The Randy Meyer Racing Team took home the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series win at this weekend’s Central Regional event held at their home track of Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas. This was the team’s 6th time winning the event, previously with Megan Meyer in 2019 and 2017, Rachel Meyer in 2018, Randy Meyer in 2004 and Alan Bradshaw in 2003.
For the 2021 event, it was Rachel Meyer representing the team and family behind the wheel of her NTK Sensors Top Alcohol Dragster. She flew past the competition in qualifying landing in the top spot with a stout 5.20 ET at 278 mph, but not without having some complications between sessions, “We hurt a crank after the third qualifying session, but luckily my crew found it Saturday morning before it caused any major damage to the block and we had just enough time to swap motors before first round,” Rachel said.
With a brand new motor in the frame, the team was able to maintain consistency and ran another 5.20 ET at 273 mph to take down Dean Dubbin in the first round of eliminations. They slowed to a 5.30 ET at 274 mph in the second round against James Stevens, but got the round win to move onto the finals against Jared Dreher.
Rachel got off the starting line first with a .018 reaction time and never trailed for the win running a 5.25 ET at 271 mph to Dreher’s 5.38 ET. This is Rachel’s second time facing Dreher in the final round at Topeka and her second time being the victor.
“I was very impressed with how well the car ran in the heat,” said Rachel. “I’m thankful for my awesome crew and family for all of their hard work to win again at our home track and collect more points for the championship. I especially wanted to win the race because it was my uncle Joe’s memorial race.”
This year the Randy Meyer Racing Team and Meyer families were racing in memory of Randy’s oldest brother, Joe Meyer, who passed away earlier this year and was a well-respected member of the sport, leaving behind his wife, three kids, and four grandkids.
With help from Moroso, SB Custom Fab & Welding, and Everlasting Sign the Meyer families provided unique trophies for the winners of each class and each event. Winners who doubled-up in both divisional races got a bonus of $500 as well as both trophies.
“We want to preserve the memory of Joe and the impact he had on drag racing in the Kansas City area over the past 4 decades,” said Randy Meyer.
August 6-8 is the next weekend for the team, which will be a double-race weekend as Rachel will be competing in Great Bend, Kansas for the next Central Region event, while Julie Nataas will be competing in Indianapolis, Indiana for the North Central Region event. This will be the first time that the team will split up to run two separate events at the same time.
