ESPN is reporting that Bill Lester became the first black driver to win a Grand-Am Road Racing event over the weekend. Lester teamed with Jordan Taylor to top the Rolex Series' GT class Saturday in the Bosch Engineering 250 at Virginia International Raceway.
The historic win in the Autohaus Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro came in the hometown of auto-racing pioneer Wendell Scott, the only black driver to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. According to ESPN, Lester stated, "We're ecstatic." He added, "Everything came together for us. We knew at the beginning of the season that this team had a lot of potential.
"I'm sure that the Scott family would be happy about what I was able to accomplish," Lester continued. "I actually spent some time at the Scott residence in Danville and saw Wendell's old garage and sat in one of his race cars. It was quite an honor for me."
It's cool that Lester acknowledges those who came before him. Making history in this sport is no easy task. Despite rampant discrimination in the field of racing historically, Bill Lester is making breakthroughs one race at a time.
Read more at ESPN.
In other news: VIDEO: Bill Maher: Barack Obama Is a 'Black Ninja Gangster President.' (NSFW)
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.