That's bra! Currently I am the only female racing in my series out West! I've been racing in the Camaro-Mustang Challenge about 7-8 years.
This was sort of a NASCAR type thing were cars were pretty close together on the first lap and boom boom boom. This is the dice you roll when you go racin'! You start out concerned that you will hit someone, there is also a good chance someone will hit you when everyone is playing right on the edge of control. All I can say is make sure you don't let the "red mist" get ya where you are overdriving the car out of aggression/frustration. That's what I was doing here, the car had a problem and I was really frustrated with it, tried to make it do things it was not going to do.
Body contact sucks, not being professionals we can't afford to keep taking our cars to the body shop. Fortunately a good friend has a body shop and fixed the car for me for cheap, you cannot tell by the way it looks or drives it was in a crash. Our series really punishes stupid types of contact, that is the way it should be.
Drive safe, and I look forward to hearing about you guys and your adventures, probably over on Digital Vettes eh?