Today we’d like to introduce you to Bet Heykoop.
Hi Bet, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I knew when I watched the Italian Job at age 13 that I needed to stunt drive.
I didn’t know it was a job, it just knew I wanted to do what they were doing in a car. So when I bought my own car as a teenager, I would go out where the trucks would load in product behind a brand new Walmart and slide around on the fresh cement and asphalt. I just tested out what would happen if I turned the wheel, punched the gas, and pulled my e-brake. When my tires were bald soon after, I realized that I couldn’t keep up my secret hobby.
I promised myself when I was old enough, I’d get trained.
Then I let life happen to me. I did everything everyone said I was “supposed” to do, and that landed me in a job in tech that was sucking all the life out of me.
During Covid, I read “The Artist’s Way” which is essentially a 12-week workbook that makes you excavate all the things you tell yourself and examine them. You talk to your inner critic (I named mine Annabelle, and she truly just needs a hug), and let your intuition guide you back to your purpose.
Any time there was a question of “What would you do if you could come back in this life as anything?” I always said stunt driver. I had a hard time admitting it to myself, then admitting it out loud to my husband. Six more months would pass before I would sign up to get trained and change the course of my life.
During a practice chase scene while getting trained, I remember laughing and crying because it made my brain so happy to stunt drive.
I knew no one in and nothing about the industry – all I had was my imagination. So after I trained, I would sit in my backyard every morning and imagine what it would be like to be on set: where the cameras are, what the energy of the people around me is like – just grounding myself in the feeling of being a proper stunt driver.
Then I realized that anything I can imagine is real. I wrote down all the specs of a practice car I needed and found it 4 days later on Craigslist – and the person sold it to me for 800 bucks (these cars usually go for a few thousand). I wrote down “Commercial or Music Video by the end of the year” and I got BOTH. My lesson here was to write “and” not “or” when dreaming up my reality.
And so began my new path of listening to my intuition and pursuing stunt driving, going to car events, meeting people, and creating my show HOT SHIFT – a show where I teach people to drive stick in my vintage car. I center folks who the car industry typically pays no attention to or (and this happens often) are gate-kept out of the space since they don’t look like everyone else at events, on TV, in content, etc.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I knew this path would have lots of disappointment, challenges, and days where I questioned why I did this in the first place. Big and small, I feel everything because I am the generator of energy to move my path forward. No one can do it but me. As I continued to listen to myself and stop calling myself insane for being 30 and switching careers fully to pursue stunt driving, things became internally easier to process.
I had more faith in myself and I became more visible online (representation is so important, especially in what we’ve been told is a male-dominated space).
Getting jobs is hard, getting practice time in the car is hard, creating a show is hard, and overcoming mental obstacles is hard.
But it’s what I’m meant to be doing. For the first time, I don’t feel like I’m forcing everything to happen in my life. I have a friend who says “Anything you have to force wasn’t meant to be” and I fully believe that there’s a difference between overcoming challenges and forcing things to happen.
Life has brought me the most incredible community and opportunities that align with who I am and I’m grateful for that.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most proud of my show HOT SHIFT – a show that I created to teach people we don’t usually see in the driver’s seat how to drive stick. It is my love letter to anyone who has felt othered by the car space and told they don’t belong. I want to show that you can be you and belong in the car space – there is no one size fits all. There’s something incredibly empowering about learning to drive a manual transmission and the stories that come out of these episodes are truly so inspiring.
I am also focusing on Electric Car education through content series where I test out EVs with the purpose of buying my first Electric Car. It is my goal to only stunt drive Electric Cars, which is a whole other ballgame when it comes to handling cars. I aim to show that EVs aren’t just for enthusiasts but for everyone and are brilliant cars that will greatly help offset the amount of emissions in the air.
And as far as stunts go, my favorite stunt that I’ve ever done is a drive-in/drive-out 360. It makes my brain so happy.
I want to continue to drive stunts (my dream gig would be driving in Music Videos for some of my favorite musicians and Drag Queens), further my EV driving education, and have HOT SHIFT be its own show through a media outlet.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you are interested in learning stick, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/tMhrBQjYdLv4QJHu5
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beepbeepbitch.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/stuntwithbet
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuntwithbet/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@stuntwithbet
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@stuntwithbet
Image Credits
Portraits by Ellenor Argyropoulos
