PRITCHETT, PAPA JOHN’S PIZZA DRAGSTER SIZZLING HOT IN TOP FUEL
Leah Pritchett, in the piping-hot Papa John’s Pizza Dragster, served up delicious defiance Sunday at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.
In earning her second career victory, Pritchett, 28, who grew up in nearby Redlands and began her drag- racing journey at this racetrack at age eight in a Jr. Dragster, proved that perseverance pays off.
She (along with the entire two-car team) was abandoned last April when former team owner Bob Vandergriff abruptly shut down his operation. It was a plunging low, for it came right after she had claimed her first victory, at Phoenix.
But Pritchett slogged through that initial jolt, as well as the mood swings that come with cold-calling and networking alike in searching for marketing partners to keep going. She cobbled together a full slate of national events last season. She landed a deal with elite Don Schumacher Racing - and a Countdown to the championship berth. She improved from 10th to seventh in the final standings. And she secured funding from Papa John’s Pizza for this year.
She savored the taste of triumph Sunday, running away from final-round opponent Doug Kalitta, who immediately lost traction in his Mac Tools Dragster and crossed the finish line in 7.630 seconds at 103.85 mph.0'
Pritchett’s winning 3.711 elapsed time at 324.98 mph on the 1,000-foot course helped her make some history. She became the 40th Winternationals winner but only the fifth female (following Shirley Muldowney, Shelly Anderson, Lori Johns, and Melanie Troxel). She headlined a trio of top qualifiers who all wound up in the winners circle, marking the first time since the July 2015 event at Sonoma, Calif., that has happened. She shared the podium with DSR colleague Matt Hagan (Funny Car) and Jason Line (Pro Stock).
“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me professionally. The last 10 days make up for the first part of last year,” Pritchett said.
The stretch includes testing at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, near Phoenix, where she turned in four of the top five performances of the preseason warm-up and unofficially made the quickest run in NHRA history at 3.654 seconds in the Todd Okuhara-Joe Barlam-prepared dragster.
Pritchett also hadn’t forgotten she fouled out at this race last year, and she said, “I have waited all last year to redeem myself.”
This, she said, is the best situation she could imagine.
“We have the perfect group of people and a car that is reacting. Sometimes you tell a car what to do . . . and it wants to be a stubborn child. Not this thing. This thing is a straight-A, ‘perfect-kid in school’ kind of [car] and we’re taking full advantage of it.,” Pritchett said.
She will return to Chandler, Ariz., for the Feb. 24-26 NHRA Arizona Nationals as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour continues.