Courtesy of Inside Top Alcohol / Pictures by Randy Meyer Racing
With an exceptional number of round wins at the NHRA SpringNationals, the Randy Meyer Racing Team had high hopes going into the 2017 national event at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas. Driver Megan Meyer powered her way to a semi-final finish at the event in 2016 for her rookie debut, and finished in the same position this previous weekend.
Track conditions proved to be tricky for the Top Alcohol Dragster class as many struggled to make it down the track with a clean pass. The Meyers temporarily sat in the number 7th spot with a 5.40 E.T. at 271 mph after the first two sessions on Friday. However, the weather settings changed for the third and final session, and Megan’s A/Fuel dragster fired to the number 3 position with a 5.32 E.T. at 276 mph; the quickest and fastest time of the session.
Moving onto first round Saturday night against Rob McKinley, Megan took the round win with an outstanding 5.19 E.T. at 270 mph run that was quicker than expected. The team then improved on that with a 5.16 E.T. at 274 mph in the second round against Fred Hanssen – outrunning the 2016 National Champion, and current points leader, Joey Severance, who had previously ran a 5.18 E.T.
Although the team was happy with their results, they had some damage to the motor after running two runs in the 5-teens. The semi-final round paired Megan up against her close friend, Mia Tedesco, and both girls struggled to make it down the track. Megan and Mia had to pedal their dragsters twice to try to reach the finish line first, and Mia got a slight lead and took the win with a 6.78 E.T. to Megan’s 6.91 E.T.
“You know, it is always fun to race against your best friend,” Megan claimed. “Mia and I are now 1-1 in national competition and it’s exciting to see who will win next time. Mia has always been one of my toughest competitors and we tried our best to take her down, but it all comes down to seat time and Mia simply has more experience and more years of driving A/Fuel than I do. The fans really enjoyed watching us in a pedalfest and I know we both had fun on the track. I am bummed about losing, especially when the car just can’t hook up, but I have had a smile on my face since that round because it was just exciting to get to run my best friend and make a show out of it.”
“We had it hopped up too much on Sunday,” team owner and crew chief Randy Meyer said. “I knew we were going to be in trouble when I saw the track conditions before third round. This car is aggressive and it’s making a lot of power now, and it’s hard to slow it down as much as we wanted to. The track was great early on Sunday for second round, but went away during the semis.”
Megan was there on the starting line to cheer on Mia in the final round, however it was Joey Severance who took home the event win. In between rounds the team handed out Clevite hats in support of Mahle-Clevite’s partnership with Megan for the 2017 season. Megan posted pictures of fans with the hats on Instagram to enter them into a drawing for 4 reserved seating passes to the NHRA FallNationals in Dallas this October.
“Clevite’s coated bearings and piston rings have been one of the biggest contributors to our team’s success on the track. We have been able to run in the 5-teens at almost every race this year, and we have won three out of five races so far as a team. Although we had a great season last year, this season is already off to a better start and we are thrilled to carry on this momentum each and every round,” said Megan.
After this weekend’s results, Megan earned 53 national points and has moved up to the second position behind Joey Severance. She is now ahead of Shawn Cowie who finished second in the 2016 national series. Although Joey will not be participating at the next race in Charlotte for the 4-Wide Nationals, Shawn Cowie will be there to put up a good fight with Megan for the spot.
Catch all of the action from Baytown on Fox Sports 2, Thursday May 4th from 10-11pm ET. The 4-Wide Nationals will air the following week on Thursday May 11th from 8-9pm ET.
