Hit the Dirt
Jacki Short is no stranger to powerful vehicles. At 20 years of age, she's ranked as one of the top-10 professional-women's motocross racers in the nation and is sponsored by Suzuki. Jacki, who was born on a ranch in Austin, Texas, says trucks were as much a part of the farm as cows and horses. Dad had a Dodge, and Mom had a Chevy. Her first truck was a Ford F-150. As a Texas girl, Jacki sheepishly admits owning a Japanese truck is a bit different. She was married just this year to Andrew Short, also a top professional motocross racer. Her father-in-law did the research on the amount of miles she'd be driving to races around the country and determined that the V-8-powered Toyota Tundra Double Cab was the best choice.
I met Jacki at the Lake Elsinore Motocross Park. Amid the perpetual buzz of motorcyclists traversing the tracks, I learned that she had just moved to Murrieta, California, from Texas. Jacki's no stranger to loading bikes in trucks. I was impressed when she rolled her Suzuki RM-Z250 race bike off the loading ramp of her Tundra. Her husband's calm response: "She can handle it." Moments later she was launching her Suzuki into the air off dirt jumps, roosting other riders through muddy turns. Indeed, Jacki is a competent woman on the track--and when it comes to home improvement. She's a regular at The Home Depot, as she's remodeled complete bathrooms. Now that she's in California, a surfboard occasionally gets tossed into the truck bed for riding waves. She finds her pickup to be indispensable.
The things she likes most about the exterior are its 17-inch alloy wheels, the full-size bed with spray-in liner, and the bed extender, which makes it easy to secure motorcycles and gear, such as the motocross gear bag, toolbox, loading ramp, helmet bag, bike stand, cooler, and gas can she stores in the bed.
"I love my truck!" she says. "It gives me the ability to do what I want. It feels like a luxury." When I asked if she thought people noticed her in her truck, Jacki's reply was, "If there's a bike in back, people want to see who's driving." Most of the time it's her--she gets carsick as a passenger and Andrew likes to be chauffeured. That's a marriage made in heaven.