Sibling Teammates or Sibling Rivalry?

Throughout the years, the sport of racing has been built on families, from battles between Delaware drivers like father and son drivers Ron and Mike Ling, to the Enduro clashes of Dave and Dan Goertz. There have also been more extensive family feuds at the big league level, such as the story of Lee Petty spinning his son Richard when the King wasn't even a prince, husband and wife Elton Sawyer and Pattie Moise taking each other out years ago in a Nationwide Series event, or four Andretti's taking the green together for the Indy 500. What about the drama of the Allisons finishing one-two at Daytona , or Bobby Labonte winning the final race of the 1996 while his brother was wrapping up the title the same day.

In 2010 the Demar Aggregates Truck division will be in for a fit of double trouble as the Ailsa Craig based Koricina Racing Team will be expanded to become a two-truck operation this season. Defending Rookie-of-the Year Michelle Koricina will be leading the charge, and hoping to be able to smack talk her brother Matt around the house at every opportunity.

It was Michelle's brother that piqued her interest in racing years ago, and her motivation was simple, "I wanted to do it because my brother was doing it. We were always competitive and as soon he said he was going racing, I was going to do it to." Koricina started her racing career at Grand Bend Speedway and raced in the 6.5 HP Junior Micro Sprint class before moving up to a 9 HP Mini Sprint in 2004. She would race in the class for five seasons, but admits that one of them was a bit of a bore, explaining, "One year, they had a ladies division, and I won eight races and the championship. There were only six of us out there, so the competition isn't like racing against 20 people."

Michelle struggled early in the season as she adjusted to the bulky truck, but by the halfway point of the season she was able to keep pace with almost the entire field, gaining a number of fans late in the season for not backing down - racing door-to-door with Truck stars like Paul Fothergil, Sid McDonald, and Jeff Shower in feature competition. Those runs propelled her to an eighth-place finish in the championship standings, and seeming like a threat to break into top-five territory soon.

As for racing against 'the guys', Koricina thinks that a few other drivers might have taken shots at her because she was a female, and that a few guys took shots at her just because she was a rookie, "I think it was a combination of the two, but most of the guys were pretty good. "

The 20-year old Michelle also spends some time working on her truck, but admitted, "I get to take the decals off and clean it - all the crap jobs - that's about it. My dad does most of the work on the truck."

Mike Koricina heads the crew with Matt Erb and Bill Burns at his sides, while Langford Lumber, A & M Truck Parts and B & B Auto support her #99.Michelle is also supported at Delaware by BMV Mechanical Services, and her Snowcross efforts are supported at the track by Country Corners Rental.

The addition of the two-truck team will make multi-truck squads in fashion this season as they will be joined by a pair of rides from the Team Ultimate stable, and three from the Thompson and Sons conglomerate.

To keep in racing shape during the offseason Koricina continues to battle on the weekend, only when the snow flies she is aboard a sled competing on the CSRA SnowCross, much different than her truck. She spoke about her SnowCross program, "I don't have a crew. I just go by myself. As for getting into racing sleds - again -the biggest reason I started was my brother again. He was doing it, so I wanted to do it as well."

As for racing her brother this season, she explained that her father / truck owner has offered some words of wisdom and while there are no 'team orders', in terms of where they finish, there are some 'team orders' about how the siblings competing against each other. Michelle laughed and said, "He told us that if we wreck each other, he will have two trucks at the end of the road, for sale."

Story by Jamie Maudsley Photos by www.maudsleymotorsports.com and Koricina Racing.