Photos by Extreme Photography
Earning a runner-up finish at the 2021 Nitro on the Bayou Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event, Rachel Meyer took the Randy Meyer Racing Team to their fifth consecutive final round appearance. The team has won this event the past two years and was looking to get their third Wally in a row, fourth total, but came up short in the finals with a too-hot tune up.
“It was a great weekend for the team,” Rachel said. “We had a pretty decent running car all weekend, and everyone on the crew was working great together; we didn’t miss a beat in the off-season. As always, the fans there were great and so excited to see us out there again. I even had a few of the fans help me pack the parachutes each pass. During rounds we kept dropping a cylinder about 100-feet out and found out it was a cracked valve. Overall, that was the only thing we hurt last weekend. I would say it was a great start to the season and I am very excited to go to my next race in Gainesville for the first NHRA national event of the year.”
Running a stout 5.30 ET at 268 mph in the opening round of qualifying positioned Rachel in the number two spot in the NTK Sensors dragster, pairing her up against Central Region Foe, Dean Dubbin. Rachel had a great reaction time of .020 out of the gate, while Dean jumped too soon and disqualified with a red light start. Rachel clocked in at 5.43 ET to move onto second round with lane choice over James Stevens. Rachel ran a consistent 5.43 ET for the win to face Duane Shields in the final round. Duane inched his way ahead of Rachel at the start and kept the lead as Rachel had to do two quick pedal jobs to calm the car down and keep traction. Duane got the win running a 5.32 ET to Rachel’s 5.35 ET at 278 mph, the fastest pass of the event.
The Randy Meyer Racing Team will visit Gainesville Raceway this weekend for their second event of the year at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event known as the Baby Gators. This time it will be Julie Nataas behind the wheel of the OTG dragster. Visit our Facebook and Instagram pages for updates, and tune into NHRA.tv for live coverage of the race.