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NHRA A/Fuel rookie Megan Meyer made quite an entrance in her official rookie season debut at the 47^th Annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals.   The event earned her team the Best Appearing car award in Gainesville, as well as marking the first final for Megan Meyer in the Top Alcohol Dragster class.

With the persistent rain in Gainesville over the course of Thursday – Saturday, it certainly didn’t look good for Top Alcohol Dragster class – limited to two qualifying sessions.    In the first session, Megan lost traction and had to abort the run, coasting to an 11 second elapsed time and barely a spot on the 16 car ladder.    They waited through to the late evening for their second round attempt, where Meyers was able to shoot up the ladder with a career-best qualifying time of 5.224 at 276.75 mph.   She held the #1 position until she was bumped by Mia Tedesco to the No. 2 final qualifying spot entering Saturday eliminations – the first time two women held the top TAD qualifying spots since Brittany and Courtney Force qualified 1 and 2 in 2010.

This would place her against John Finke for the opening round of eliminations.   She takes the lead at the tree, running straight down the the groove with a career-best ET of 5.203 at 278.00 mph to Finke’s losing 5.611 at 257.97 mph.   She would face the other Finke car driven by Jackie in the second round on Sunday.

Meyer would carry lane choice into round two Sunday afternoon.   At the hit, Jackie’s car would go up in smoke forcing her to abort the run, while Megan would take the advantage at the tree and continue down the track with a 5.611 at 274.83 mph, sailing onto the win and the semi-finals.  She would face Jerry Powell, but would not have lane choice in the pairing.     On the line, Megan would take the early advantage, never looking back with a 5.234 at 274.61 mph while Powell suffers traction issues and aborts the run.   She earns the win, marking the first final for Megan Meyer in national event TAD competition.

On the other side of the ladder, Rich McPhillips would upset No. 1 qualified Mia Tedesco to face Megan.   The ninth final for McPhillips, he held the advantage with three previous class victories going into the deciding round.   This round, it was McPhillips who would strike first at the tree, outrunning Megan after a pedal-fest with a slower 5.567 at 266.95 mph to Megan’s 5.564 at 273.55mph, a hole-shot victory for McPhillip and a difference of 0.0101 seconds or four feet at the finish line.

AMAZING job to the McPhillips team and I’m so, so, so proud of the Randy Meyer Racing Team for all that they put into this hotrod all weekend long!! We accomplished many achievements in just a few days and I’m still speechless! A huge thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters around the world!!!!!”

Megan narrowly misses her first win in Top Alcohol Dragster, and defending the her dad’s 2015 Gatornationals victory, but she and the team did win the Best Appearing Car/Crew in Gainesville, after they unveiled new Racers Evolved livery on their 2015 Copeland A/Fuel chassis.

Megan Meyer debuts Racer Evolved A/Fuel Dragster –  Gainesville, Florida

It’s the first race of the 2016 season this weekend for second generation NHRA A/Fuel Dragster driver, Megan Meyer.    The 47^th Annual NHRA Gatornationals marks the first of 18 events scheduled in her official rookie campaign.   22 year-old Megan Meyer is debuting a new Racer Evolved sponsored, nitro-injected dragster owned and tuned by her father, 2007 and 2015 Gatornationals event champion Randy Meyer.

I feel a little extra pressure and a little extra confidence,” Megan said. “We’re confident because we won it last year, but this is a new car and a new driver. This is my first national event so I’m a little nervous about that. It’s a bigger stage than a regional event. We had some great results with this car at Pomona, so I think we’re heading in the right direction.”

Megan Meyers is already familiar with Gainesville Raceway, having previously earned her Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster licenses there, even though she’s never actually raced in competition at the historic track.

I participated in Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School with my Super Comp dragster when I was 16 years old, and it was a great learning experience to transition from junior dragster to Super Comp. Two years later I was back on the track getting my feet wet with our Top Alcohol Dragster. I remember that day very well because a few of the Top Fuel teams stayed to test, and I felt very privileged to be able to run behind them for the very first time. This experience helped put everything into perspective as to where I could take myself in this sport. I grew better as a driver each time we returned to Gainesville, and last year I made a huge stepping stone of running a 5.29 ET pass and had the help of Dave Hirata to sign off on my TAD licensing pass. So it is very fitting to have my first NHRA National race at the Gatornationals.”

One aspect she looks forward to most is the opportunity to compete on a national level with drivers who she either grew up with, or grew up watching with her father’s Top Alcohol career since she was born.

There’s going to be lots of tough competition this weekend. I’m thrilled to be able to say that I’m ‘one of the guys’ now. I’m excited to be able to race against Mia (Tedesco). She won the Gainesville regional last weekend. We’ve grown to be really good friends over the last few years because we both come from a bracket racing background,” noted Meyer.

Megan Meyer debuts Racer Evolved A/Fuel Dragster

This is also a debut weekend for Meyer’s primary sponsor, Racers Evolved, an apparel company with designs for racers, by racers. The drag racing and motocross-themed line of apparel includes a “Megan Meyer Signature Series” designed to match the new livery on the car. In addition to gradually unveiling the Racers Evolved A/Fuel dragster on their Facebook page this week, the company also launched their website.

Megan Meyer and the Racers Evolved A/Fuel dragster will take to the Gainesville Raceway quarter-mile for Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying sessions at 10:45 AM and 2:30 PM on Friday, March 18. A third and final qualifying session is scheduled for Saturday at 10:15 AM, followed by first round of eliminations at 5:45 PM. Eliminations continue on Sunday afternoon. FOX Sports will air Lucas Oil Series coverage from the NHRA Gatornationals at 9 PM ET on Thursday, March 24, with four scheduled re-air dates in the following weeks