By Sally Applegate/Correspondent
Fri Jun 20, 2008, 01:55 PM EDT

North Andover - There are several women here with the big tough guys at the Skid School. Amy Malmgren has flown in from Denver and she’s exhilarated after her turn in the NASCAR racer.

“Amazing. I came here all the way, 2,000 miles from Denver, because this is the first time they’ve ever done this anywhere,” says Malmgren. “It was fast. It was fun. I want to go faster and I want a bigger track.”

Sean Siff, sales and marketing director for Skid School, affirms this year is the first time ever that disabled drivers have been able to get behind the wheel of a stock car and head off to compete on a real racetrack.

Santina Muha, a writer for the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, completes her NASCAR run and says simply, “It was scary a little bit, but it was fun.”

There are not one, but two Miss Wheelchair state beauty contest winners at the training. Colleen Macort, Miss Wheelchair Florida of 2002, is a national runner-up.

“I didn’t have my kids go to the Florida pageant because I didn’t want to disappoint them,” she says. “Then I won! I felt bad they weren’t there. I was the fourth runner-up for Miss Wheelchair America.”

Madonna Long was Miss Wheelchair Nevada in 1985 and is now working as a lobbyist for Pride Mobility.

Kimberly Barreda flew in from Whitefish, Mont. A model for TV commercials and print work, Barreda says she opted to forgo the chance to be Miss Wheelchair Montana rather than pay the pageant registration fee. She has used a wheelchair all her life and works for the BLAST program, which adapts sports equipment for people with disabilities.