Melanie Troxel

Time: Season 2006
Place:Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Gainesville Raceway
Event: NHRA POWERade Nationals

Melanie Troxel is a winner. Along the way to winning she also collects thrills in and out of 330 mph Top Fuel Dragster. That speed would probably be enough for most but Troxel has jumped out of airplanes as well. Her bravado exceeds normal gender expectations and she calmly accepts that reality.

Several females have found success in NHRA drag racing for decades since Shirley Muldowney broke into the Nitro barrier with competitive runs and wins against males. Troxel has known what it's like to be the points leader in Top Fuel where others, male and female, chase winning performance.

Males don't have all of the traditional advantages in racing. Weight is a factor in high-speed straight racing and that can be a female advantage as their male competitors tend to be heavier. Less weight can transfer to more horsepower.

The competitive spirit is clearly not monopolized by gender in any sport and as time passes more NHRA win lights will go to speedy women. As more females enter the power-drenched sport of drag racing it's likely smaller sized champion rings will have a place in the future.

Dwight Drum asked Melanie Troxel:

Do you have a different mindset when leading in the points as compared to chasing the points leader?
"I think theoretically you shouldn't have a different mindset. It should be the same that you keep pushing forward and doing the best you can at every given race. That's definitely the goal to not lose that focus, to not back off and change your ways, the way you are doing things. That's probably a sign of somebody who is good at their job is that ability to keep pushing forward with it and not get caught up in different mind games that might affect how you perform out there."

Do you think drivers in pro ranks ever stop learning?
"No. I think anybody who is good at what they do and who is competitive and driven to keep succeeding is always looking for something to make them better. I think it could be easy to shut things off and think that you are good enough that you don't have anything to learn. I think it's definitely helpful to keep your eyes open and constantly be learning and taking in new things. The good people out there are and if you're not trying to learn something new, they're getting ahead of you."

Can you describe yourself to a fan?
"I think I'm fairly sociable, open to talking to people, friendly, but a very serious competitor also. I just really enjoy the opportunity I have to get to race this car."

Do you think your eye-hand coordination is superior to the average person?
"It's hard to say. I probably think it's above average, but I don't know that we're necessarily way above everybody else. I think people who are generally coordinated, who seem to do things coordinated, would probably be better at this. But I think just the fact that we do this for a living, we've done it for years, we've had a lot of practice at it, probably makes us above average."

What is the difference between you and the average driver on the public highway?
"You know it's funny because everybody wants to ask you, 'Do you speed all the time? Do you have any speeding tickets?' Once you've gone 330 miles an hour there is nothing you're going to do in your street car that's even going to compare. So why bother? I don't think Tommie has ever had a speeding ticket. (Husband Tommie Johnson Jr. Funny Car driver) I haven't had one since I was 20 years old. Once you get to do this for a living, that doesn't really compare. We're actually a lot more conservative, don't speed a lot, don't do any of the crazy things that people would probably expect us to do."

Not everybody can do what you do. Do you know what the difference between you and the average fan?
"You know it seems hard from the outside to imagine these cars going 330 miles an hour. I even remember when I got started in a Supercomp car and I was going 120 and 130 trying to imagine going three times that almost. People are sometimes in awe of it, but I think if it's something that you're good at. I consider myself an adrenaline junky. If you're that type of person, and you enjoy this, then the only real difference is the persistence and the drive to make it happen. This has been almost 20 years as far as being a process of getting to this point for me. It's just that persistence and keeping after it that's made it happen. It's not the driving part of it. I think again, if you're driven to do it, you will make yourself a good driver. I think that the biggest difference is that I'm an adrenaline junky and I decided a long time ago that this was what I was going to do. No matter what, I've stuck with it."

Do motorsports champions share common traits and abilities and if so could you identify a few?
"I think probably one trait of most people who could win a championship or have won a championship is just that desire and drive to keep working at something even when you reach this level. When you're better than most people in the world at it, you're driven to keep getting better and better at it. That's probably the trait that I would think is common to most champions."

Do you feel you have some of the common traits of champions?
"Well, I hope I certainly have some of the traits of a champion. That's what we're all out here trying to do. I think that attention to detail and being driven are probably two of the things that I bring to the table. Being driven and really paying attention to every little thing even if it may not seem important by trying to work on all aspects of what I'm doing in the car."

Do you know where you get your desire, your fire to drive?
"I grew up around the sport which definitely plays in the part why I'm comfortable around it. It's all I've ever known. I was the second girl in my family and the last child, so my parents had two girls. The first one was raised girly. I always see pictures of her in dresses and everything. I was the one in a race t-shirt playing in the dirt. I don't know that they consciously raised me - my dad knew he wasn't going to have any boys - and they consciously raised me to be a little bit more of a tomboy. I grew up wanting to compete. All my friends were boys and I wanted to do as good as them. My dad would even joke with me and say, oh that's not bad for a girl. I think he thought that was a joke at the time, but it actually stirred my competitiveness. Hey, I can do just as good as anybody else. That's a lot of it. That competition to go out and do something well. And again, like I said for me a lot of it is adrenaline, that's driving the car. I just love doing anything like that.

In fact, we got to go. I've been wanting to sky dive for a long time. Tommie would never do anything like that, but I got my mom, my self and Tony's mom (Schumacher) The three of us girls went skydiving. We got tired of waiting for the guys to do it. Tony couldn't do it and he kept telling me, 'My mom is not going to do that.' I think he way underestimated her. Us girls went and did that. So I think it's a family trait. All the women in our families are up for things that the guys aren't even necessarily up for."

You're articulate. At this level you need that as a part of your job. Can you comment on that?
"You assume the majority of our job is actually driving these race cars, but in reality some times a bigger portion of our job is what we do away from the race car. We have different dealings and interacting with the fans and the media and doing interviews and representing our sponsors. That's really what we're doing. We're representing and working for our sponsors. That's become a more important part of what we're doing than the driving sometimes as much as I hate to say it. I think that's something I realized a long time ago. Speaking in front of people was not really something I was incredibly comfortable with when I was younger, but I understood that it was part of the job. If I wanted to get to race that car then I had to be good at the rest of it too. I think when you accept that as another part of the job, something that you need to be good at you find ways to get comfortable with it."

What are the worst words you hate to hear about drag racing?
"Hole-shot. Especially, if you're on the losing side of it. Right now. Oil-down penalty is really a bad word for us. Red light. Those are really from a driver's perspective every time you lose when it's a fault of you own that's the worst possible situation there is. The oil-down situation. We just lost 25 points at Phoenix for an oil-down. We're leading in the points right now and that would give us a substantially larger lead if we had those points back. That may be something that comes back to haunt us later in the season."

What are the best words you most like to hear about drag racing?
"Hole-shot, when you're on the winning side of it. Just anything having to do with winning. Right now, I got a win out of the way and hoping to have many more of them this season. Anything that sounds like it's involved with a championship win. That's the next big goal out there."