RANDY MEYER
MEYER EXPECTS HIS DRIVERS TO BE TRUE TEAM PLAYERS.
THEY CAN OFTEN BE SEEN HELPING PACK PARACHUTES
OR MIXING FUEL FOR THEIR TEAMMATES DURING LATE-
ROUND THRASHES. HERE, JULIE NATAAS HELPS RACHEL
MEYER WITH HER SAFETY EQUIPMENT BEFORE A PASS.
people that were pretty green and just nurture
them and teach them the way I want things done
and do it my way. That’s one of the issues I’ve had
with some of the older guys. They either thought
they knew how to do it or somebody else told
them something else one time and it just confused
them, whereas these younger drivers, they pretty
much come with a blank sheet of paper and I’ve
been able to teach them. That’s worked out very
well and I prefer it that way.
As someone who’s out here racing nearly
every weekend, what are some of the
challenges that you see facing the class?
hard on the marketing side to make that happen
to keep enough money coming in to keep it going.
Whether it’s Megan or Rachel or one of
your other drivers, how rewarding is it to
be outside the car and see those win lights
turn on as compared to when you were
driving yourself ?
Probably the biggest reward isn’t so much the
win light, it’s the expression that the people have
when they get out of the car at the other end.
When you can have that smile that will last them
a lifetime, that’s what’s more gratifying to me than
driving myself. I drove for almost 40 years, so the
race with them?
It’s been great. I told my girls whenever they went
through school, if you want to race, you’re going
to need to do it when you get out of college be-
cause my health is so good right now and you
never know what tomorrow or next year brings,
but we’re in the position to do it now and do it
before you decide to have a family. Once you make
that decision, you can’t go racing, so if you want
to race, now is the time to do it. Don’t wait until
tomorrow or next year because you don’t know
what it brings and there’s no guarantees.
When the girls were little, I spent most of my
time at my business. We had two shifts and I ran
both shifts, so I hardly seen my kids when they
were growing up and we did very little sports
together because I raced too. But the industry
that I’m in, we just worked a lot of hours. This is
kind of my way to pay the girls back and spend a
little bit of time with them before they go off and
get married and go whatever direction they go.
So that’s been really rewarding that we’re able to
do that as a family and my wife can be involved
some of the time as well.
What’s next for you?
Obviously, our main goal is to try to improve
ourselves toward a world championship. That’s
Megan’s main goal. She’s not interested in run-
ning Top Fuel, but she’s more interested in trying
to win a championship and maybe be the first
female Top Alcohol Dragster champion. That’s
our No. 1 goal.
On my bucket list is to do some racing over-
seas just because it would be something new
and different. Every year we challenge ourselves
to go to a different racetrack. My goal also is
to get a Wally from each track that we go to.
We’ve got a lot of them covered, but there’s a few
that seem to keep slipping away. I’ll be happy
if we can do that and take a little bit of time off
and race overseas. Here in the next year or two,
“The excitement is more to put a smile on either my daughters’
face, just a lasting smile that they’ll have forever.”
The class is kind of stale or stagnant. I’m trying
hard to bring some new talent and some young
people in it and some marketing stuff. Megan has
done a tremendous job of marketing not only her-
self, but NHRA drag racing and women in drag
racing. She’s worked really hard at marketing that.
But we just can’t seem to get the class to grow.
I think a lot of it is because of the money. If you
don’t have sponsorship money to make this happen,
it pretty much can’t happen because the costs are
out of control. We’re racing for the same amount
of money we raced for 20 years ago when our
costs were a tenth of what they are today. Travel
expenses are higher and everything is higher. It
gets harder every year to make ends meet to run
one of these things. That’s where we work really
excitement’s not there for me driving anymore.
The excitement is more to put a smile on either
my daughters’ face or whoever is driving, just a
lasting smile that they’ll have forever, or if they
have their family members there, they walk away
with those memories. That’s very, very satisfying
for me. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a lot of
win lights come on – they haven’t all been in my
lane – but I’ve seen a lot of them over the years.
You’ve raced with your daughters for
years, starting in Jr. Dragsters and Super
Comp, but now they’re both in Top Alcohol
Dragster. Megan is racing for the national
championship and Rachel is starting to
drive more. What’s it been like getting to
that’s going to be our plan now that Australia
is finally going to allow A/Fuel cars. We have
some connections over there, people who are
going to help us out and take care of some stuff.
But in order to do that we have to do less racing
over here because of when they race in Australia.
And I have to get less behind with my business.
But when the time’s right, we have all the pieces
and everything is in place to do it, we just need
the time to do it.
Right now, our focus is over here and trying to
get either Megan or Julie a championship. They’re
both doing very well and they might be fighting
each other for a championship before it’s all over,
but at least we know we’re going to be in the hunt
somewhere.
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98 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 146