Once Tisha was able to drive the Jr. Dragster, she was hooked on drag racing. Tisha studied the sport and looked up to female drivers like Rhonda Hartman-Smith, Cristin Powell, and Shelly Anderson. Tisha raced Jr. Dragsters until the age of 16, winning track championships and other prestigious races while maintaining honor roll student status and being involved with school sports and school organizations.

During her younger years, she found an interest in learning the mechanical skills necessary to maintain her and her brother’ s race cars. She honed her skills on anything she could take apart and attempt to put back together, like bicycles and 4-wheelers.

In her early teens, Tisha volunteered with the Wix Driving School owned by Joel Collins to help maintain

the school cars and two-seater dragster. She eventually graduated into the seat of a big car with the help of Joel Collins and Burwell Kendrick. At the time, Joel co-owned a Top Fuel team with Richard Hartman driven by Josh Starcher. Tisha’ s mechanical skills and work ethic made it a perfect fit to intern on the team and learn about what it took to race at the top level of our sport.

Richard introduced Tisha to his father, Virgil Hartman. She began filling in as a clutch assistant for multiple stops on the NHRA tour. At the age of 14, although not old enough to go on the starting line, she would watch Rhonda and John Smith’ s children at the trailer until the cars came back and she had to go back to work. Virgil took Tisha in as one of his own, giving her an opportunity to learn from one of the pioneers of the sport. Many of those lessons from Virgil, she still uses today.

Tisha stepped into a crucial role

with the Hartman team, being able to handle clutch duties and cylinder head duties when needed. During all of these opportunities, Tisha kept racing herself at local bracket races and eventually stepped into Super Comp. The experience gained paid off in dividends throughout her later years in racing, not just the mechanical skills, but the lessons learned by watching and listening to those around her. While establishing herself in her field of work, life sciences, she’ s continued her racing career by securing multiple national event wins on the PDRA and NHRA circuits, as well as a PDRA Top Dragster world championship in 2022.

Tisha joined the Greenbrier Excavating & Paving team in 2024, becoming one of several drivers competing under the umbrella of a team that has won multiple championships and races led by Alan O’ Brien. Just as Virgil did many years ago, Alan has passed down a

multitude of knowledge and guidance to help Tisha continue to fight for championships and continue to be successful in business.

Tisha continues to maintain the race cars the team fields in NHRA and IHRA in Top Dragster and Super Comp racing alongside Kevin O’ Brien. Tisha and Kevin, through their company, KT Investments, now support the next generation of the Hartman-Smith family, Megan Smith, as an associate sponsor on her Top Alcohol Dragster. Tisha is grateful to give back to a family that influenced so much of her work ethic and career, providing a foundation for success. To this day, the Hartman family influences Tisha as she brings up her son, Wyatt. As a fourth-generation racer, Wyatt has won events in his Jr. Dragster while racing in the PDRA and NHRA.

This story is told over and over in the world of drag racing. Multigeneration families are common in the sport. The family builds a following at local events, and as success comes, so do fans and sponsorships. In the world of drag racing, fans are the factor that influences so much, proving once again that we must honor the fans in the stands. DI