Rachel has already been racing the car for a couple of months at reduced speeds. She received her New Mexico driver’s license in December at the age of 15 years and 8 months. NHRA allows a driver with a state-issued driver’s license to drive a car at the race track as long as the car does not run quicker than 10.00 seconds or faster than 135 MPH. In order to go faster than that, the driver must obtain a NHRA competition license. The minimum age NHRA has set for a licensed driver is 16. With that in mind, Rachel has been competing with the throttle stop limiting the car to elapsed times in the low 10 second range at a top speed of 130 MPH. She went two rounds in her first race in March and three rounds in her second race in April. In addition she has made over 30 practice runs at the reduced speed.
Having turned 16 in mid-April, Rachel was anxious to get the license process underway. The NHRA license process requires a succession of 6 runs starting with a half-track shutoff and ending with 2 full runs. Rachel passed the required cockpit orientation test performed by track owner Robert Costa. For her first half track run, Rachel got to experience the car in an all-out mode as it ran a 1.20 second sixty foot time and 5.26 seconds to half track where she shut it off and coasted through with an 8.90 second elapsed time for the quarter mile at a slowing speed of 109 MPH. The remainder of her license runs were done using a throttle stop to regulate the car to times more in line with the Super Comp class. Her final two license runs were an 8.81 second ET at 161 MPH and an 8.77 second ET at 162 MPH.
One of the biggest challenges was fitting Rachel’s 4’10”, 90 pound body to the cockpit of a car designed for a much bigger driver. To fabricate a solution she turned to Robert Howard. Howard has been crew chief for many of Lyle Greenberg’s cars and does all of the engine and chassis work for the Greenberg team. After considerable thought, Howard adapted one of Jennifer Greenberg’s (Rachel’s older sister who races oval track cars) sprint car seats to the cockpit of the dragster. This securely cocoons Rachel into the cockpit in a very safe fashion. In addition, Howard relocated the dash, steering wheel, shifter and pedals to fit Rachel’s tiny stature.
Rachel’s next event is the Memorial Day Weekend race at Albuquerque Dragway. In addition to running a full schedule of events at her home track in Albuquerque, Rachel plans to race in Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas later in 2009.
Rachel Greenberg represents marketing partners AMSOIL, Cabinet Concepts, SunCo Equipment and Supply, M&J Signs, Synergy Coatings, Howard Powered Racing Engines, NM Spring and Suspension and WJR Photography.
And as a side note, I don't think he spent time visiting in the middle east this winter on a vacation trip. Draw your own conclusions from that.
a-c
Photos courtesy of WJR Photography (www.wjrphotography.com)
For more pictures click here – www.greenbergracing.com and click the "Photo/Video Gallery" link
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