Going from stay-at-home mom to professional race car driver may not seem like an obvious career move to most people, but Leila Flores, 25, isn't really concerned with what other people think. She's got a dream, and she's already on her way to achieving it.

She has a sponsor, a 400-horsepower Honda Civic dragster, and she's getting some major publicity. She'll be featured on the Discovery Channel in a drag-racing program that airs Monday at 9 p.m.

The amateur racer knows that breaking into the professional circuit isn't easy. She's busy looking for additional sponsors to donate parts for her car and fund trips to races. Newly single, she cares for her 2-year-old son, Elijah -- a toddler with curly, black hair who calls the Honda "momma's race car" -- while looking for a job to support them.

The Hemet woman has heard her share of comments from men in races who don't think she belongs on the track. A guy once told her she should be home baking cookies, she said. It's not that she objects to baking, it's that her "place" happens to be in the seat of a race car, she says.

"I can't wait -- that's my dream," she said of racing professionally. Her enthusiasm is starting to pay off. Flores was chosen to compete in a 1/8-mile drag race sponsored by the Discovery Channel at the Irwindale race track.

The premise of the show is for Flores and another driver to spend 48 hours with three-person crews upgrading their cars and then racing each other. The program is also a mini-documentary which features interviews with close friends and family members, she said.

Flores found out about the show through an advertisement posted in an Internet chat room at Honda-tech.com. She was eventually chosen from a pool of about 20 applicants.

The show was filmed last fall, where video crews followed Flores around, taping her at home with Elijah, at the park and at Mt. San Jacinto College, where she was taking engine-rebuilding classes.

The Discovery Channel and various sponsors spent $16,000 on upgrades for her car, including a new turbo-charged engine featuring a dual overhead cam, Flores said. The improvements took the car from 220 to 400 horsepower. Other additions included racing slicks -- special bald tires -- and body panels. She didn't get to test out the car until the day of the race.

"It was the first time I had raced in such a powerful car," she said while standing in her garage, looking under the hood of the Honda.

She's already competed in as many as 20 amateur drag races, including bracket races, where drivers are staggered on the track according to how fast the vehicle is.

Flores' first memories of race cars date back 20 years, when she used to watch her father build hot rods at home.

"Throughout my whole life I've been into cars," she said. "I think it's in my blood."

Mike Laskey, Flores' friend and a professional import racer, describes Flores as a self-sufficient competitor who insists on learning the intricacies of the sport herself.

"She's really skilled at what she does. She's getting experience by getting out there and doing it herself," he said.

Import racing has become a trendy pastime for women, but some are out at the track with cars other people have built, Laskey said.

"It's one thing I really respect --- (Flores is) not in it for the trend," he said. "She's in it for the raw love of racing. She's not like the typical girl having her guy friend do the work so she can look good in a car."

Laskey doesn't doubt Flores' ability to break into the professional scene.

"She has the want, the skill (the personality) -- pretty much anything you could ever want (in order) to be the next powerhouse of import drag racing."

Information

Who: Leila Flores

What: Featured drag racing

When: 9 p.m. Monday

Where: Discovery Channel

Contact staff writer Kelly Brusch at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or kbrusch@californian.com.