“ I’ ve been a driver with my dad for 13-ish years now, so he knows what to say to help me out. If I need to change how I’ m doing something, he knows how to say it versus if it was someone else driving.”
a narrow holeshot victory in a 5.567-to-5.564 race.
“ Going into Gainesville, we didn’ t expect to be number-two qualifier and make it to the final round, but we did expect to be qualified in the top half and at least go a few rounds of eliminations,” Meyer says.“ It was just kind of a dream weekend and then we were able to follow that up with another final round in Belle Rose [ Louisiana ], which was a track that none of us have ever been to before.”
After reaching the final round at the Gainesville national and Belle Rose regional, winning at least two rounds became the norm for the first half of Meyer’ s 2016 season.
“ From Belle Rose, things never really slowed down. It was exciting to head to Charlotte, get the win, take home the Best Appearing Crew award, and then to have a semifinal finish in Houston, followed up by another runner-up at Topeka and being number-one qualifier at my home track. Everything just fell into place. It was just really the best year that we’ ve had in a really long time for our team.”
The optimistic 23-year-old can’ t look past the rough patch she entered toward the end of the summer. A demanding schedule with two, sometimes three, A / Fuel cars put a dent in the Randy Meyer Racing parts supply, usually stocked full of the freshest engine blocks, cylinder heads, engine components, clutch disks, tires and more. Both Megan’ s car and Randy’ s entry, driven mostly by“ rent-a-ride” drivers, began to suffer by the time the Brainerd race came around.
“ We were running two cars at a lot of the races at the end of the season. It took away from the opportunities as far as motors, parts, and tires. We ran into little issues with that but we tried to make the best of it. There wasn’ t really one thing causing it, I think it was just a bunch of little things that added up. We changed motors about five times in my car, which is kind of unheard of. I think we went through four or five cranks and oil pans this year. We got really limited on parts as the year went on. When we went on the five-week tour, we were really struggling. By that point it was too late to order new parts or go back to our inventory because we just about used everything up.”
With a similarly busy schedule in mind for 2017, the Randy Meyer Racing group has bulked up their parts supply and thoroughly inspected and refreshed their Copeland dragsters with intentions of chasing the national championship and Central Region title.
“ We spent a lot of time in the offseason changing a lot of stuff on both of the cars,” Megan notes.“ We’ ve noticed that it’ s weird how my car did really well at the beginning of the season and then fell off at the end, whereas my dad’ s car was doing OK in the beginning and middle of the season, then it picked up quite a bit at the end of the season.
“ We’ ve made some changes to the chassis, made quite a few changes just on little stuff, plus we do our normal maintenance in the offseason. Basically we replace all of the wiring and hardware. Literally, we take off every single nut and bolt on the car and replace it with a new one. That’ s where our partnerships with companies like ARP Bolts, Racepak, and Taylor Cable come into play. So we’ ve made a lot of changes in the offseason and that’ s why we’ re out here at Phoenix testing, to see if everything that we’ ve changed is going to work in our favor.”
That brings us to dusty Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, just outside of Phoenix. Pros like Courtney Force and Matt Hagan are making laps in preparation for the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California. Meyer is helping her father set up the pit area for a few days of testing before finance guru-turned-driver Bill Litton arrives to drive Megan’ s Copeland-built dragster. Between duties, Meyer has time to reminisce about the years she’ s spent on the road racing with her family, an opportunity not lost on the reserved young star.
“ Working with my dad is definitely a positive but there are some downfalls, I guess you could say. We have a great relationship with our dad. I work for my parents. I still live with my parents. I see my parents 24 / 7. I’ m on the road with them all the time, which is awesome to have that time together, especially since my dad was gone quite a bit when I was little. So to be able to get all this time with him now is awesome.
“ But I do kind of get sick of him every now and then,” Meyer laughs.“ It’ s a different relationship than how most kids grow up. When we got started with the Junior Dragster racing, like I said, we had no experience with it and we would go to our local track in Kansas City every Wednesday night and test and learn as much as we could, then go out the following Saturday and race. But as soon as we turned 16, we were on our own if my dad was gone racing. We were old enough to stay home alone and if we wanted to go racing, then we would have to get the truck and trailer and take it to the track ourselves and find our own help there to have someone start us. It’ s a really good working experience, but there’ s also those periods of times where we’ re not together as a family. When we’ re working together now, sometimes it’ s a family relationship with us and sometimes it’ s a work relationship. It goes both ways for us.”
Racing as a family has created a driver-crew chief bond between Megan and Randy that cannot be matched by a standard combination of driver and tuner. The two can communicate openly about what needs to happen.
“ I’ ve been a driver with my dad for 13-ish years now, and so he knows what to really say to me to help me out. If I need to change how I’ m doing something, he knows how to say it versus if it was someone else driving. It all works out for us and it’ s great to have that time with my dad and to be comfortable and just having that time out, working out in the shop and working at the track.”
Even as Megan continues to improve as a driver, she also has the opportunity to mentor other upand-coming A / Fuel drivers who didn’ t grow up with the same hands-on lessons. She’ s helping her father train Rachel, 21, as well as Justin Ashley, the 22-year-old son of former Funny Car and Pro Mod driver Mike Ashley.
“ I’ ve been able to help mentor a few drivers, and that’ s one of the ways I’ m following in my dad’ s footsteps. He started the rent-a-ride program way back in the early 2000s, starting off with Alan Bradshaw and Gary Ormsby Jr. driving the cars when we won a world championship and broke the world record to be the first car to run in the teens. It’ s just cool to be able to follow in my dad’ s footsteps and be a mentor to my sister, to Justin Ashley, and to Marina Anderson, who is one of my best friends, and she is doing her part to get started in Top Alcohol. It’ s just a good feeling inside, to be able to give back what I’ ve learned over the years and help someone do the same thing.”
The father-daughter duo make a formidable team as trainers for the rising stars who begin
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