Drag Illustrated Issue 130, March 2018 | Page 85

TheHOTTEST2018 Rachel Meyer and her father, Randy “I definitely don’t want to give up the driver’s seat – I want to do both – but I really like the mechanical side of it.” recorded the third-quickest pass in class history – the quickest under the current rules package – qualified No. 1 and reached the final round. “I didn’t really expect to go setting records and going all the way to the final,” offers Nataas, a Norwe- gian enrolled at Antioch University Santa Barbara, “but the team at Randy Meyer Racing is amazing.” Giving new drivers an immediate shot at suc- cess is kind of Randy Meyer’s thing. Megan won her second-ever national event, the Four-Wide Nationals, in 2016. Later that year, Rachel qual- ified No. 1 in her Top Alcohol Dragster debut and charged to the semifinals in her second race. Justin Ashley, the 23-year-old son of former Pro Mod and Funny Car driver Mike Ashley, drove one of Meyer’s cars to the NHRA Gatornationals winner’s cirlce in his NHRA competition debut last March. The two-car Randy Meyer Racing operation has a full slate of races on the schedule for this season. Megan leads the charge with a schedule of 17 races as she chases the national champion- ship with primary sponsorship from NGK Spark Plugs. Justin is slated to run 13 races, while Julie will enter 10 events. Rachel, a product engineer who designs the machines that build the seat suspensions for automakers like Ford, GM and Tesla, will run four or five races. A fifth driver, Bill Litton, plans to drive a RMR car at two ear- ly-season races. “We have a game plan set in place,” Megan ex- plains. “We’re trying to use the other drivers on our team as blockers in the points since I’m not able to run all of the races. Even though the points system limits me to 10 national events, we’re able March 2018 DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 85