July 3, 2025
From Music Studio to Dragstrip: Nancy Matter's Remarkable Journey
Send us a text Nancy Matter's resilience burns brighter than nitromethane in this powerful conversation about perseverance, passion, and breaking barriers in motorsports. From her childhood days at San Fernando Raceway to becoming the first female owner-driver of a Top Fuel Funny Car in this century, Nancy's journey exemplifies the never-quit attitude that defines championship racers. What makes Nancy's story exceptional isn't just her accomplishments on the track, but how she's navigated li...
Nancy Matter's resilience burns brighter than nitromethane in this powerful conversation about perseverance, passion, and breaking barriers in motorsports. From her childhood days at San Fernando Raceway to becoming the first female owner-driver of a Top Fuel Funny Car in this century, Nancy's journey exemplifies the never-quit attitude that defines championship racers.
What makes Nancy's story exceptional isn't just her accomplishments on the track, but how she's navigated life's most challenging turns. At just 13, she was taken under wing by the legendary Gasparelli family, helping on their funny car despite her youth. Though marriage and motherhood temporarily pulled her from racing, Nancy channeled her creativity into a music career that yielded 70 gold and platinum records. But the call of nitro never faded.
After returning to the sport following a 21-year hiatus, Nancy methodically climbed the racing ladder – from Super Comp to alcohol funny car to nostalgia funny car, setting records and becoming nearly unbeatable in first-round eliminations. Just as she acquired a Top Fuel funny car in 2022, life threw its cruelest curve. A devastating personal and professional crisis nearly destroyed everything she'd built, forcing her to put racing aside while focusing on survival.
Lesser souls might have surrendered, but Nancy refused to give up. Slowly, methodically, she rebuilt both her life and her race car, replacing virtually everything except the middle chassis section. Throughout these dark years, select sponsors remained loyal despite her inability to represent them on track – a testament to the respect she's earned throughout the industry.
Today, Nancy stands ready to make history, proudly partnered with the American Valor Foundation honoring Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. Rather than seeing herself as a "woman of power," Nancy identifies as an "empowered woman" serving as a beacon of inspiration regardless of gender. Her message resonates beyond motorsports: "Anybody that thinks they can't, I'm here to tell you right now you can."
Ready to witness motorsports history? Follow Nancy Matter Racing on social media as she prepares to unleash this beautiful red beast on the quarter-mile. Her comeback story might just inspire your own.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/womensmotorsportsnetworki/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/womensmotorsportsnetwork/
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindarussell/
TIKTOK: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindarussell/
X: https://x.com/IWMANation
FACEBOOK Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/melinda.ann.russell
00:00 - Welcome to Women's Motorsports Network
01:47 - Nancy's Early Racing Origin Story
06:13 - From Music Career to Drag Racing
12:18 - Building a Nostalgia Funny Car
16:16 - Overcoming Life's Major Hiccups
21:45 - Making Racing History as Female Owner-Driver
26:10 - American Valor Foundation Partnership
30:25 - Being an Empowered Woman in Motorsports
WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, the show that puts the spotlight on the incredible women who fuel the world of motorsports, from drivers to crew members, engineers to fans and everyone in between.
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We're here to celebrate the trailblazers, dreamers and doers shaping the sport we love.
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Each episode we share inspiring stories of females of all ages, from every corner of the motorsports universe, past, present and future.
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It's a journey through the seasons of life filled with heartfelt moments, laughter and a whole lot of horsepower.
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So, whether you're a lifelong fan, a racer yourself or simply curious about the extraordinary women behind the wheel, settle in, relax and enjoy a fun and uplifting ride with us.
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This is the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, connecting and celebrating women in motorsports, one story at a time.
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Let's hit the track.
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Promoting a track takes heart, and now showing appreciation can be just as easy with send out cards.
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You can thank sponsors, volunteers, drivers and fans with personalized digital cards sent right from your phone or laptop.
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Add a photo, write a message and hit send.
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It's that simple Unlimited sends for just $10 a month.
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Go to sendoutcardscom forward slash 53240.
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That's sendoutcardscom forward slash 53240.
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Because gratitude builds great tracks.
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Because gratitude builds great tracks.
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Hello everyone, this is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, and today my guest is Nancy Matter.
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Nancy, I want to welcome you to the show, and would you first start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
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Hi everyone, and thank you so much, mel Melinda, for inviting me on here to share my story.
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I really appreciate it.
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I, my name is Nancy matter, employed at this point, and I have two children, ryan and Jamie, and then a granddaughter named Veronica.
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And a drag race.
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And you drag race and you drag race, that's for sure.
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And where do you live, Nancy?
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Oh, I forgot about that part A suburb just north of Dallas, texas.
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I am via from Los Angeles, so I am not a native Texan, and the possibility of moving up to Indy is very high and likely in the very near future.
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Gosh, what else did you want to know on that?
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Did you have?
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Do you have, any pets?
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I do.
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I have two feral cats one named Evil Cat Nevil because he's evil, and then Enderly because he's evil, and then enderly who I saved from being eaten by hawks.
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Uh, uh, cat cat.
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Who's my indoor main coon, and then, uh, pitbull.
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Okay, what the equation and his name is.
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What a collection.
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Yeah, for sure so and the evil cat needle and the Pitbull are best friends.
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Sorry, oh my gosh.
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Well, go figure, yeah Right, Right.
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When I was a little girl and we won't go too far back into some of that story because I learned about it on the day I got married my first recollection of going to the races was the San Fernando raceway in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.
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My mother was with I don't know her third or fourth, fifth husband I'm not sure which it was and he raced Okay, and so I remember going there with them.
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Bracket racing, basically, is what they were doing.
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As things transpired they built a little bit faster of a bracket car and the bracket car did quite well.
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We went to Lyons, orange County, ontario Motor Speedway at the time Santa Maria, all the local tracks that were out there, irwindale, and from there they decided he decided he wanted to do an NHRA super stock car.
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So they built that car and in the interim my mother became Wally Park's secretary at the NHRA corporate office and so I worked at the corporate office when I was a teenager for a couple of years, during the summer, when I was out of school, but every weekend we were at the races literally.
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And when I was 13, I met a family with a very, very well-known name in drag racing by the name of Gasparelli, and Lou and Vicki kind of just took me under their wing and I was very young, I was already in high school at the age of 13.
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So I was very far advanced intellectually and they figured out that the reason why I talked so much was because I was bored.
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So they escalated me through classes and I kept up with everybody.
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Then I started helping Louie and Vicki on a funny car from that point on.
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And I couldn't drive, obviously, to the races, so they would actually send a crew guy up to pick me up't drive, obviously to the races.
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So they would actually send a crew guy up, pick me up and take me to the races with them.
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And I sat in the car to go to the pits, pits from the pit to the staging lanes, and then to load up into the trailer.
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I would be the person driving it up in there.
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Because I was tall and lanky, I could crawl out of the the hatch, so we did that until I was oh, and I did out of the hatch, so we did that until I was oh, and I did the shoots and the fuel, so I did that until I was 19.
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And the reason why I stepped away is because my ex-husband and I didn't see eye to eye.
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I loved racing, he didn't, and so I wanted to be the good wife at that point, because I got married at 18, just right after I turned 18.
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And so then I quit doing racing and I had a very lucrative music career and I had two children.
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So I mean, I owned my.
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I owned my first house in LA when I was 20 years old.
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Wow, wow.
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Yeah, you know.
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So you know, as time goes by and you're doing things, and I was in bands and I played and, you know, did all this stuff.
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And him and I together were in bands.
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He was the lead singer and, believe it or not, I was the drummer and did backgrounds.
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And you know, I worked a day job, accounting and stuff like that.
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I know it's crazy life and things just kept transpiring and doing things.
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Things just kept transpiring and doing things.
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And I finally decided when I was in my 20s that I didn't want to work in a day job for the rest of my life the way that I was doing, because I was doing accounting, ok.
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So.
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So from that point I decided to throw myself into engineering school, where in music engineering school, and I did very, very well there and I landed my first job in a CD cassette manufacturing company, working in their mastering studio.
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So that led me to ultimately, after years and years and years and years and years of perfecting my craft, and end up my own studio after a 10 year, a decade long tenure with a major record label.
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Okay, so from there it was getting.
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My marriage was already starting to fail at that point, cause he didn't like the fact that I was becoming so independent and still being able to handle the homestead, basically, um.
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So we ended up.
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We ultimately got a divorce, um, and he he's doing well, he's a good guy, you know, he's um.
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It just we weren't good together, Um, and about three or four months after our divorce Now, mind you, this is 20 years later, okay, so there's a big time span here I took my kids at the ages of 10 and 12, raised them up all the way through.
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We're still, you know, we still talk every day.
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In fact, my son called me just before before you.
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You know, I joined in on the on the podcast, and I went to the races at the Northwest nationals in Seattle for the first time in 21 years and I've never left.
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So from there I went with Gary Berg, who's a very well-known modified production eliminator, volkswagen guy, with the Bird family.
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I mean, they're like world renowned, which you know.
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How do you know all that?
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When you're a kid you don't know, you know, and Gary and I are still very, very good friends.
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But that rekindled our friendship.
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And, uh, I kept getting told why don't you drive again, why don't you drive?
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And he wouldn't do it and I'm like I'm not living vicariously through anybody.
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I went to the Frank Holly school of drag racing in Pomona.
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Uh, I hopped in.
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Jack Beckman was was the teacher.
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I hopped into a dragster and I finally told Jack this about six or seven years ago.
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Uh, the first time I launched the dragster I let go of the steering wheel, okay, and I went oh, and I said a couple of choice words and I went oh, and I grabbed the wheel again.
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Well, I never told anybody that.
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I was like oh, oh, my gosh, you gotta be kidding me, but I got my license that day.
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You know, cause you just mind over matter.
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You know, you just kind of go okay.
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Um, yeah, you needed that adrenaline shot and you know this was a great experience and it's safe, you know, and everything.
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So at that point I realized that driving my Lexus on the freeways in Los Angeles, speeding, was not a good idea.
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Um, so it was a very good growth spurt to no longer speed on the freeways.
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So I ended up buying a Super Comp car.
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And now, mind you, I have my own recording studio at this point and I'm buying a home, and I bought a Super Comp car with the trailer, some of the tools, you know this and that, and started mingling in the Division 7 Super Comp ranks.
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But every race we went to I ended up in the division seven super comp ranks and I, and, but every time, every race we went to, I ended up in the alcohol funny car pits.
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And I got to the point where the NHRA guys knew what I was doing and so they would pit me as close as possible to the alcohol pits Cause they knew I was going to be working on an alcohol car in between, you know, the batteries getting charged on the super comp car.
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So I kind of had it down to a T.
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Well, after about a year and a half it was.
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I knew I was going to drive a funny car.
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Uh, the dragsters were just not for me.
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You know, it was like every time I'd get in a funny car and they do a warmup, I'd be like I was in it, I was ready because it reminded me so much of being in Louie's car, so much.
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Um, the dragster, I always like, kind of, you know, ran out of breath, hyperventilated a little bit, you know, like, and then it's so opposite because the funny car is enclosed, but I was just like I, I'm going to drive a funny car.
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And uh, before I made the investment, I went to the Frank Colley school again and this time Frank was the instructor.
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And the first time I launched the car I'm like what, what's wrong with this car?
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You know, I don't, I don't get it.
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And we get back in the class and Frank says, uh, what do you think your 60 foot was?
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I said one, 23,.
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You know one, one, one, 1.23 seconds for viewers that don't know, you know what I'm speaking about.
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And he goes, did you look at your time slip?
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I said no, he goes.
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How do you know that?
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I said, cause it's as slow as my super comp car.
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And he kind of looked at me and he goes, okay.
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And my next one was a one, oh, one 60 foot, one, one seconds, one almost a one flat.
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I'm like, all right, now we got something, you know.
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So, anyway, you know we kind of moved forward.
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I knew at that point I was going to get a funny car.
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So I worked very, very diligent, parked the super comp car, worked really diligently in the music studio, where the my music industry career was more interested in my drag racing, of what I was doing, and the drag racers were more interested in the music and so it was a good yin and yang.
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That kind of came together where I could do a light switch and move from one industry to the other, you know.
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And then my son was of age.
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At that point I didn't drive when my children, you know obviously, were younger.
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I stayed, you know, with them and the crazy end of the music industry, of how, the thick of the deafness of the music industry that I was, and and so my son actually was to the point where he was driving my truck and trailer to the races, where I could work in the music studio and then I could fly into the race, do the race and fly home and go back to work in the studio and then he would go to another race.
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You know he would drive it either home or go to another race.
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So it really worked out good in that aspect.
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But once it was time for me to buy the funny car, we took a trip out to Colorado and we picked up my funny car and we get it home and I got a lot of spare parts.
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I mean just an amazing array of spare parts.
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And you know all this and the gentleman at the time that was kind of pointing me in the right direction.
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He goes now I need you to give me an inventory of everything you have.
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He goes now I need you to give me an inventory of everything you have.
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Okay, now, mind you, I'd been in a music industry for so long.
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I had a big block Chevy 454, you know in in the super comp dragster that could run eight nineties.
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It ran, really ran about eight sixties, but it was, I said.
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I said to him, just plain flat what do you want me to say?
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That I've got this thing, I'm a Bob, and that whatchamacallit, because I have no idea what I have.
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And he laughed and he goes.
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That's the most honest statement I have ever heard out of a driver's mouth.
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You know, and I was like, ok, you know, so we went on from there and we can't I campaign the alcohol funny car for 14 years.
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I met Jeremy back, I already had my funny car.
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I had it way before I met him.
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Um, he actually I already had my license.
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Um, the first time he came to the track and started, you know kind of looking at everything and what was going on and, uh, campaign that car for 14 years.
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You know I had music sponsors that came on board with the car.
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I had the who in 2007 that we had an agreement arrangement, um, that I would do weekly concerts instead of having to wait 30 to 60 days.
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They were paying me weekly so that I could continue taking the alcohol car out on the road and with, you know, at that point Jeremy was driving the truck and trailer and, you know, doing all the maintenance and servicing so I could fly back and forth back in about 2017, 2016,.
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We were kind of like, well, we could buy, like all the Alan stuff and really did I freeze?
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Uh, we can buy all the Alan Johnson stuff and you know it was like 55 grand for one engine or we could buy this turnkey nostalgia funny car for close to the same price.
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And so we were like, you know, maybe it's time for a change, maybe it's time to step it up a little bit.
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So we, luckily, with my good, good, good, good friend Charlie, with a little bit of help, we went out to Virginia Beach and we picked up a nostalgia funny car.
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So with the nostalgia funny car, you know, we had somebody that came in and pointed us in the right direction, and he was, you know, he did, he's really really good at doing all of that and you know, we were very successful with and without him, probably more without him than we were with him.
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Um, mikey Cavallari stepped in and pointed us in the right direction.
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We got two track records that one of them still holds the still holds the fastest funny car elapsed time.
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The other one, we hold the actual track record for speed and for mile an hour, for ET and mile an hour.
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We have a plethora of wins.
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I mean, we got to a point where pretty much we couldn't be beat first round.
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It was a very unusual thing if we got beat first round, and that's very exciting when you're winning.
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Beat first round, you know, and that and that's very exciting when you're winning.
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I mean, of course it's exciting.
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It's better than having that lose light every, every round, every round, every round.
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But you just don't give up.
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You know, you set your mind to what your goals are.
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You don't give up.
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And we had an opportunity back in 20, late 2021 to potentially buy a top fuel funny car, um, so we picked it up in 2022.
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Um, and excuse me, I'm saying I'm a lot, I'm trying to do that.
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Then we had a life hiccup.
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Okay, so, everybody has ups and downs in their lives and we had a life hiccup that literally took us over two years to maneuver everything.
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We almost lost our business.
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We almost lost, you know, we moved four times in eight months and I had a 7,700 square foot shop with the diesel repair facility.
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So, when you have to relocate everything, and you've got, you know, tractor, trailer, a complete racing operation, you've got all the tools, you've got multiple trailers.
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You've got all the tools, you've got multiple trailers, you've got all the stuff that you've accumulated and worked hard for, and now you're going.
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What do I do?
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So you, you know, drag racing went on the back burner.
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Okay, um, we have since rebuilt the car, is it's very close to being done.
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We still have some things we have to do.
00:17:07.276 --> 00:17:10.588
You know, we've got our clutch program.
00:17:10.588 --> 00:17:14.178
Obviously has to be put together because it's very important in one of these cars.
00:17:14.178 --> 00:17:15.971
We need some fuel systems.
00:17:15.971 --> 00:17:17.785
We've got the majority of everything.
00:17:17.785 --> 00:17:19.752
It's just a matter of fine-tuning it.
00:17:19.752 --> 00:17:21.770
And we need plumbing.
00:17:21.770 --> 00:17:25.334
We've got, you know, pretty much everything else.
00:17:25.334 --> 00:17:29.608
We've been slowly but surely chunking away at all the things that this car needs.
00:17:29.608 --> 00:17:34.429
We did a funny car restoration is what we had to do and uh, and we're getting there.
00:17:34.548 --> 00:17:40.148
You know, and I'm really excited because we're so close to me being able to, like clay says, stomp on that loud pedal.
00:17:40.148 --> 00:17:41.671
You know, for me I'm going to pounce on it.
00:17:41.671 --> 00:17:44.734
You know, I've I've got this whole lion motif going right now.
00:17:44.734 --> 00:17:45.496
That's real fun.
00:17:45.496 --> 00:17:50.208
But I'm I'm so excited to just get back in the home.
00:17:50.208 --> 00:17:52.231
We did a large photo shoot yesterday.
00:17:52.231 --> 00:17:57.613
It wasn't a professional photo shoot, but I have a new marketing person that's helping me pulling things together.
00:17:58.496 --> 00:18:01.348
And we, you know, we're just it's, it's time, it's our time.
00:18:01.348 --> 00:18:02.631
Now.
00:18:02.631 --> 00:18:08.240
You know all the, all the crying, or you know crying, yeah, I can cry, I'm a girl.
00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.824
But but you know all the, all the crying, or you know crying?
00:18:10.824 --> 00:18:11.163
Yeah, I can cry.
00:18:11.163 --> 00:18:12.065
I'm a girl, um, but.
00:18:12.065 --> 00:18:22.412
But you know, it's like when you're going through something like that, you know your emotions just run so high and low and um, you know, to be at this point and to have this girl sitting behind me right now, with all new tanks, I mean pretty much everything's new on the car.
00:18:22.412 --> 00:18:32.549
The only thing that's not new is the middle part of the chassis.
00:18:32.549 --> 00:18:33.070
Everything else is new.
00:18:33.070 --> 00:18:34.275
You know, we've got a titanium shield, we've got a.
00:18:34.275 --> 00:18:35.398
You know we've got all new DSP safety padding.
00:18:35.398 --> 00:18:36.060
We've got all new, brand new.
00:18:36.060 --> 00:18:38.586
Thank God for Murph McKinney and McKinney Corporation.
00:18:38.586 --> 00:18:41.130
They have just been a godsend for us.
00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:44.173
This car, basically, is a McKinney car at this point.
00:18:44.173 --> 00:18:49.499
And you know, we've got different blocks, we've got different, different manifolds, we've got different.
00:18:49.499 --> 00:18:50.961
Everything is different.
00:18:50.961 --> 00:18:52.667
And we put the body on the car.
00:18:52.667 --> 00:18:55.935
Just literally a couple of days ago, we put the body on the car.
00:18:55.935 --> 00:18:57.909
It's the first time the body's been on the car.
00:18:57.909 --> 00:19:03.190
With all of these new parts, with the new steering, with I mean everything, everything.
00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:06.377
And you know, and that takes time, that takes, that takes money.
00:19:06.377 --> 00:19:13.190
And you know, and that takes time, that takes, that takes money.
00:19:13.190 --> 00:19:14.776
And when you're self-employed and you've tanked your whole wellbeing and living.
00:19:14.776 --> 00:19:16.121
You have to really dig in deeper to say what is my priorities here?
00:19:16.121 --> 00:19:19.371
Well, our priorities was obviously to be making a living so that we can go back to drag racing.
00:19:19.371 --> 00:19:25.411
And, uh, two years and 11 months, the black cloud went away and here we are today and I'm so excited.
00:19:26.073 --> 00:19:30.107
Um, I would like to say a really big kudos to a few people.
00:19:30.107 --> 00:19:34.922
Um, red line oil stayed with us during that hiatus.
00:19:34.922 --> 00:19:37.288
Pack spring stayed with us during that hiatus.
00:19:37.288 --> 00:19:39.593
Autolite has stayed with us during that hiatus.
00:19:39.593 --> 00:19:41.967
Uh, bullet cams has stayed with us.
00:19:41.967 --> 00:19:43.614
Darton sleeves has stayed with us.
00:19:44.297 --> 00:19:47.403
I communicated to them everything that was going on and they could, and they could tell.
00:19:47.403 --> 00:20:01.612
They could tell the difference in my demeanor and my bubbly self wasn't so bubbly, it was very serious and I'm like, look, I have to tell you what's going on and it was a lot to not pull back the tears while you're telling these people.
00:20:01.612 --> 00:20:04.615
I know that you're sponsoring me, but I can't do anything for you right now.
00:20:04.615 --> 00:20:05.436
It's okay.
00:20:05.436 --> 00:20:07.519
I know that you're sponsoring me, but I can't do anything for you right now.
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:22.040
It's okay, we're going to stay with you and they have, and I'm so blessed and I'm so grateful and I hope to aspire to give them in tenfold all of their support back to them.
00:20:22.040 --> 00:20:24.594
I tag them in everything I do, all this stuff.
00:20:24.594 --> 00:20:30.497
We've also in the interim, we've picked up Star racer belts, um, you know, system system one, oil filtration.
00:20:30.497 --> 00:20:31.679
They pretty much stayed with us.
00:20:31.679 --> 00:20:34.972
So it's kind of, you know, it's, it's really exciting.
00:20:35.032 --> 00:20:40.890
And anybody that thinks that they can't, I'm here to tell you right now you can, you know, dig your feet in.
00:20:40.890 --> 00:20:43.172
You know, it doesn't matter what the obstacles is.
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