A tough weekend in Norwalk for Megan Meyer, Top Alcohol Dragster rookie and driver of the Racer’s Evolved/Randy Meyer Racing A/Fuel Dragster. The young driver had her hands full at the 10th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, OH as she fought her way into the field after a tough start in qualifying.
Mechanical Issues in Qualifying
In the first two rounds of qualifying, Meyer’s Racer’s Evolved Dragster was up in smoke right at the hit, resulting in aborted runs, leaving her outside the field from the bottom of the ladder. To make matters worse, scary incidents plagued both runs. In the first qualifying session, the throttle stuck open on Megan’s dragster as the tires went up in smoke, doing extensive engine damage to her A/Fuel powertrain. The Randy Meyer Racing team had their hands full swapping engines to their spare back up engine between rounds to prepare for the second qualifying session. With the spare in place, Megan again went up in smoke on the hit, and narrowly avoided a down track incident when her competitor’s rear tire came apart.
Lots of unnecessary damage done in Q1 due to the throttle stuck open while smoking the tires. We put the spare in for Q2, only to smoke the tires again. Fortunately, I didn’t get hit by the exploding tire in the lane next to me. Today was not our day, but tomorrow will be a different story,” Meyer said after a disappointing Friday in qualifying.
This gave Megan only one shot on Saturday to break into the field and qualify for eliminations. In a last ditch effort, Meyer was able to catapult her Racer’s Evolved Dragster from the No. 21 spot all the way to the No. 4 position, running a 5.373 second E.T. at 270.75 mph.
It wasn’t the best, but we made it. A tire shaking 5.37 at 270 mph put us in the top half of the field. I was so nervous to qualify, I almost left before the tree activated,” said Meyer of her stressful qualifying experience in Norwalk.
Eliminations – Norwalk, OH
During the opening round of eliminations Saturday evening, Megan Meyer would face No. 12 qualified John Finke. She would take the early advantage at the tree and never looked back, running a 5.346 second, 271.52 mph pass, her fastest of the weekend, to defeat John Finke for the first round win.
This would place her into round two against the other Finke car driven by Jackie. This time, Jackie would avenge the first round loss, as a distracted Meyer left late with an uncharacteristic 0.238 reaction time, giving Finke the holeshot – a 5.406 second, 274.11 mph pass to Meyer’s losing 5.367 second, 270.59 mph performance.
Though the weekend wasn’t what they expected, she ends the weekend still No. 2 in the 2016 NHRA Lucas Oil Championship Point Standings, trailing the leader Joey Severance by less than 100 points.
Meyer also enjoyed another special race weekend FitCamp provided by Megan Meyer Racing partner, Trinity Performance Wear. They kicked off Sunday morning with a great workout session, offering fans and other racers a chance to train with Megan and Trinity Performance Wear, and even extending some special offers on clothing and accessories.
Undeterred, Megan Meyer and her Racer’s Evolved/Randy Meyer Racing team are already looking forward to their next events: in Chicago for the Route 66 NHRA Nationals July 7-10; the Jegs All Star event th Meyer and her father, Randy will be racing.
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