Drag Illustrated Issue 151, December 2019 | Page 28
Dirt
SARAH EDWARDS
sister at Dragway 42 in her first season.
Just recently, a Facebook post from the Nitro
Dawgs caught Edwards’ eye.
“Three years ago, a family rekindled their love
affair with speed at KRP’s Funny Car Nationals!”
the Facebook post said. “We took our girls on a
whim not knowing anything about Jr. Dragsters!
They loved the colors and the cars and it sparked
their interest! When we came back in August to
Night of Fire and saw Sarah in the QOD II jet
dragster, Isla had her mind made up!!!! She came
up with the team name, dad bought the first car,
and the rest is history!”
When Edwards was a young girl, she was in
that same situation. Her parents took her to the
Night of Thrills at Old Bridge Township Raceway
Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, and she fell in
love with the Queen of Diamonds Jet Dragster.
Years later, Edwards was able to realize her
dreams of piloting the one vehicle she fell in love
with when she became the fifth Queen of Dia-
monds pilot for Hanna Motorsports.
“It’s remarkable to look back now and reflect
on something that seemed bigger than life at the
time,” Edwards says. “I had a dream, I pursued it
and accomplished it. Who in their wildest imagi-
nation truly gets to become what they saw when
they were a young girl? Everyday, it blows my
mind and keeps me humble. I lived my dream. I
am still living out my dreams.
“Being able to give back in a way that you don’t
even see until a note comes your way will find a
way to stop you in your tracks, slow you down
and allow you to take in how you can inspire
people – of any age.”
As the years went on, Edwards has signed the
wing of Isla and Adrie’s Jr. Dragster and the fol-
lowing year, their dragster body. She said that
these girls have brought some of the best memo-
ries to her, more than they will ever know.
“With great excitement I did just that,” she says.
“It still may be unclear who was more excited at
that point in time, the girls to have a professional
female driver sign their new Jr. Dragster wing or
myself, who couldn’t believe these two little girls
really wanted me to write on their brand-new car.
Fast forward 365 days and that brings us right
back to Keystone Raceway Park; Same weekend,
same event, same two little girls waiting for the
Queen of Diamonds to roll in. It’s incredible.”
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Melanie Salemi wins big in small-tire
debut at World Street Nationals
By Nate Van Wagner
M
elanie Salemi rolled into the
World Street Nationals, Nov. 8-10
at Orlando Speed World Dragway
with a truly brand-new ’19 Camaro
to debut in Radial vs. the World. It was a debut
for both car and driver, as the PDRA Pro Boost
standout had never raced on small tires, and the
screw-blown Camaro had just been finished up at
brother-in-law Jim Salemi’s G-Force Race Cars
28 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
on Monday before making the trip to Florida.
A few days later, after testing, qualifying and
taking out two of the biggest names in the class
– recording some of the quickest passes in RvW
history in the process – Salemi and her team were
celebrating in the winner’s circle Sunday night.
It all started early in the week when Melanie’s
husband and tuner, Jon, flew in from Australia af-
ter tuning another screw-blown car Down Under.
“Jon was fairly confident going into the whole
race,” Salemi says. “He flew straight from Aus-
tralia to Florida, met us there and we just got
to work. He spent a lot of time on the computer
this week, just changing things here and there.
Issue 151
On Top of the World