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| However, while on that ride, keep this in mind, “Imagine that,” Leah start again, “but you have to control this crazy machine, that pulling and pushing you back in the seat. I am absolutely in love with this sport and in Top Fuel.” |
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| What's interesting is her jump from Pro Mod and Nostalgia Funny Car to Top Fuel. That's like hopping from a late model or even Camping World Truck into a Formula 1 car. Probably worse. How did she manage the transition so far? “The biggest difficulty I'm having, and I'm just now realizing it and only after making 15 runs in a Top Fuel dragster, it is the speed.” |
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| The fastest car she would have run to this point would have gone between 250 and 260 MPH. In Top Fuel, she turned in a speed of 312 MPH. “As a driver, you learn to get acquainted with new vehicles and new procedures, but there is no substitution to getting acquainted with speed. So, jumping from Pro Mod at 250 MPH to this 320 MPH car is such a huge gap. It is such a huge gap, that just now I am getting caught up and realizing that I'm on the track at those speeds. It just takes time and you can't teach anybody that. We are testing and learning all the while competing and all the other teams have experience with over 70 passes down the track or more while we got to make 10 before Pomona. So, we give it everything we got and I give it everything I got, and I know everyone knows at home what it feels like when the pressure is on.” |
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| Most road racers will earn their license by going out and learning on many of the tracks they will compete in and many times in the car they will use. You can't really do that in a Top Fuel dragster. How do you get a license in one of these damn things? “Technically, on paper, you have to make 6 runs in order to acquire your license. Really, that's not that many, it is two short spurts, two medium passes to around half track, and then two full runs.” |
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| Wow, that doesn't look like you get much experience in the car before you even hit your first race, “It doesn't seem like much,” Leah adds, “but, in order to put yourself in that position, to be in a race car, whether you own it yourself or get into somebody else's car, you do still have to have some sort of NHRA Drag Racing experience and speed under your belt.” |
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| Despite the “getting out there in what you brung and run it” persona of drag racing, there is some sensibility in NHRA Drag Racing. “It may not say that, but it's kind of a given and known. It's like saying 'I'm going to run NASCAR and get my license', but you want to do a couple of oval track and road course races and gain your speed before you do because this is so dangerous, that you really have got to take yourself through the ranks in order to get the experience or even test for a full year, if you are lucky and fortunate enough to have that opportunity.” |
