Smarts, Speed, and Sabré
Sabré Cook Redefines the Modern Racing DriveR
STORY | john Oreovicz
Photography | Karl Noakes
Sabré Cook (@sabrecook) is more than a professional race car driver. She’s driven.
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has accomplished as much in 60 years of life as Cook has in 30. Smart and savvy enough to engineer the exotic racing cars she drives, Cook is instead chasing her dreams from behind the wheel, demonstrating what can be achieved with passion, hard work, and a strong support network.
Cook drove a go-kart for the first time when she was eight years old and soon showed speed and talent. Sabré praises her father, Stacey, a professional motocross rider turned track owner/operator and commercial real estate agent who was inducted into the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2023, for instilling her with the mindset that allowed her to ultimately claim three World Championships, three National Championships, and eight Colorado State Championships in karting.
She made the daunting (and expensive) transition into pursuing a career racing cars while working toward a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, where she graduated cum laude.
“I’ve always been pretty focused and serious, just knowing that if I wanted to accomplish something, I needed to work hard to get there,” Cook related. “I was just as competitive with school as I was with the racing. I really have to credit that kind of methodology to my dad. He drilled into me that you’ve got to earn every step of the way because it’s not going be easy to perform at that high level.
“My dad was an incredible role model for me, and he’s been there every step of the way, encouraging me. He understands the competitive spirit and the world of motorsport. He raced on two wheels, but the themes are similar, so getting his insights and him being there for me to vent or ask advice has been very valuable.”
Cook began racing cars in 2017 and was the first female finalist for the Team USA Scholarship. She was then the first American selected to compete in the international all-female W Series running open-wheel Formula 3 cars. From 2017-22, she pursued driving opportunities around the globe, including SCCA, USF2000, USF Pro 2000, US Formula 4, W Series, MX5, WRL, and Porsche Sprint Challenge before breaking another barrier by being the first woman to compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
Cook is now in her third season of Carrera Cup, the most popular and competitive single-make racing championship in the world. She switched teams for 2025 to JDX Racing, operated by longtime sportscar racer Jeremy Dale.
“The thing that has impressed us the most is Sabré’s tenacity in pursuing her goals in motorsport,” said Dale. “She has faced many obstacles, yet nothing ever holds her back.”
Another key supporter is Lyn St. James, the pioneering female racer who was a frontrunner in Trans-Am and IMSA sports cars before competing in Indy cars late in her career. St. James has worked tirelessly to help women advance in all aspects of racing, and Sabré is grateful for Lyn’s encouragement and advice.
“She was definitely a role model, and she’s done so much,” Cook said. “She was unafraid to go after the challenges with absolute determination, and she wasn’t worried about ruffling feathers to get where she wanted to go. She was clear on what she needed to do.
“And Scott Dixon is incredible,” she adds, referring to the six-time IndyCar Series champion. “He just constantly raises his level of performance. He seems pretty even-keel, pretty classy, and he owns up to and takes responsibility for things when it’s his fault. He just handles things in a professional way. I can see that Scott is a good person and a great role model.
Cook thrives in the competitive environment of motorsport, where every member of the team is counted on to perform at the highest level. Outside of driving, she has gained experience in engineering roles for Nissan/Infiniti Global, the Renault Formula 1 team, and Ed Carpenter Racing.
“I’ve learned so many new skills in very diverse areas, because racing is not like a traditional sport,” she observed. “You’re focused obviously on the mental and physical, but you also have to focus on the technical side because of all the engineering that’s involved; you also have to focus on the business side, because without sponsors and building your brand or building your business, you don’t get to go racing.
“There are so many different elements and you have to kind of become the CEO of your own career and be pushed to be effective in so many different areas. That’s what’s special about motorsports.”
She admits that her engineering background doesn’t always work in her favor when she’s driving.
“In the car it’s not beneficial, because you don’t want to be thinking about setup changes and all this stuff while you’re driving,” Cook noted. “But post-session, when you’re there debriefing with your engineer, and you’re going through data or going through video, then it does have a benefit. I can maybe go through data at a different level or communicate with my engineer more clearly because sometimes I have a little more insight into the perspective of how they’re looking at things.”
Besides, some of racing’s appeal to Cook is the sheer joy of driving or battling wheel-to-wheel in the heat of competition.
“You have a big smile on your face when you have a really hard-fought but respectful race with another competitor,” she said. “You know you’re strategizing, and you’re trying to outsmart the other, but you’re also being obviously respectful of each other as competitors. There’s something about that duel on track that makes it just so much fun, and I think racing, over other opportunities that I could have had in life, has challenged me to be the best version of myself.”
If you spend any time with Cook, it’s clear that she’s on a constant quest for self-improvement. Does she ever take time to reflect on her unique journey, even though she’s nowhere close to her ultimate destination?
“I have been working on being more grateful and giving myself more credit for all of the awesome things that I’ve been able to experience and accomplish so far,” she admitted. “I recognize I’m a highly driven individual, so it’s hard because you’re always pushing for more. You’re always like, ‘This could be better. How do I continue to grow and just be this best version of myself?’ You’re always chasing it, right? So, yes, I do try to reflect back, but I probably need to be better at it.”
Cook is quick to credit her own inspirational figures (which include Leonardo da Vinci), yet by the age of 30, she has become a role model herself. What kind of advice does she offer young people hoping to follow in her footsteps?
“Something that isn’t iterated enough is getting really clear on the team you need around you to be successful,” she said. “You can’t cut corners. Investing in yourself and building the right team around you to support you on your journey is going to be absolutely critical to your chance at succeeding and achieving your goals.”
