Leslie Riggs

Leslie Rae Fenton-Riggs (born November 19, 1982, better known as Leslie Riggs) is an American racing driver and former model. She is the daughter of Brenda Riggs and the older sister of Allie Riggs. Riggs also modeled for the men's magazine b, her primary sponsor from 2005 through 2014. Riggs is known for her large fanbase and her sneaky method of winning races. Following the 2015 FARC season, Riggs has stepped back from racing full-time, and currently serves as promoter for the Albuquerque Speedbowl.

Early Career
Riggs joined a kart club at the age of 9, and it did not take her long to start winning races. She developed much of her current driving style in karts, especially her habit of sneaking up on the leader and stealing the victory on the final lap. She won three club championships before joining her mother in street stock races when she was 15. She won the Buffalo Downs track championship in 2000, but her season was overshadowed by a severe crash with her mother that resulted in the elder Riggs walking with a limp for several years, though they both claim that it was merely a racing incident.

After the 2002 season, after Riggs turned 20, her mother told her to find a job and/or her own sponsorship or else she would have been kicked off the team. Riggs spent the entire first half of 2003 with no luck finding money- and no ride. Desperate for some kind of funding, Riggs approached b, which had a very limited readership at the time, and asked for a modeling job. She would later claim, "[b] got really excited after I told them I needed the money to race. They said I could get them a lot of exposure if I drove and appeared in the magazine at the same time".

Riggs' mother was very disappointed in her sponsorship, but made no serious attempts to put a stop to it. Riggs rejoined her mother on the track in the last third of the 2003 season, picking up a victory.

ARLA Career
In 2005, Riggs was signed to a contract with Chris Jackson's ARLA Elite Series team and finished third in her debut, behind her teammates Ricky Navarro and Jackson himself. Riggs immediately gained a considerable following, but she failed to score any victories until 2007. She quickly built up the largest following of any driver in the field, which is believed to be directly responsible for the explosion in b's readership.

Riggs has shown a recent tendency to get caught up in serious accidents, the first of which occurred in the 2010 season opener; she got caught up in a pileup on the frontstretch, and was slammed into by her mother at approximately 160 MPH, sustaining a concussion. Riggs was injured again at Alberta in 2011, when she got together with Ricky Navarro, sending both cars into the inside wall at 205 MPH. Riggs suffered another concussion, as well as three broken ribs and a broken left clavicle, sidelining her for the next race.

Riggs captured 3 victories in the 2011 ARLA season, but her campaign was cut short after a horrific accident in the TM Master Cup Series Round of Daytona, which she entered in a Trevor Carrington car. Approximately a quarter of the way through the race, Woody Watts was sent for several rolls down the backstretch. Riggs struck Watts' rolling car in the underside at about 200 MPH, and both drivers had to be airlifted to the hospital. Riggs, who was knocked unconscious in the accident and had to be cut from her car, was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury in addition to other upper-body injuries. Riggs would not race again during the 2011 season, but she stepped back behind the wheel when the 2012 ARLA Elite Series season started. However, her doctors fear that another major head injury may kill her.

Personal Life
Riggs is often swamped with signing autographs for people or giving interviews, so it is difficult to speak to her for more than a few minutes at a time. Despite all of the attention she receives, she is said to be one of the more humble and level-headed drivers in the garage. However, some people are turned off by the amount of sarcasm she tends to use in both real life and in social media. She rarely displays anger towards other drivers in the open; the last notable time this happened was when she confronted her sister after the 2010 Appleton Speedway Fright Nite.

Riggs recently became a spokesperson for the Institute for Sports Injury Prevention, likely motivated by her numerous injuries. Some of the safety measures Riggs has been pushing for in stock car racing include bigger cockpits (likely due to the fact that she is among ARLA's taller drivers, at 6'2"), as well as moving the driver to the center of the car to prevent injuries resulting from being struck in the door.

Trivia
Leslie Riggs is the only character from ARLA's predecessor (a 13-car league based around Ceej's Happy Tree Friends fan-characters) still competing in the Elite Series.