LE MANS, France — As the crow flies, it is little more than 5,000 miles from the hard scrabble desert of St. George, Utah to the plains of France where the famed Circuit du la Sarthe is located. But the journey that Drayson Team Manager Dale White took can only be measured by the strength of character found in one’s heart.

White remembers being the kid who got sand kicked in his face because his dreams were of fast cars, the Eiffel tower, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans rather than the SuperBowl, the World Series, or a slam dunk in the NBA finals.

 “I talked about going to France and they (the kids) just laughed ‘cause most kids in that small town had not left the county yet. I was just fascinated with that – it was just like a whole another world to me. That is all I talked about – it was all that I ever talked about,” he remembered.

His penchant for LeMans and car racing nearly drove his father nuts, according to White.  White recalls with a chuckle, “All my father (who was the service manager for a local automobile dealer) ever wanted me to do was NOT get in the car business.”

Trying to stay true to his father’s wishes White focused on engineering after high school, and was a program manager and engineer with EG&G Energy Measurements, where he began a career in the nuclear industry.

Today however, White has three Sebring class titles, two LeMans class titles, a passel of American Le Mans Series individual and series wins as well as a desert racing resume that would be the envy of even the likes of Mickey Thompson.