Pruett Racing Through the Alphabet

Cover of Pruett's new book

As one of the most accomplished American racing drivers today, Lexus’ Scott Pruett has seemingly raced everywhere and almost everything – and now he and wife, Judy, have added a new venue – “Racing Through the Alphabet" – their fourth offering in a line of children’s books.

The new “Racing Through the Alphabet," joins “Twelve Little Race Cars," “Twelve More Little Race Cars," and “Rookie Racer" among the books offered by in-house publishing company Word Weaver Books. The latest story is a direct result of an inspiration from the Pruett’s seven-year-old son, Cameron.

“It really was inspired by our little boy," according to Cameron’s mother, Judy. “He was practicing his letters, which is something he really doesn’t like, and when he got to the letter ‘R’, he drew wheels on it. The next thing I know, he’s got his pencil positioned as a steering wheel and he said, ‘I’m racing through the alphabet."

After getting the initial inspiration from young Cameron, the entire family went to work coming up with racing words to represent each letter. Once they narrowed it down to three words per letter, it was off to market research – in this case, Cameron, and 10-year-old sister Taylor’s friends.

The Pruetts would take each letter separately and ask their children and their friends which word they found most interesting and which sounded the best. The favorite word of the entire ‘Racing’ alphabet? Kevlar, the composite fiber used in making race car bodies.

“After we released our first book, we had people coming up to us after asking when are we coming out with another book?" said Scott Pruett. “We received e-mails from parents and grandparents, pictures from families showing their kids sleeping with the books – some really great, touching stuff. And we also received some great feedback from teachers."

The Pruetts’ first book, “Twelve Little Race Cars" appropriately came shortly after the birth of daughter Taylor in 1998. After jokingly coming up with different ways Scott has had his race day end through an assortment of crashes, flat tires, etc., Judy decided to put it to paper and afterward they presented to their then nine-year-old Lauren, who loved it and gave Scott and Judy the idea to make a book out of it.

With Scott’s busy Indy car schedule with Toyota, Judy took the ball and ran with it in developing their Word Weaver Books publishing company. One thing that has stayed constant has been Scott’s attention to detail on the racing side of things.

“It’s very important that we maintain the integrity of the racing," said Scott. “If you see something in the book, the transmission breaks, car catches fire, well, it was actually something that had happened to me over the years. We’ve had editors want to change some words, particularly in the first book, but we said no…this is how a race car driver actually talks."

The Pruetts and their three children live in Auburn, California. Scott continues his ultra-successful racing career – currently leading the Rolex Sports Car Series standings in his Lexus prototype for Chip Ganassi Racing as he looks for an American record eighth sports car championship. He’s a seven-time winner of the Daytona 24 Hours, as well as a past winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and a member of the International Race of Champions (IROC) Hall of Fame. He’s competed in Indy cars, NASCAR and sports cars.

In addition to her role as the president of Word Weaver Books, Judy is now a stay-at-home mom after retiring from her successful occupational therapy practice prior to the birth of their daughter in 1998. During her 15-year practice, she worked in a variety of areas including child development, neurological disorders, spinal cord injuries, sports medicine and upper extremity trauma.

All four of the Pruett children’s books can be found at WordWeaverBooks.com, as well as in select Target stores around the nation.