So when’s the last time you did a double take at a woman working road construction? I’m guessing it’s probably been a while because the novelty is long gone. Females on road crews are now as common as traffic cones and roadwork itself. The wall has crumbled. The shock has worn off.
I bring this up only because you can see the exact phenomenon of familiarity in today’s NHRA. There are seven female drivers in drag racing’s pro ranks, and no one in the sport – fellow drivers, pit crews, diehard fans – blinks an eye when a woman rumbles 7,000 horses to the starting line and waits for the green light to drop.
“It’s not a big story within our sport,” said Melanie Troxel, one of two women competing in the Top Fuel division at this weekend’s Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Joliet’s Route 66 Raceway. “Women drivers are a normal, everyday thing, and no one thinks anything of it. It’s one of the things I love about the sport.”
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