Randy Meyer Racing’s driver Julie Nataas raced her way to another final round appearance last weekend at the 33rd annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil after defeating Spencer Massey and Jackie Fricke.
Megan Meyer made an appearance during the first qualifying session Friday evening to secure a spot in the field before leaving the track to fly home for her wedding.
Coming into raceday, Nataas qualified No. 7 in her injected-nitro dragster and had a first round matchup against Spencer Massey. Massey had a slight starting line advantage over Nataas at the launch, but she caught Massey at the 330-foot mark and continued on for the win. Nataas clocked in with a 5.264, 278.75 to Massey’s 5.40,6 268.44.
Second round, Nataas staged up against Jackie Fricke. Before this round, Nataas was 2 – 0 against Fricke in prior events. Nataas and Fricke left together on the tree but Nataas crossed the finish line first with a stout 5.227, 275.73 to Fricke’s 5.317, 277.09 in a two-for-one round win as Julie would go on to have a competition bye in the semifinal round.
In the semifinals, Julie’s team chose to show the competition that they weren’t to be taken lightly when she remained consistent to her pass the round before with a 5.224, 278.35. For the final round, Julie had her best reaction time of eliminations against heavy hitter Shawn Cowie. At the top end, she ran a 5.259 274.16 but was narrowly edged out by Cowie’s 5.207, 276.13. Catch the NHRA SpringNationals on FS2 November 12, 8/7c PM.
The Randy Meyer Racing team is heading into the final race of the 2020 season this weekend for the Dodge NHRA Finals presented by Pennzoil with the girls in second and third in standings. Both Megan and Julie have the chance to win the World Championship if they can get around Shawn Cowie. The NHRA Finals will also be Megan’s last race of her Top Alcohol Dragster career as she announced her retirement earlier this year.
