ANGELA CHRISTINE COPE-RUCH - 08/18/1983
(home - Puyallup, WA)
She is the niece of Derrike Cope and the sister of Amber Cope. Angela and Amber Cope became the third generation of Copes to enter into the world of racing. They started racing go-karts in the Greater Puget Sound area after their parents gave them a go-kart for Christmas at age 9. In their seven years of driving go-karts in the Pacific Northwest, Angela and her sister earned 50 wins combined. At age 15, both Angela and Amber progressed to racing late models. In 2000, they were featured on The Today Show with host Bryant Gumbel during their career in late models. As Angela and Amber became more experienced behind the wheel, they knew that in order to advance their careers and have the chance at driving in NASCAR, they would have to leave Washington, so they moved across the country to the Charlotte metropolitan area, where most of the race teams are located. Putting their focus into learning the in and outs of professional racing, the twins traveled with their uncle Derrike to every Cup race that he was competing in. In 2006, the twins split seat time in the ARCA Re/Max Series at Berlin, Gateway, Chicagoland, Milwaukee and Toledo. After not making any ARCA starts in 2007, Angela
returned for one race in the series in 2008 at Kentucky Speedway. Amber was also in this race, qualifying 15th and finishing 38th in the #70 car for her uncle's team. In 2011, Angela competed in four Xfinity Series races; with a best finish of 25th. In 2012, she was announced to share the #24 SR2 Motorsports Toyota in the series with her twin sister on a part-time schedule. Five years later, she made her return to NASCAR's Xfinity Series at Kentucky Speedway, now going by Angela Ruch after getting married during her time without a ride. She made three starts, and could only manage a best finish of 29th in those races. In 2019, Ruch returned to the Truck Series with NEMCO Motorsports. She finished a NASCAR career-best 8th at Daytona, her first lead lap finish and the
First Truck series start - 2010 Martinsville
First Xfinity Series start - Iowa 2011
second-highest ever for a female in the Truck Series. She also finished 16th on two occasions; those coming at Las Vegas and Kansas. It was announced on January 29, 2020 that Ruch would run a full-time Truck schedule in 2020, driving the #00 for Reaume Brothers Racing with an alliance with Niece Motorsports, who she also drove for in 2019. After running the first five races, Ruch missed the Pocono Raceway event due to sponsorship issues and was replaced by team owner Josh Reaume. All of her finishes that year were in the low 20's; and that wasn't bad for a weaker underfunded team. She did not race in 2021, and it is not known if she is searching for a future ride. Some info from Wikipedia
Cope twins - Angela and Amber
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