SANFORD TAKES BIG LEAP TOWARD EARNING TOP FUEL LICENSE
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Mother Nature wasn’t terribly cooperative Monday for Ashley Sanford at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Threatening skies, tricky winds, and a sudden 11-degree drop in temperature played havoc with the tune-up for Bobby and Dom Lagana. Despite that, Sanford, the NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver, took a huge stride toward transferring her competition license to Top Fuel.
Sanford, of Fullerton, Calif., drove the Lagana Family’s Nitro Ninja Dragster to a 3.879-second elapsed time at 319.22 mph on the 1,000-foot course as one of her required full passes at 4.50 or quicker and 240 mph or faster.
For perspective, that 3.879 would have earned her the No. 12 qualifying spot in last Sunday’s Top Fuel field (and would have assured her a first-round match-up against No. 5 starter Leah Pritchett). It would have made her No. 13 at Pomona and Phoenix and 12th at Gainesville.
“Today has been a crazy, incredible, phenomenal, insane, and every-word-in-between day! It flew by! It felt like it went by in an hour,” Sanford said after her 12-hour, four-pass day at the racetrack in which she battled crosswinds and fluctuating conditions while learning the subtleties of the car.
“I felt like I’ve got be perfect. I’ve got to prove myself to everyone. Then at the end of the day, I was like, ‘I’m out here having fun. I’m doing the unthinkable, even though I’m not walking away with my license today. I drove it to my comfort level and had a blast doing it.’ At the end of the day . . . 319 miles an hour . . . Really can’t be too mad that it didn’t go the perfect way I wanted it to,” the just-turned-23-year-old said.
Her first launch, a planned early shut-off at half-track, resulted in a 4.883-second E.T. at 147.36 mph.
Ashley Sanford was surrounded by champions and top-tier drag racers as she started her Top Fuel licensing process this past Monday. She even wore eight-time champion Tony Schumacher’s helmet because he said he thought it might fit her better than hers did.
She said, “Talk about another cherry on top of the day – getting to spend the day surrounded by the NHRA’s finest.”
But what overwhelmed her with joy – not surprisingly for anyone who knows the bubbly 23-year-old her from her Fullerton, Calif., neighborhood or as their server at Tony’s Deli in Anaheim – was having her family there to watch.
“I am so thankful and grateful because out there on Monday I had ore family watching me than were able to come out and watch me race that weekend,” Sanford said. “They were like, ‘We couldn’t get off fulltime, but we’re going to come Monday.’ My boyfriend completely ditched work to come out, and so did other family members. It’s absolutely insane the amount of support I get from my family. It means the world to me. It fuels me, and it makes them all proud. So it’s exciting.”
Even Sanford’s grandfather, who was a sand-drag racer and led his son (Ashley’s dad Shane) into that form of motorsports, was there Monday at Las Vegas.
“He’s the reason my family loves drag racing,” she said. “His father, who I was never able to meet, was at the very first Winternationals at Pomona, and he brought my grandfather out there. That’s where we all say it really started, the love for drag racing. From there my grandfather got into sand-drag racing with my father, and I was four or five at the time, watching them.”
She also raced in sand-drag competition and won her first race.
Today, her grandfather doesn’t get out to the races as much, so she knows for him to sit through 11-plus hours of her licensing routine was a blessing for her, she said.
“He was absolutely determined to come out Monday, and he stuck out there the whole day, watching me go through the whole process. It was so much work on his body, but he did not want to miss it. For him to be there was emotional. It was exciting. But more than anything, it was such a monumental moment for our whole family. God was there with us, and it was a day we’re never going to forget.”
She also had a Who’s Who of NHRA nitro notables guiding her through the procedures Monday, including Schumacher, who helped clarify the confusing list of requirements. Joining him were Funny Car champion and drag-racing-school instructor Jack Beckman and Beckman competitors Matt Hagan and Jim Campbell. Sisters Brittany and Courtney Force stopped by to encourage Sanford. Alexis De Joria gave Sanford a hug before one of her passes, wished her the best, and urged her to have fun.
“Alexis, I love her so much. When I got started, she was one of my biggest cheerleaders. To get to see her before I made that initial hit was really full circle in a crazy way,” Sanford said. “She was the one who believed in me in the beginning, and here I was, about to start making my dream come true by sitting in and driving a Top Fuel dragster.
“They were all supporting me and cheering me on. It was so surreal,” she said. “I’ve been fans of them pretty much all of their careers, and [then I was] taking this huge first step and getting in the ranks with them. And all of them were 120-percent supportive and excited for me. It’s huge to be welcomed into such a prestigious class by all those people.”
Of course, one day soon, the Top Fuel drivers will ease upon the advice and not share as much information with her. She said she’s prepared for that.
“The ultimate goal is to compete with them,” she said. And perhaps calming the down at least a little, she assured, “I still have a lot of work to do.”
Then she showed her spunk again, her determination to beef up the headliner class that has had some trouble filling the fields at three of the year’s first four races.
“I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not giving up. To be at every event and develop that car count would be the dream come true,” Sanford said. “This is the first step in making the dream come true. The next step is making it to every event of the year and being a contender for the championship.” – Susan Wade
She said, “I’m not going to lie. The jitterbugs totally kicked in. When I hit that first bulb in pre-stage, I thought my heart was going to pump out of my chest. But once the lights came down and I hit the throttle, I didn’t want to let off.”
During the second run, she experienced tire shake and lost traction, recording a 7.678, 77.67 mph. She said the crosswind played with her mind a bit, causing her to think the car was out of the groove. Uncertain about that and unwilling to push the car perhaps beyond its limits, she cut off the engine before the finish line. That pass yielded a 4.833, 152.52.
Her best clocking came with the fourth try of the day. She far exceeded the minimum requirement with her 3.889, 319.22 that didn’t yet earn her Top Fuel license but certainly did make her the fastest food server at Tony’s Deli in Anaheim, Calif., where she had to return to work the next day.
“A girl’s still got to eat! I’ve got to work and make money,” she said later in the week, dashing about her home, her attention split between driving nearly 320 miles an hour Monday and getting to work on time each day for the rest of the week.
“This is the best part: I’m a waitress!” she said. “If you’re ever in the mood for a ginormous sandwich and beer in Anaheim ,California, I’m your girl! We have regulars there who are 100-percent supportive. And I’m lucky the owners and managers all support what I’m doing and give me time off when I go and do these things.
So two years of preparation for that moment paid off. She’s in the ballpark with drag-racing elite Mello Yello Series competitors – and she said she has many future rivals and nitro colleagues to thank.
Recognizing that the sport is “gender-blind” and family-oriented, Sanford said, “It has some morals that I’ve grown up with. You can be a small-town girl who no one in her family ever competed in the NHRA, who didn’t compete in the NRA until she was 18, who has a crazy dream of getting a Top Fuel dragster and accomplishes it. It makes myself and my family relatable to all the fans of the NHRA, because I was a fan for pretty much my whole life, until four or five years ago. So it just proves that if you really want something and you’re passionate about it, you can absolutely make it possible.
“I definitely think a lot of my support stems from that,” Sanford said. “I’m a little more fresh from coming off the fan-to-driver boat. I’m a little more excited.”
The Lagana brothers provided the dragster and their mechanical expertise. She said they and the crew helped her understand “all the different pressures and feelings it takes to be in a Top Fuel car.”
She said they “couldn’t have made me feel more comfortable and more at home. Preparing to do the most insane thing in the world . . . I honestly thought going into this moment I would be scared, nervous, stressed – and I was none of that. And that was all thanks to the Lagana family and the whole Nitro Ninja crew. They made me confident as a driver.”
Sanford said she plans to try to complete the licensing process with a full pass at zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C. when the NHRA visits there April 28-30 for the Four-Wide Nationals.
“As long as the Laganas are going to be there, I’ll be there,” she said.
Measuring her words a little bit more deliberately, Sanford didn’t reveal exactly how she might proceed once she earns that license. She didn’t reveal if she might drive the Nitro Ninja Dragster, on a fulltime basis or perhaps share the ride with current driver Tripp Tatum (who last Saturday expressed faith in her ability to handle the car). She didn’t say whether she would field her own independent team, drive for someone else altogether, or who her sponsor(s) might be.
Instead, she said “There’s a lot in the works that we’re trying to figure out.”
Sanford said, “With the Nitro Ninja car, there are opportunities to run events with them. It just has to financially work and time-/schedule-wise work. So if all the stars could align, absolutely I could see us doing an event this year. But that’s if all the stars align, and sometimes you don’t get that lucky in racing. There are absolutely no guarantees, but if we could make it happen, we would absolutely love to.”
One thing Sanford has discovered, if nothing else, is that the act of being a race-car driver is a profession in itself.
“Coming from being a fan of the sport to a driver, I thought all I had to worry about is driving. I’m finding out driving is a very small part of drag racing if you want to be competitive. I’ve quickly learned to become a businesswoman. It’s a struggle. It is far from easy. But with the determination and passion I have, it’s gotten me as far as I am today.
“I’m not stopping. I’m going to keep knocking on doors and keep trying my hardest. I believe [the slow nature of the process] happens for a reason. It has made my skin a lot thicker. I’m getting more seat time, which is valuable. Hopefully I’ll just be that much better from it,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere. When I get there, I’ll get there. It just takes one person to say yes. I’m hoping that person will come soon.”
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