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ROSS TWP. — More and more women are discovering the sport of drag racing might just be the competitive equalizer when it comes to competing on the track against men.
From the pioneering days of the National Hot Rod Association in 1964, when Barbara Hamilton became the first woman to receive a competition license to drive a supercharged car, drag racing continues to increase in popularity among females.
Three-time NHRA world champions Shirley Muldowney (in a top fuel dragster) and Angelle Sampey (pro bike) helped further that popularity in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Now pro stock driver Erica Enders, current pro bike points leader Karen Stoffer and top fuel funny car favorite Ashley Force Hood have helped grow the sport among women today.
While the NHRA lists 1,188 women competitors in all of its other racing divisions, another 1,170 female racers compete in the junior dragster category.
All in the Family
At a recent all-girls junior dragster event at Tri-State Dragway, longtime sportsman racer Donald Babb, of Xenia, was turning the wrenches to get a pair of junior dragsters ready for his daughters Shayla, 14, and Marissa, 11. Dad set aside his Super Pro drag racing career, at least for a little while, in order to help the girls on race weekends.
Babb first met his wife, Tara, at a drag strip. She used to race, her parents raced, her brother races, and the girls are now the third generation of Babb family racers.
“Drag racing depends more on the individual,” Donald Babb said. “It’s not the strength of the body, it’s all about how well they can handle the car and how well they concentrate on the starting lights.”
Last season, Shayla won the 13-17 age division season title at Kil-Kare Dragway. Marissa won the Jeg’s Ohio Junior Dragster track championship three years ago during her rookie year.
“When I first got into drag racing, it was because my mom was a racer,” said Tara Babb. Her mom, Louise Pickering, was the first female to race at Kil-Kare, in a turbocharged Ford Pinto, no less. “The cars are faster than when I raced, but they’re safer now, too. I honestly think the girls are safer in a junior dragster than they are in a street car, and that’s because of all the safety measures they use in these cars.”
Steve is her co-pilot
Shandon, Ohio’s Tonya Engel discovered she liked beating the boys after a family vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. She’d just finished beating a field of men at a go-kart track, and liked it.
“These two big guys got out of their cars and I heard them say ‘Gawd, I just got beat by a chick,’ ” Engel laughed. “I kind of liked the sound of that.”
She told her husband, Steve, that she thought she could get used to out-racing the guys. Steve Engel, an accomplished NHRA Pro Modified drag racer on the national circuit, didn’t hesitate to buy his wife a drag racing car.
In 2008, Steve died of injuries suffered in a crash while competing in the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Tonya still competes in races at Edgewater Motorsports Park in Cleves and at Tri-State for the enjoyment of it, but most of all in honor of her late husband.
A decal paying tribute to Steve adorns Engel’s silver 1963 Chevy Corvette. On the hood’s air scoop a message reads “Steve is my co-pilot.”
“My son races, too. Steve would’ve wanted us to race,” she said.
Sons Steve Jr., 21, and Mike, 17, were on hand to help prep Engel’s ‘Vette for the day’s 32-car “Manhandler Showdown” all-women event.
Okeana Missile
Ronda Austing parked her trailer next to her friend, Engel, for the Tri-State event.
A longtime drag racer from Okeana, Austing teamed up with veteran racer Butch Brown after Brown had heart bypass surgery and retired from racing. Today, Brown tunes Austing’s dragster.
“My favorite part used to be doing the burnouts, but now I just want to keep going faster and faster,” said Austing, 51. “You see more and more females racing each year. I think they get the bug from their parents, and they start racing the junior dragsters and really like it. And it just goes from there.”
Brown says the days of women being a novelty in drag racing are fast coming to an end.
“It used to be that women would race in ‘Powder Puff’ races. They’d be all over the place and we’d all have a good laugh,” Brown said. “It’s not like that anymore. These women know their stuff behind the wheel.”
One fast nurse
Haley McQuinn has enjoyed drag racing for several years now.
McQuinn, 16, of Middletown first got the racing bug from her dad, Heath Quinn, who races drag bikes at Edgewater Raceway Park in Cleves.
McQuinn says she likes competing in her junior dragster on an equal playing field with the boys.
“No, there’s no kind of weight advantage or anything like that (between girls and boys),” McQuinn explained. “I mean racing a guy is the same as if I’m racing a girl. It’s a little more fun when you beat the boys though, because it still sucks for them getting beat by a girl.”
And while downtrodden boys might claim they were beaten by a girls’ quicker reaction times at the starting line, McQuinn says that’s all bunk.
“A person’s sex doesn’t have anything to do with how you react at the starting line. Some days I’ll have an off day, some days good. Guys are the same way. It’s pretty even,” she said.
And that’s exactly how Haley, and an ever expanding number of female drag racers want it.
Same sport. Even playing field.
McQuinn hopes to compete on a drag bike of her own some day. She’s studying nursing at Butler Tech, but says that won’t keep her from racing.
“I would never give it up. I would like to get to the pro level someday, but that’s so difficult,” McQuinn said. “Either way, I’ll never give up drag racing. I’ll always race.”
Disney Dragster
Erica Enders and her younger sister Courtney, both of Houston, Texas, were featured in a Disney movie about junior drag racing called “Right On Track” in 2003.
Today, Enders holds the national speed record in the NHRA’s Pro Stock division. She set the mark of 213.57 mph at the Gatornationals earlier this season in Gainesville, Fla.
Enders says she sees the number of women in drag racing rising every year.
“The times have changed a lot from back in the day, when Shirley Muldowney helped break barriers. It’s more acceptable to have a female in the male-dominated arena. A lot has changed since I started 19 years ago,” Enders said. “The NHRA told us that the movie single-handedly changed the demographic of Junior Dragster drivers ... I’m excited for all the girls who are plugging away at it.
“Girls can do anything guys can and even better.”
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