Cristen Powell got her license to drive hot rods before she got her driver’s license. “The hardest thing about the second was remembering to drive slow,” Cristen laughs. Cristen, 19, is a Top Fuel drag racer. Her success story would be incredible in any sport, but it’s especially so in one dominated by adult males.
She made her National Hot Rod Association debut at 16 and in two years moved up to Top Fuel dragsters, the fastest vehicles on four wheels.
She skipped her senior prom for a race in May 1997 and brought home her first Top Fuel championship. The Portland, Ore., teen also became the youngest female and one of five women to win a Top Fuel drag-race championship.
She sure showed the big boys that she isn’t afraid of speed. Last season she exceeded 300 m.p.h. 10 times!
When Cristen was a little girl, her dad, a former drag racer, often took her and her sisters to the races. For her 16th birthday, he sent her to drag-racing school.
“It’s in my blood,”she says of her love for the sport.
A big-name sponsor like Reebok and a world-renowned motorsports racing team like Team Scandia probably wouldn’t trust a lot of teens behind the wheel of a $150,000 dragster. But they trust Cristen.
“It’s a huge responsibility being in one of these cars,”she says. “If the car starts getting out of shape, I’ll stop the race. The key is being responsible and making smart decisions. Of course, other than the safety aspect, you have to believe in yourself.
On days when that’s not enough, Cristen counts on her good-luck charm, a purple platypus Beanie Baby she calls “Patty.”Patty races with Cristen, tucked into her fire suit.
Drag racing is about much more than just driving a car as fast as you can down a quarter-mile straightaway. A driver’s routine demands iron nerves, Cristen says.
“Before a race starts, my right hand is on the hand brake, my left foot on the clutch,”she says. “I clear my mind of everything except the race. I pull back on the fuel-pressure level with my left hand, increasing it from 40 to 100 pounds. I take my foot off the clutch, ease up on the hand brake and move the car to prestage (the starting line).
“On the yellow (the light before green), I slam my foot down on the throttle and let go of the hand brake.”
What follows must be like being shot from a cannon, but way faster. The launch slams the driver back against the seat with five times the force of gravity. Cristen has a chin strap that connects to her fire suit to “hold my face in place.”
But she loves every second of it.
“It’s such a rush,”she says. “If all goes well and you accelerate all the way, you’re going 260 m.p.h. in 1.5 seconds at the 1/8-mile mark. Then less than five seconds later, you’re pulling up and it’s over.”
Although Cristen plans on racing for quite a while, she’s also considering what’s next. She’s a junior in college, studying psychology. But she isn’t worried. “Everything I’ve set my mind to I’ve accomplished.”
FAST FACTS
Birthdate: March 22, 1979
1998 car: Reebok Dragster
Career wins/final rounds: 1/1
1997 wins/final rounds: 1/1
1997 National Hot Rod Associ-ation point standing: 14th
Career-best race time:4.644 seconds (for a quarter -mile straightaway.)
Career-best speed: 307.27 m.p.h.
Notable: In 1997, Cristen became the second-youngest winner of a prof title at an NHRA national event. She won the 1997 Mopar Parts Nationals less than two months after her 18th birthday.
Source: National Hot Rod Association
…AND QUICK FACTS
– The nitromethane-powered engines of Top Fuel dragsters produce more than 5,500 horsepower (a standard unit for measuring engine power). That’s 40 times the horsepower of the average street car.
– NHRA Top Fuel dragsters travel the length of more than four football fields in less than five seconds.
– From a standing start, Top Fuel dragsters accelerate faster than a jumbo jet, a fighter jet and a Formula One racecar.
Source: National Hot Rod Association.
