Michele Martineau started her first Hot Wheels collection shortly after birth and learned to walk at her father’s old style service station.

At 21 Michele went to work for Land Rover, a 7 year career changed her life, allowing her to become an off road driving instructor and a ropes course guide. Land Rovers again became a life changing talisman when she joined the cast and crew of the Documentary Channel’s Beyond the Lane series, crawling Rovers across obscure trails in British Columbia as well as following a Baja legend at speed down the Baja peninsula in a Baja 1000 inspired trip, usually sleeping on top of a Defender 130.

Finally able to experience Baja, she found the calling too strong to ignore and volunteered with NORRA for the 2010 Mexican 1000 as part of the rally’s time control team. She returned for the 2011 event as Administrative Director of NORRA.

This summer she gave up her NORRA post to focus on developing her own off road racing 7S team, Team Courage. Her team races to raise money to fund mammograms. A breast cancer previvor, she’s developed education and support for other women facing breast reconstruction through her website Courage Is My Strength. Michele will be launching the Save the Girls Project in 2012, focusing on educating teens about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and other intimate issues that face young women.

You may have seen Michele at the start and finish lines of the NORRA Mexican 1000, in DirtSports Magazine, S & S Offroad Magizine, or read her article in the Dusty Times. Her Team Courage truck, Saving Grace, was on display with her team at the Lucas Oil Off Road Expo in 2010 with NORRA, and she and her team have been featured on SoCal Off Road Radio with Dave Stall.

Her wonderful husband and amazing son make her days off paradise, and with their support her gypsy spirit will continue searching for the next big adventure and the next big race! Tally ho, yall! With her strong spirit, tenacious personality, and calm in the face of the biggest storms, Michele is Team courage.

Michele Martineau started her first Hot Wheels collection shortly after birth and learned to walk at her father’s old style service station. At 21 Michele went to work for Land Rover, a 7 year career that changed her life. While other 20-somethings were settling into their roles as moms and wives in minivans, Michele was spending weekends in the woods as an off road driving instructor and ropes course guide.

In 2009, as part of the Documentary Channel’s Beyond the Lane series, she crawled Rovers across obscure trails in British Columbia and followed a Baja legend at speed down the Baja peninsula in a Baja 1000 inspired trip, usually sleeping on top of a Defender 130.

Finally able to experience Baja, she found the calling too strong to ignore. In 2010 Michele volunteered as a timekeeper for NORRA (National Off Road Racing Association) in the Mexican 1000 only months after a double mastectomy. In 2011 she became the Administrative Director for NORRA and was instrumental in planning and executing the 2011 Mexican 1000. Michele is owner of Team Courage and now combines her love of speed and the desert with her heartfelt longing to help women facing breast cancer.

At 37 years old, Michele discovered she had Fibrocystic Breast Disease and a 40% chance of developing breast cancer. She designed a website to help women facing breast cancer and reconstruction from a woman’s point of view and her race teams raise money to fund mammograms and benefits breast cancer charities. 2012 will welcome the launch of her new project, the “Save the Girls Project”, a grassroots approach to changing the way young girls look at themselves as well as helping women through breast reconstruction. Her wonderful husband and amazing son make her days off paradise, and with their support her gypsy spirit will continue searching for the next big adventure and the next big race!

In 2012 Michele aspires to finish in the top 10 at the Rallye Aicha des Gazelles, compete in her vintage 7S race truck in the 2012 NORRA Mexican 1000, in the 2012 MORE Powder Puff, and compete in the 2012 Rainforest Challenge in a Land Rover Defender.

Four countries in 12 months? Tally ho, y’all!

• Member of the 2010 NORRA Mexican 1000 time control team
• 2011 NORRA Administrative Director
• Owner of Team Courage Racing and a class 7S truck
• Land Rover Off road driving instructor for 5 years
• Raced the 2010 MORE Powder Puff finishing 4th in her class
• Raced the 2011 Powder Puff, finishing 4^th in her class
• Her website CourageIsMyStrength.com has followers from over 40 countries
• CourageIsMyStrength.com has had over 21,000 unique visitors in the last 365 days and over 58,000 hits since June 2010
• The CourageIsMyStrength YouTube channel has had over 30,000 visits, 1,100,000 video plays, and currently has 555 subscribers
• TeamCourageRacing.com has had 2,084 unique visitors since August 2011
• Team Courage has over 1,500 Facebook friends and followers
• Launching Save The Girls Project in 2012, addressing intimate issues of women of all ages

Michele and Team Courage have been featured in:

• Dusty Times
• S & S Off Road
• Dirt News
• Race Dezert
• Female Racing News
• Aspen Times Newspaper, Aspen CO
• Post Independent Newspaper, Glenwood Springs CO
• Beyond The Lane
• The Fast Lane Car
• Look For a Diagnosis
• ShortFieldMedical.com
• Fibrocystic Breast Disease Network
• Cancer Survivors Network
• Barstow Newswire

See Michele’s video for Team Courage Racing:

Here’s a quick look at Beyond The Lane: