Mainstream America will soon discover what drag racing fans have known for decades. Shirley Muldowney was a great drag racer who just happened to be a woman. 

Thanks to a forthcoming documentary produced by FOX Sports, the Hall of Famer and four-time Top Fuel champion Muldowney will be profiled in what promises to be a presentation for the ages. Like her 1980 championship-winning Top Fuel car, the major production will be “Shirley.”

The release date has yet to be announced, but for a select number of drag racing fans, a private premiere with the drag racing legend on 7 p.m. Friday at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center will allow drag racing fans to see it ahead of the broadcast. A panel discussion featuring Muldowney and Florida legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits will follow. FOX personality Amanda Busick will serve as moderator.

Tickets for the exclusive showing are $75 each and, because of limited seating, require advance purchase and RSVP to https://buy.stripe.com/7sI6rtgJ58nedxu3cq. In addition to the documentary and the panel discussion, attendees will receive a complimentary movie poster commemorating the occasion and will have access to food truck fare from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Muldowney became the first woman licensed to drive the sport’s top-of-the-line vehicles. She also became the first at the professional level to capture a national event title when she beat Bob Edwards in the final round of the NHRA Springnationals at Columbus, Ohio, on June 13, 1976.

The following year, she won the first of her three World Championships, adding titles in 1980 and 1982. She punctuated the latter with a final round victory over Garlits, himself a three-time NHRA champion, at the Gatornationals.  

Not only was she the first woman to earn her Top Fuel license, the first to race in a pro final (June 8, 1975, at Columbus, Ohio), the first to win a tour event, and the first to win the championship, Muldowney also was the first to qualify No. 1 (at Columbus, the day before winning her first event), the first to win the world’s biggest drag race, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis (Sept. 6, 1982), the first to win outside the U.S. (August 7, 1977 in the Molson Grandnational at Montreal, Quebec) and the first named to the Auto Racing All America Team by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (1975).

Muldowney was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990 and into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2004.