The Randy Meyer Racing Team earned their 36th NHRA national event and 80th NHRA victory in the Top Alcohol Dragster category this past weekend at Houston Raceway’s SpringNationals with Rachel Meyer. Rachel’s father, Randy, has won this race three times and is the only driver to win the event three consecutive years in a row from 2013-2015, her sister Megan won it once in 2019. This event is ranked third in the team’s most successful events: following the GatorNationals and the NGK Spark PLugs/NTK Sensors Nationals in Charlotte, NC, where the team has collectively won 6 national events since the early 2000s at each one.
With only one chance to qualify due to heavy rainfall all weekend, Rachel qualified No. 3 with a 5.238-second pass at 271.68 mph and Julie qualified No. 5 with a 5.256, 277.03 in the OTG/Right Trailers dragster. Heading into raceday in her first round matchup, Rachel had an impressive .019-second reaction time over competitor Jackie Fricke and drove her NTK Sensors dragster all the way down the boulevard for the win with a 5.195, 280.49 to Fricke’s 5.268, 278.17. Unfortunately, Julie was shut off after her burnout when a fuel line came loose; her competitor James Stevens received the bye to the next round. The team is gutted about this failure and is eager to regroup and come back fighting.
For the first time in eliminations, Rachel staged up against Matthew Cummings in the second round. Cummings got a slight starting line advantage over Rachel, but she chased him down and turned on the win light with a 5.200, 280.95 to his 5.218, 272.61.
In the semifinals, Rachel staged up against Jasmine Salinas; this was the second time the two raced each other in eliminations. Rachel had almost .020-seconds advantage over Salinas at the starting line and practically set the scoreboards on fire with a 5.143, 282.01 – this run was low elapsed time of the event and would also give her lane choice over Shawn Cowie in the final round of the SpringNationals.
Coming into the finals, Rachel was 0 – 1 against Cowie in prior events and the Randy Meyer Racing team was extremely motivated to even the score at Houston Raceway. It was an impressive 5.150, 279.32 at the top end that lit up the scoreboard and the win light in Rachel’s lane over Cowie’s troubled 5.632, 270.21. The mission was accomplished and the team took home their 36th NHRA national event Wally.
Her SpringNationals victory is Rachel’s third national event victory, with all three coming in the 2021 season, and puts her second in the national points standings. Julie Nataas is right behind her in third place. Watch the entire event on Fox Sports 2 Thursday, June 3rd at 9/8c and Friday, June 4th on FS1.
The next outing for the Randy Meyer Racing Team will be the Summit Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, OH June 25-27th.
