It's Amann's world: City native making waves in world of luxury cars By JAKE LINGER Staff Writer
"When I first moved to Los Angeles three years ago I was very homesick," said Amanda Amann, a Bowie native who left the cozy confines of the East Coast to chase her dream of becoming a star.
Amann has been rather successful in her chase. During the 2007 NHRA season, she hosted "Stylefest" and the NHRA Xplod Compact Racing Series on ESPN2. This summer, she will be seen hosting "Automotive Rhythms" on BETJ, formerly the Black Entertainment Television-Jazz channel.
"Automotive Rhythms" is a half-hour weekly show dedicated to the finer automobiles in life, something that Amann has a heartfelt affection for. Her love for cars and racing is a derivative of the dominating male presence in her youth - a father and two brothers - who loved cars and anything that moved fast.
Fast-moving objects did not necessarily have to be powered by piston-driven horsepower either. Amann remembered having fun as a child attending horse races at Bowie Racetrack with her father. "There's that whole tomboyish side of me," said Amann, though she admitted that the racetrack was not necessarily the "most ideal place for a little girl."
The new show on BETJ will focus on exotic cars, "all the cars you would like to drive and own," according to Amann. Some of the cars she will check out are the Mazzeroti Gran Turismo and the Mercedes SL65. The entire first season of the show has been completed and four of those shows were filmed in the D.C. area as well as California.
Keep tuned to BETJ for the debut of "Automotive Rhythms."
Amann, who attended Cresthill Baptist and St. Pius X, said she still gets nostalgic about visiting the city where she grew up. "Ultimately, there's nothing like home," she said, noting how different Bowie seems each time she visits. "It's a great place to grow up and raise children."
Just from what people living on the East Coast know from watching television, L.A. and Bowie could not be any more different.
The City of Angels is - well - Hollywood. There are famous actors and musicians and hotel heiresses walking the streets in total glamour and posh uniqueness.
Bowie has a town center.
Los Angeles is home to the Lakers of the NBA and the storied baseball Dodgers, and sometimes the Raiders of the NFL.
Bowie has the Baysox.
"L.A. is a very surreal place, the weather is perfect every day," said Amann, who presented the Car of the Year award to the Chevy Malibu at the Urban Wheel Awards, which is produced annually by the Bowie-based On Wheels magazine. "Bowie still has that small community feel. L.A. is a huge metropolis with all types of people."
Indeed, life in Bowie is not quite as exciting as life in L.A. Amann told a story of what is seemingly an ordinary day on the left coast. During a lunch at her favorite cafe on Wilshire Boulevard, Amann noticed a familiar face at a neighboring table. It was none other than recording artist Babyface, who was dining with his kids.
Later that same day she was browsing through books at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Third Street Promenade when she "bumped into" Dustin Hoffman.
Amann is not just enjoying celebrity hobnobbing. Late in '07 she started the Amann Dance Program, a nonprofit organization that teaches inner city kids ballet. "It's just really rewarding," she said. Amann herself still studies dance at the Debbie Allen Studio in L.A., a far cry from her dancing days at Bowie Dance Center.
As a young African-American woman who has conquered the world of NHRA and is helping inner city youth to shed the stigma of being stuck on the streets, Amman said the feeling that she is helping someone is what helps drive her.
"People have told me that I've inspired them, even if it's not motor sports-related," said Amman, who is developing and writing a "dramedy" cable series. "I feed from that energy."
