Women In Drag Racing: Breaking Barriers

Women In Drag Racing: Breaking Barriers – PLACER COUNTY, Calif. – While most 13-year-olds seem to be playing video games or getting into trouble with their friends, one Placer County 13-year-old doesn’t have time for that because she’s too busy burning rubber.

“I started my journey when I was 10 and I am the fourth generation of Glick racers,” said Kylie Glick.

Women In Drag Racing: Breaking Barriers

“My great-grandmother raced at All-American Speedway when it was dirt, so a long time ago,” Glick said.

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“I’m the first woman in my family to race cars and my long-term goal is to go to NASCAR,” Glick said.

She is well on her way to achieving her goal. In three short years, Glick has gone from racing quarter midgets to the full-size model car she uses in junior NASCAR competitions. Although she is a relatively new racer, she is aware of the stereotypes that come with being a girl in a male-dominated field.

“People say, ‘She’s just a girl, she’s going to crash or she’s just a girl, that’s why she fell,’ and I don’t think that’s true,” Glick said.

“Racing has taught me a lot,” Glick said. “You have to be nice to everyone because you don’t know their background, never give up, always believe in yourself, never doubt because you can achieve so much in your life “

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In the meantime, it’s safe to say she’s not afraid to step into the race car.

“You just have to believe, pray and hope for the best,” Glick said. “That’s part of racing and that’s what you sign up for.”

Glick races in Madera May 18 and returns home to Roseville to race at the All-American Speedway June 1. She gets into her ’05 Don Davis trailer from the right, every time. She has a distinct rhythm to the way she clicks each buckle on her chest harness. She puts on her gloves, right hand first, then left and karate chops between each finger for a snug fit.

Then comes her helmet and neck. As she approaches the starting line to lay down some rubber and fly down the lane at the Yellowstone Drag Strip, nothing else matters. Just before she pulls the vehicle’s transbrake button, which sets almost every part of the car’s 2,500 horses in motion, she describes the feeling as “lying dance.”

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“I tap my foot on the brake,” Casey says. “When people talk about the fire in you, I feel it in my whole body. I can literally feel my heart beating out of my chest.”

It doesn’t matter who’s sitting next to you in the next row when the lights start pulling down what they call “the tree.” ” Casey says. “You put your helmet on and you have no choice. You just want to rip their throat out – in the best way, of course.”

The fire has been building in Casey since she climbed into her first trailer at 9 years old.

“My dad bought me a young dragster for Christmas and I told him, ‘Bring it back.’ I’m too scared,'” Casey says, trying to describe her feeling.  “You know that pit in your stomach you get when you try something new?”

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Her father did not return the car. Instead, he let her drive around the empty parking lot at the Metra.

“I won my first race my second or third weekend,” Casey says, “and from then on, I was hooked. It’s been relentless.”

She first broke the 200 mph barrier at age 17. Just last year, she hit a personal best of 227 mph in just 6.05 seconds on a quarter-mile track. No other female driver has touched that time and distance at any track in the state.

“I think I’ve always had this killer instinct when the pressure got really high. I thrive off those situations,” Casey says.

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This year, when the end of May rolled around, ushering in the start of the 2019 racing season, Casey says, “I don’t know what it was but my skin was crawling. I was so happy to get back there.”

Perhaps this is the title she is trying to keep. At the end of the 2018 season, she locked up the championship for the Montana Muscle Quick 8. The racing class pits the eight fastest cars against each other. It was her first championship in six years. Her first as an adult. While women have tied for first place, Casey was the first woman in the state to win it solo. She had two goals going into last year’s season – to take the No. 1 qualifying spot for every race and be named the Quick 8 Champion at the end of the season . She did both.

While she has already taken out some of the fastest men in Montana, she says, some of them didn’t like being hit by her.

“You can tell by their face when they don’t like losing your daughter,” Casey says. “And you can tell by the way they behave. It usually starts with a lot of excuses about their car or the route. It just motivates me and makes me want to hit more next time.”

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One man who has been drag racing for 30 plus years and will always have Casey’s back is her biggest fan – her father. Robert Tehle shares the Don Davis with his daughter. When he’s not racing in out-of-state national events in the car, he’s the crew chief, going over the car with a tooth comb before every race.

“It goes back to the garage and on a lift and everything is checked. The motor and transmission are rebuilt every 100 passes,” Robert says. “I’m not kidding you when I say she’s the son I never had. It would kill me if anything happened to her in that car and it was due to negligence on my part.”

You could say that Casey has followed in her father’s strict footsteps. While Casey holds the title as the fastest woman on four wheels, just last summer, Robert claimed the record at the High Line Drag Strip in Malta, traveling 183.6 mph in 3.96 seconds by an eighth of a mile. His fastest quarter mile is 231 mph in 5.97 seconds.

“His brain is made out of car parts, I swear,” Casey says. On race day, Robert is usually in their trailer sitting in front of his computer. He has wired the car with sensors so after every race, he can pull a computer chip and see exactly what happened during the race.

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“We have a weather station in our trailer and my dad goes by the humidity, how good the air is that day. He walks the path to make sure he is properly prepared. It goes over all the factors that go into six seconds on the track,” Casey says. “He’s kind of a genius when it comes to this stuff. Besides Shirley Muldowney, my dad has always been my hero.”

“She was the first woman to be professionally licensed for the NHRA,” Casey says. “They spit on her licence, gave her the worst time and treated her like rubbish. Every time I ever doubt anything, I look up a video of her and listen to her talk about racing. That’s how I want to be. She’s just sad.”

Last fall, Casey had the chance to FaceTime with her hero when her father stood in line to meet her at a race in Gainesville, Florida. Her father caught a video of the exchange as Shirley signed posters for fans. Casey can be heard telling the story of the race, “Hi Shirley! I’ve loved you since I was 9. I just want to say thank you. I couldn’t have done what I did if you hadn’t started.” As Shirley puts up another poster, she laughs at it and tells Casey, “I know. It’s all my fault!” Robert exclaims, “You have done so much for women. She is nowhere near the struggles she would have without women like you. You are her hero.”

While there have been many times when Casey was the only girl competing at the Yellowstone Drag Strip, 20-year-old Peyton Farnsworth has been rising in the SuperPro class.

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“I love that she pushes me just as hard as I do,” Casey says. “Her lighting is way better than mine, her reaction times. She is definitely a killer. “

“We’re a little hard to get past,” Peyton says. She drives a black Chevy S-10 with a touch that Casey describes as “pulling.” ” When asked if she looks up to the woman holding a track title, Peyton says, “Some guys are pushing her this year to see how fast they can go all go but she has broken barriers before they were even a thing. She is great. I love her.” She said, “I don’t know if I could