Argomenti trattati
Heather Hershkowitz returned to the Lake Tahoe region after years on the international motorsport circuit, and in November 2026 she stepped into the position of Alpine Vehicles Manager at Palisades Tahoe. Raised in Incline Village, she grew up with summers on the lake and more than a hundred winter ski days, was a ski racer with Diamond Peak, and has deep family connections to the resort: her father began his career there as a lifty decades ago. Those roots helped shape her decision to bring a restless, travel-heavy career to a home base in the mountains.
Her path to this leadership job combined hands-on skills, travel, and systems thinking. Early on she learned to change her own brakes and found satisfaction in making things work. That curiosity led her to study at the Universal Technical Institute in Sacramento and to an apprenticeship at a Subaru dealership, where she refined mechanical fundamentals for six years. Over time her hobby of building rally cars became a profession that spanned continents and taught operations at scale.
How a mechanic found motorsport
Heather’s attraction to motorsport began with a rush of excitement at her first rally event in Nevada, where cars tore through desert stages at high speed. She describes that moment as definitive: the visceral thrill pushed her to enroll in formal training and to pursue roles in competition garages. In addition to the technical work of engine management and chassis setup, rally work demanded logistics, rapid troubleshooting, and the ability to adapt on the fly—skills she later applied to fleet maintenance. Early experiences mixed classroom learning with practical shop time, and the combination of vocational training and real-world racing shaped her approach to mechanical problem solving.
Career stops that mattered
Heather’s résumé includes a string of high-profile and formative positions: she worked with Subaru Rally Team USA in Burlington, Vermont, supported driver training and fleet upkeep at DirtFish in Snoqualmie, Washington, and joined the prominent drift group at Race City USA supporting Vaughn Gittin Jr. She later accepted a role with Hyundai, which took her to Germany and onto the global stage in the World Rally Championship. One standout assignment was the Dakar Rally, where she spent thirty days in the Saudi desert maintaining world-class race cars. Those assignments taught endurance repairs, inventory planning, and rapid team coordination.
Managing a mountain fleet
At Palisades Tahoe Heather now oversees roughly 150 vehicles—from cars and trucks to groomers, snowcats, and snowmobiles—supported by an eight-person mechanic team. Her day-to-day blends hands-on repairs with administrative oversight: delegating shop work, tracking inventory, reviewing fuel reports, managing budgets and expense claims, ensuring proper hazardous waste disposal, and ordering parts and diesel. The shop itself handles welding, custom part fabrication, winch recoveries, and even upholstery repairs; Heather has mentioned the plan to bring a sewing machine in-house so the team can mend seats and soft goods without outsourcing.
Translating rally lessons to resort operations
Many methods from Heather’s rally background translate directly to mountain fleet work: anticipating failures through preventive maintenance, coordinating logistics across teams, and juggling simultaneous priorities during peak periods. Motorsport had taught her to manage everything from catering and accommodations to spare parts and on-call repairs; those operational instincts now help when a vehicle breaks down on a run and the crew must execute a recovery mission and prioritize guest and team safety. Her role also involves working with external stakeholders such as highway patrol and environmental regulators to keep operations compliant and secure.
Perspective on being a woman in a male-dominated trade
Heather has navigated a field long dominated by men: she was often the only woman in training classes and she holds the distinction of being the first female mechanic hired by Subaru Rally Team USA in Burlington. Over the years she noticed practical touches change, like finally seeing women’s sizes in mechanic uniforms. She balances pride in her technical competence with a deliberate embrace of her personal style when off-duty—modeling stints and an active social presence under the handle @MissShift highlighted that contrast. Today she mentors scholars from the Jessi Combs Foundation, encouraging younger women to claim space in the shop and reminding them that visibility often signals recognition as a peer.
Settling back in Tahoe allowed Heather to align professional fulfillment with personal priorities after years of life on the road and the loss of her mother. She says the role satisfies her need for variety and problem solving while keeping her close to family and the mountains she calls home. At Palisades Tahoe the combination of a complex fleet, a compact team, and daily operational puzzles gives her the same adrenaline that once came from the rally stage—without the constant suitcase.