A sport for the masses

Drag racers are proud of the diversity of their sport

Comparing stock-car racing and drag racing is tricky. Both are about making automobiles go fast, but the respective worlds have far more differences than similarities.

"I've had people ask me, 'Are you going to move to NASCAR?' " Funny Car driver Ashley Force said. "To me that's like asking me if I want to go play football."

NASCAR is practically a made-for-television event. But many believe the biggest hurdle to explosive growth for the National Hot Rod Association is that its product, interesting in person, doesn't make for particularly good live television.

But one of the biggest differences has to do with who's driving.

One major hurdle NASCAR can't seem to clear -- finding a more diverse roster of competitors -- is an obstacle drag racing has put a six-lane bridge across.

In 2006, J.R. Todd became the first black driver to win in the NHRA's Top Fuel class. Force, a daughter of 14-time Funny Car champion John Force, became the first woman to win in Funny Car this year. Shortly after Ashley Force's win, Melanie Troxel won in a Funny Car at Bristol to become the first woman to win in Top Fuel and Funny Car.

Antron Brown and Hillary Will will compete for this year's Top Fuel championship in the Countdown to One that begins today with the Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway @ Concord. Ashley Force is in the Funny Car countdown as well.

The NHRA division that has opened the door widest for diversity is Pro Stock Motorcycles.

Brown laid the foundation for his career in the sport there, and it's also where Angelle Sampey built a winning legacy that links her directly to one of the greatest names in motorsports history, Shirley Muldowney.

"I don't think anybody looks at me as a 'girl racer' any more," said Sampey, who in 12 NHRA seasons has 41 national event victories and three championships. Muldowney, who won Top Fuel titles in 1977, 1980 and 1982, is the only other woman with three titles. Muldowney won 18 races.

"Everybody is used to me being here now," Sampey said. "When I put my helmet on, I am just another racer. It took a long time to get that, but I finally did."

The Pro Stock Motorcycle pit area often is one of the most crowded areas in the open garage.

"We have a lot of young fans," Sampey said. "There's a growing community of motorcycle riders. ... There's a rider of every style, and the motorcycle class is growing every year because of that."

Brown thinks that has a lot to do with why drag racing, in general, has proved to be more accessible to women and people of color than NASCAR.

"NASCAR is a great sport, but it demands a lot of money," Brown said. "In drag racing, you can get in your mom's grocery-getter and go out there and race all weekend. You can race on a scooter or on a sport bike and have a blast doing it. That's the difference. Kids can relate to it, it's just like a foot race from one street corner to the next."

Brown grew up going to drag races with his father and uncle in New Jersey. Now he looks across the ropes that surround his David Powers-owned Top Fuel car and sees himself in some of the faces -- young and old, black and white -- that look back.

"I see it every day I am at the track," he said. "I see the heart and the desire, I see the determination and will on their faces. I think that makes a difference, too. They can come here and see us, touch us and slap us on the back. You can get up close and see how exciting all this is."

Another factor, Troxel says, is in the nature of the competition.

"On an oval, if people didn't want you involved, it was a lot easier for them to take you out," she said. "You can't do that in drag racing. You're in your lane."

Troxel, though, says Muldowney's success helped move things along more quickly.

"Shirley won three championships before any man had won three in Top Fuel," Troxel said. "... She was a strong; forceful woman who just said, 'Get used to it.'

"That carried us through so many years of what it might otherwise have taken."