After a decade of "maternity leave" in her native Australia, Top Fuel sensation Rachelle Splatt will return to the racetrack later this season, Auto Action's John Doig has reported.
 
Splatt is the first woman in the world to clock a 300-mph pass, and it came in NHRA competition March 6, 1994, at Houston.
 
She will field her own team with a dragster, transporter, and parts package from Lamattina Team Farm Racing. Her schedule has not been announced, nor has any word about whether she plans to enter any NHRA races.
 
Like three-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Angelle Sampey, Splatt took a hiatus to focus on family. And like Sampey last year, she said she was ready to make a comeback.
 
“I stepped away from racing to raise a family,” Splatt told Auto Action. “I had three children in five years, and that became the most important thing in my life. It was only earlier this year, when I started a Facebook page and was going through my photos and memorabilia and got talking to people, when it dawned on me that the time was right to return to racing.
 
"I contacted my long-term manager, Tony Sewell, and also spoke to Bruce Read, the boss of Top Fuel Australia, and things moved quickly from there," Splatt said.
 
"It felt right, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to return with my own team. Thanks to Gary Rodgers, we have Valvoline back on board, but we are in the market for a naming-right sponsor. Top Fuel has come on leaps and bounds since 2006. We want to be competitive. That means having the good equipment, and that costs money."
Splatt is known in Australia as the Queen of Speed, but she said she's in no hurry to put pressure on herself. She has to become acclimated to the changes in the Top Fuel class since she last raced in 2006, at the Nitro Champs at Sydney Dragway.
 
"I will be pretty nervous the first time I go to the start-line. It will be over 10 years since I last raced. Previously, the longest I was out of a car was nine months when I was having babies," she said. "I have run 300 mph, but to run around 330 mph will be a big step. I won't be under pressure. We plan to take it easy and enjoy our racing."
 
The second-generation racer took delivery of her new equipment in mid-May.
 
Splatt joins the likes of Barbara Hamilton, Shirley Shahan (Bridges), Shirley Muldowney, Sampey, Shelly (Anderson) Payne, Melanie Troxel, and Erica Enders in writing NHRA history. With her achievement at Houston, Splatt became the 16th and final member (and lone female member) of the SLICK 50 300-MPH Club.
 
She made her debut at the Calder Park Nationals in 1993 and shot to fame after winning the Top Fuel trophy with a pass of 5.20 seconds at 273 mph, which was the quickest and fastest pass ever recorded in Australia.