Dirt
Audrey Worm is on track to
be Top Fuel’s newest team owner
By Kelly Wade
I
f the term “old-school drag racer”
calls to mind a grandfatherly figure armed
with loads of cool stories from days of yore,
27-year-old Audrey Worm is here to help
broaden your vision.
Grantville, Pennsylvania, native Worm is a
tiny, bubbly Top Fuel racer with engine grease
under her nails and smudges of clutch dust
streaking her cheeks. She’s smart and as sweet
as pie, and she’s as old-school as they come,
living the dream on a shoestring budget with
a volunteer crew, a ton of heart, and generous
help from the racing community.
The thing about Worm is that she’s all of
those things, but she’s also completely unafraid
of running with the big dogs in NHRA’s Mello
Yello Drag Racing Series. It’s been her goal for
a long time, all the way back to when she was
8 years old and declared her career aspirations
to her father, chassis builder John Worm.
“My whole family and I were at Maple Grove,
our home track, watching the races,” she ex-
plains. “I saw the Top Fuel dragsters and said to
my dad, ‘Those cars are awesome and super-fast,
and that’s what I want to do when I grow up.’”
Worm gained much of her experience in the
nostalgia ranks racing a front-engine drag-
ster, the “shop car,” out of her father’s place of
business. In 2017, her future plans began to
take shape when she licensed in the Top Fuel
dragster owned by Bob and Gary Leverich the
weekend of the Chevrolet Performance U.S.
Nationals.
“We drove to Indy, and I hand-delivered it to
[then Sr. Vice President of Racing Operations]
Graham Light, and I asked him to please fast-
track it because I really wanted to race at Maple
Grove in two weeks. He did, and the race at
my home track was my first NHRA event,” ex-
plains Worm, who drove the Leverich family’s
Top Fuel dragster both last season and this year.
So far, Worm has advanced to the second
round [at the Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals]
and made her first sub-4-second pass, but those
aren’t the only things she lists when talking
about what has made an impact upon her.
“Being able to do this with my dad and my
husband, doing this as a family, that’s really
cool. My dad has Parkinson’s Disease, so it’s
really special to be able to raise awareness with
our car,” says Worm, whose husband, Aaron
Grant, is her crew chief.
“Another great thing for me was getting
that 3.96 in Richmond after five 4.0-second
runs in a row. The best part of
all of this, though, is just be-
ing out here. NHRA is such a
huge family, and the big teams
help us drastically with parts
and knowledge. It’s just been
unbelievable. This has become
my second home.”
Just prior to the 2019 Thun-
der Valley Nationals in Bristol,
Worm announced her inten-
tion to establish ownership of
her own Top Fuel team by the
start of the 2020 season. She
will join a very small group
of female NHRA nitro team
owner/drivers, including Top
Fuel’s Shirley Muldowney and
Funny Car’s Alexis DeJoria. It is
an ambitious goal for certain, but Worm has
massive amounts of faith, enthusiasm, and
emotional support. When Strutmasters.com
came on board with sponsorship this season,
everything really started to come together.
“Chip Lofton and Strutmasters.com have
been great, and knowing that they’re behind
me mov-ing forward is huge,” expresses Worm.
“We’ve never really had that before, and it’s kind
of scary because you have to keep them happy
and also acquire more sponsors to help us make
this happen. Finding sponsorship is difficult
for everybody, and it will be a challenge, but
we’ll work hard at it.
“I just love racing Top Fuel in the NHRA,” she
continues, a giant grin sweeping across her face.
“There isn’t anything faster; it’s like you’re the
top dog. I’m just the little fish in the top-dog
pond right now, but I could see a champion-
ship in our future. We’ll see what happens.”
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Owning It