A Driving Force in Nascar
Bill Lester, who gave up his career in corporate America to follow his passion, hopes his participation will attract a wider and more diverse fan base to auto racing.
By Frank J. Matthews
Minority participation and interest in sports is legendary — depending on what sport you are talking about. Blacks have long been a major factor in the popularity of basketball and football. Tiger Woods’ success has contributed to an explosion of interest in golf within the Black community. Arthur Ashe brought tennis into the Black consciousness, and the exploits of Venus and Serena Williams have only increased interest in that sport. But some sports, like auto racing, have yet to be embraced by large numbers of minorities. Can you name any of the drivers in NASCAR’s three levels — the Nextel Cup, Busch Grand National and the Craftsman Truck Series? Even die-hard NASCAR fans might have a hard time naming the one Black driver currently earning a living on the circuit. His name is Bill Lester, and he recently spoke to Diverse about his journey.
DI: You’re currently on the NASCAR circuit, but our readers would be interested to know that you have an electrical engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley. How was your Berkeley experience?
BL: It was great. It was extremely competitive. I don’t recall any other African-Americans getting their degree in electrical engineering/ computer science when I was there [in 1984]. I didn’t set the bar, but I got out of there. And with a Berkeley degree, I could pretty much write my own ticket. So I joined Hewlett-Packard, where I had interned
for three straight summers, as a research and development
project manager.
