After a six month wait due to COVID-19, Randy Meyer Racing drivers Megan Meyer and Julie Nataas competed at the 51st annual AMALIE OIL Motor Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.
Going into first round, Megan Meyer led the Randy Meyer team with a No. 4 qualifying position with a 5.257 in her NGK Spark Plugs Top Alcohol Dragster and Nataas wasn’t far behind in the No. 6 spot with a 5.276.
In her first round matchup, Megan had a .010-second starting line advantage over competitor Mick Stelle and drove that all the way to the finish line victory with a 5.674, 253.52 as Steele went up in smoke right at the launch.
For Julie, she showed her exceptional driving abilities against Joey Severance as she had over .040-seconds advantage over Severance on the tree. Julie clocked in with a stout 5.314, 273.05 and inked a holeshot win against Severance’s 5.298, 272.45. Nataas had been 1-3 against Severance in previous events.
Second round, Julie once again got the starting line advantage over her competitor Duane Shield. She made the best of her jump on Shields at the tree and never looked back; Nataas clocked in with a 5.304, 274.44 to defeat Shields’ 5.343, 276.35.
In Megan’s second round matchup, she mirrored her teammate Nataas with a starting line advantage over her competitor Josh Hart. Meyer struggled through the shake zone and had to quickly let off the throttle to calm the car down, and crossed the finish line at Gainesville Raceway with a solid 5.295, 280.84 but Hart had to lay down his fastest run of the event 5.212, 278.81 in order to defeat her and advance to the next round.
In the semifinals, Julie had a competition single. With Randy Meyer wanting to show his competition exactly what to expect from them in the final round, he tuned Julie to a 5.234, 271.79; this run would give Julie lane choice over Josh Hart in the final round by .023-seconds.
The final round was unable to run due to massive rainfall; both Nataas and Hart were in the lanes ready to compete when Mother Nature stepped in. The final round will be completed at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex October 14-18th, 2020.
