Young Driver Memorialized By Racing Community At Track
By Matt Kroschel
DACONO, Colo. - The roar of the hundred race cars could barely drown out the sorrow facing a racing community in mourning over the murder of an up-and-coming young driver.
Makayla Grote was remembered at a memorial at the Colorado National Speedway on Sunday.
The 2016 graduate of Green Mountain High School was found with stab wounds at the Shores Apartments on Airport Road near Highway 66 shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18th.
The 15-year-old suspect was arrested several hours later and faces a charge of first degree murder. He is not being identified because he is a minor.
Fellow racer and friend Shelby Cortese said it is something she can't understand.
"If you take a look around here it has impacted the racing community. We are just not a community... We are a family," Cortese said.
Grote was one of the few young women on the track -- an ambassador for the sport she loved and excelled at.
Her boyfriend described her as loving and caring.
"She was bubbly very bubbly, she loved to be happy loved everyone around her to be happy," he said.
Another Fellow driver, Natalie Phelps said the racing community is angry and heartbroken.
"It's crazy that would happen to her, she was one of the best people out here at the racetrack," Phelps added.
Pink tape covered the numbers on the hundred plus race cars who took part in a memorial lap at the racetrack Sunday. Dark glasses hide the tears in their driver's cars.
Grote's father escorted her cremated remains, one last time around the track, as hundreds of people at the memorial held a single finger in the air pointing at the sky and to their new "angel."
"The hardest part is this did not have to happen," Cortese said.