{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Changing Careers and Pursuing Your Passion with African-American NASCAR Driver, Bill Lester, Ep. 244","description":"Ep. 244: Before becoming a professional race car driver, Bill Lester spent 15 years working as a computer scientist and project manager in Silicon Valley for Hewlett-Packard. After embarking on a full-time racing career, Lester competed in NASCAR and IMSA, two of America\u2019s most prestigious racing series. He won over $2 million in purse money, drove a total of 30,162 laps in competition, earned six podium finishes and one victory during his 10 full seasons.  In 2006, Lester became the first African American driver in 20 years to compete in NASCAR\u2019S premier Cup Series. It would be another 11 years before another African American driver, Darrell \u201cBubba\u201d Wallace, would compete again in the Cup ranks. Among Lester\u2019s other credits are initial professional races in the SCCA Trans-Am Series and IMSA Series. In 1999, he won the CART African American Driver Development Program tryout and, as a result, successfully tested an Indy Lights car with Team Kool Green. In 2012, he completed his racing career by earning a trip to the Rotax Grand Finals of international karting competition in Portimao, Portugal proudly representing Team USA.  During his five seasons of participation in the NASCAR Truck Series, NASCAR featured Lester in a TV ad promoting the series on the Speed Channel. In 2003 and 2004, General Mills featured Lester on Honey Nut Cheerios collector edition cereal boxes. Lester appeared on the cover of Black Enterprise in April of 2004. Feature articles about Lester also appeared in USA Today and The New York Times as well as Car and Driver magazine, among others.  Bill Lester has received various awards including: \u201cBreaking New Frontiers\u201d award from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 2004; \u201cTrailblazer in Motor Sports\u201d award from the Rainbow\/PUSH organization in 2004, \u201cJackie Robinson Award\u201d from the Rainbow\/PUSH organization in 2006; \u201cTrailblazer Award\u201d from RYSE Magazine in 2013; and the \u201cSam Lacy Pioneer Award\u201d from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2013. Lester\u2019s TV work began in 2003 with a two-year stint as a broadcast analyst for the Fox Sports South show \u201cAround the Track\u201d. In 2014, he also worked as a Broadcast Analyst for the NBC Sports show \u201cNASCAR America.\u201d  Bill Lester is available for celebrity speaking engagements through Bruce Merrin\u2019s Celebrity Speakers, NOPACT Talent, Executive Speakers Bureau and Great Black speakers.  Bill Lester retired from professional racing in 2007. For more on Bill Lester, please check out his website: http:\/\/www.billlester.com\/ For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: www.alexbarnettcomic.com or visit him on Facebook (www.facebook.com\/alexbarnettcomic) or on Twitter at @barnettcomic To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: MULTIRACIAL FAMILY MAN PODCAST Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Two Sisters Writing and Publishing Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/ ","author_name":"Multiracial Family Man","author_url":"http:\/\/www.alexbarnettcomic.com\/","html":"