans four generations, Jennifer said.

“My granny has more trophies than all of us,” Joshua said with a big smile.

He was referring to Debra Miller, of Milledgeville.

Between Debra and her husband, Tony, they have dozens and dozens of racecar trophies they have collected over the years from racing stockcars. The couple raced for many years in different classes.

So it’s no wonder their grandchildren have a little racing in their blood.

While a lot of brothers and sisters talk about computerized games and talking a lot on their cell phones, Joshua and Taylor are either talking about racing or hunting, the latter another sport of which they share common interest.

The words: “I’m going to the shop to work on the car,” is what Jennifer said she frequently hears at home during racing season.

Just like her older brother, Taylor, too, said she gets dirty working on her car with her dad, who dubs as his children’s chief mechanic.

The shop is also a perfect place to get injured. Taylor accidentally dropped a ramp on one of her toes recently. But it hasn’t stopped her from going out there and continuing to assist her dad in whatever way she can.

“It’s still black,” Taylor said of her injured toe.

Taylor, who enjoys hunting deer and ducks, said she looks up to her brother.

“That’s my little buddy,” Joshua said of his sister. “She’s my hunting, fishing and racing buddy.”

Joshua and Taylor said they plan to race for fun for as long as they can.