THE GORDON SISTERS BECAME HEAVILY INVOLVED IN THEIR FATHER ’ S RACING PROGRAM IN 2020 . MORE THAN CHEERLEADERS , THEY DOVE INTO THE MECHANICAL SIDE OF THINGS TO LEARN THE CAR FROM THE INSIDE OUT .
Oh , absolutely not . Not at all . There is just so much to this car and the team and everything that has to go into it . Everything has to be perfect . To be where we are today – I couldn ’ t be more happy , but I have so much to learn . I ’ ve made mistakes , and I ’ m trying to minimize my mistakes as much as possible .
Getting your first win at Indy , at the most prestigious racetrack on the NHRA tour , has the magnitude of that sunken in yet ? Well , up until race day , that weekend at Indy was probably one of the worst I ’ ve had as far as the 2024 season . The prior weekend , we blew up a motor . It was 100 % my fault , and I didn ’ t take that lightly . So , we were down a motor for Indy , and in the second qualifier we kicked the rods out for no reason . That ’ s so much work , so much money . My papa was like , “ I don ’ t really know that we want to go out there and run an engine and potentially blow it up .” We were all really down coming into race day , but we put a new motor in it , and we held our breath . We had no spare parts , no engines , no spare cylinder heads . It was our last try .
Then we won first round by six thou , and I ’ m like , “ Holy mackerel , that actually went our way .” We haven ’ t had many of those close races go our way , so that was a huge confidence builder . Then , racing Sean Bellemeur the next round , it was like , “ Are you kidding me ? I get to line up next to Sean
Bellemeur ?!” That was awesome for our team to get that win . The final , I have so much to learn that I wasn ’ t thinking too much about the end goal – although , how can you not ? But I really didn ’ t know that we were going to win . We had a great car , but I didn ’ t know that I could win yet . Gosh , that win light turned on , and I didn ’ t believe it . I seriously held my breath , like , “ This can ’ t be real .” Dad radioed and said , “ You did it , babe ! We won ! We won !” I just started screaming and crying and freaking out . I can still relive that feeling . I don ’ t think I ’ ll ever forget it .
Did your dad give you any advice before the final ? I think because I ’ m so new , nobody was really expecting me to win . Nobody was putting any pressure on me to stay in it or anything like that . My mom suits me up and buckles me in , and she gave me my good luck fist bump . Dad just looked at me and said , “ Good luck ; go have fun .” I said , “ OK , sounds good .”
98 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 189