Racing is something that has been in Mendy Fry’s blood since she was toddler.

At the age of 4, under the guidance of her late father Ron Fry, she was driving quarter-midget sprint cars.

By the age of 18, Fry was piloting a Top Alcohol dragster and she has kept driving all types of cars off and on from that point.

Racing is something that has been in Mendy Fry’s blood since she was toddler.

At the age of 4, under the guidance of her late father Ron Fry, she was driving quarter-midget sprint cars.

By the age of 18, Fry was piloting a Top Alcohol dragster and she has kept driving all types of cars off and on from that point.

“My father was a chassis builder and I was his only boy,” Fry said with a laugh. “That’s how I got into racing.”

Ron Fry owned a chassis shop headquartered at Sears Point, Ca, before he passed away in 1995 of cancer.

While only 18, Fry drove a Top Alcohol Dragster that her father built to a 6.15-second elapsed time at 220 mph, which back in 1988, was one of the quickest and fastest runs in that class.

Fast-forward to the present, and Mendy is still behind the wheel. These days, Fry, who is known as the “Nitro Kitty” is driving a AA/ Funny Car owned by Mike McCain with the primary sponsor of Don Nelson Racing in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series.

“I was involved in nostalgia drag racing when it got started back in the 1980s and I’ve really been drawn to it,” Fry said. “I was out of drag racing for about seven or eight years and I got back into it in junior fuel in the nostalgia circuit, and I just really couldn’t believe what the Top Fuel class had done. When I was racing Top Fuel back in the 80s, Top Fuel was literally like the cars that were in the rafters of some people with their old 392 steel blocks and stuff. I came back and  saw that it was  pretty cool, and I had to check it out.”

Fry just completed the season in the NHRA Heritage Series, by competing in the 18th California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway, just north of Bakersfield, this past weekend. Fry had her  a tough go as the rear end broke on her Funny Car during the first round of qualifying.

“That ended our weekend and that’s not the way we wanted to go out on the season, but unfortunately that’s just how racing is sometimes,” Fry said.

Fry is no stranger to piloting nostalgia racing.

From 1989-91, Mendy and her dad, Ron, were  a powerhouse in the Vintage Drag Racing’s Super Street Class. Mendy drove a 454-cubic inch big block Chevy-powered bright red 1927 Ford roadster, which was hand built by her dad.

“That car ran mid 8s (elapsed times) and we beat everybody for three years in a row, and that’s what really got us into nostalgia drag racing,” Mendy said.

Around that same time, Mendy also came to the realization that she didn’t want to be working in a chassis shop her entire life, so she went back to school.

“No one in my family had ever gone to college and I decided to take a little time off from racing and get my degree in accounting at San Diego State,” Mendy said. “At about the time I was finishing up my degree, my father passed away from cancer. I finished school and then I got a job as an auditor with Price Waterhouse.”

Mendy spent three years at Price Waterhouse and is now working for a publicly-held company called Clarient in Orange County, Ca..

“I’m just really glad that I made the decision to take time and provide for my future because I have a very solid future in accounting,” Mendy said. “I’m the corporate accounting manager (at Clarient) and we are a cancer diagnostics company, so I really like where I work. I’ve really been touched by the disease and I can really relate to what we do, which is try and bring clarity to a complex disease.

"Drag racing doesn’t always pay the bills. I would really like for it to do that some day. If somebody gave me a full-time job driving a race car, I would quit my day job in like 30 seconds because I can always be an accountant. I know I’m going to keep racing as long as it is fun. I really enjoy the class that I’m in. These are very real race cars and a lot of people who race Funny Cars in the big show come over on their off weekends and drive these cars as well , and they’re a handful .  I’m just glad that I’m getting such great experience driving these cars.”

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