When you hear the words "Western Swing" you might think of Willie Nelson tunes. That is, if you're a fan of professional drag racing - as many Magnolians are - you think of the three summer drag races that occur in the Western half of the United States, including the recent Shucks Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent.
Women have always enjoyed somewhat equal footing to men when it comes to driving a drag car. Some say it's because they tend to weigh less and one of the laws of physics is that its easier to get a lighter mass moving. Others argue that women have faster reactions to the starting signals.
The three NHRA Championships of Shirley "Don't call me Cha Cha" Muldowney prove that women can drive drag cars at the highest level.
I had a chance to talk to two of the more prominent women, Melanie Troxel (who drives Top Fuel) and Erica Enders (who drives a Pro Stock Dodge Stratus R/T), competing in this year's POWERade racing series. Both drive for the powerful Don Schumacher Racing team, although in different classes.
Troxel, 33, inherited from her parents both her work ethic and her love for the sport of drag racing. She spent her childhood learning from her dad, veteran drag racer Mike Troxel, and her mother, Barbara, an accomplished airplane mechanic.
"My mother worked mostly on my dad's plane," she told me, but she still had to be certified and have all her work inspected.
"My father ran an alcohol dragster in Competition Eliminator where he was the 1988 champion. He won more national events in a single season than anyone had done previously."
Troxel ran her first drag race at age 16 - the earliest she was able to get her racing license - in a car with an engine she rebuilt herself as a high-school project. "I took the small block Chevy out of my mother's Corvette, rebuilt it, and then installed it in a Super Comp dragster that ran gasoline."
Troxel now lives in Avon, Ind., with husband and Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr.
Her professional career began driving a Top Alcohol dragster in 1997. She captured two NHRA national event victories in 1999 at Seattle and Topeka. Her first opportunity in a Top Fuel dragster came in 2000 with Don Schumacher Racing (DSR). After a brief stint in which she also drove Top Fuel for Don Prudhomme's team, she rejoined DSR in 2005.
For Troxel, 2006 is her first full season of Top Fuel competition driving the Skull Apparel/Knoll Gas - Torco Race Fuels dragster. And what a season it has been so far. She started off with a win at the prestigious Winternationals, followed that up with another win at the next race in Las Vegas and then led the championship points for the first half of the season.
She is the quickest (4.458 seconds) and the fastest (331.04 mph) female racer in NHRA history. She's won the ESPN Driver of the Year first quarter award - the first time in the 40-year history of the award that a woman has won the quarterly or year-end vote.
I asked Troxel what it was like when the starting lights blinked and she stood on the button to release 6,000 horsepower that accelerated her past six and a half Gs of force, harder than an aircraft carrier catapult. "I like roller coasters and this sure beat them. It's the ultimate thrill ride."
Troxel is currently second in points and in the middle of a serious chase for her first Top Fuel championship.
Another woman drag racer, Erica Enders, 22, had an even earlier start at drag racing than Troxel. Enders began drag racing at the age of 8 in 1992 driving a Jr. Dragster, a 10-foot long "car" powered by a closely regulated, single cylinder, lawn-mower-type engine. She was the Division 4 (Texas) champion in 1993 in the 8-9-year-old class and the 1995 Junior Dragster Driver of the Year. She has 37 wins in the Junior Dragster Division.
Like Troxel, she grew up with a family active in drag racing. "My father ran a number of cars in the Sportsmen classes and I pretty much grew up at the drag strip.
"Then, I saw an ad for the Junior Dragsters and I talked him into getting one. 'If you keep your grades up,' he said,' I don't see why not.'"
After a successful career in the Junior Dragsters, Enders attended the Frank Hawley Drag Racing school where she got a taste of driving a "real" car. Apparently she was paying careful attention because she was 2000 Sportsman Rookie of the Year when she advanced to her first national event final at the age of 16 in Houston, TX.
Enders had her life story made into a Disney movie: "Right On Track," in 2003.
In 2004, she became the 35th woman in NHRA history to earn a national event victory, winning a Super Gas national event in Houston.
In 2005, Enders became the first woman to compete in NHRA's Pro Stock division since 1993. Also in 2005, she became the first woman in NHRA history to qualify in the top-half of a Pro Stock field and then became the first woman to reach a final round in Pro Stock competition in the fall event at Route 66 Raceway.
In May 2006, Enders became the first female No. 1 Pro Stock qualifier.[[In-content Ad]]
