GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After making her first-ever runs in a 12,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster last week during the PRO preseason test session at Gainesville Raceway, rookie driver Maddi Gordon has officially completed her Top Fuel licensing process.
The third-generation racer and former Top Alcohol Funny Car standout completed the licensing process while gaining valuable on-track experience aboard a 330-mph, nitromethane-burning machine.
With four days of testing behind her, Gordon shared her thoughts on the transition to the sport’s quickest class and what she’s learned so far as her Rookie of the Year campaign begins aboard the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster next weekend at the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.
The team is led by crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching, with Chuck Grospitch serving as car chief.
Gordon’s team owner along with veterans Brittany Force, Clay Millican and Shawn Langdon signed off on her license after she ran 3.834 at 318.09 mph in her final pass.
Gordon said the licensing and testing process went according to plan.
“Everything that everyone said was going to happen, happened,” she said. “The Top Fuel car, it goes out there, leaves hard, the motor drops, and then it accelerates super hard, but when the RPMs drop, it starts going faster. That seems so backwards to me, but it’s exactly what happened. Ron and Rob and Troy and Chuck and Shawn Langdon, everyone who spent a lot of time answering all my questions were so helpful.
“There was a time with one of my burnouts, it hung the throttle open a little bit and it was idling high and I couldn’t stop it; that was one of my questions and they told me to lean it out and if it doesn’t kill it right away, hit the switch, and that’s what I did, but I think it just goes back to being surrounded by great people and great mentors who are helping me learn and made sure we were at the point of being able to successfully license.”
Gordon said she was surprised by the physicality of driving a Top Fuel car.
“I knew it pushed you around, but these things push you hard, and I was really surprised by how aggressively it shoves you over when one goes out,” she said. “But honestly, you can’t really compare it. In the Alcohol Funny Car, you’re revving it up and you’re dropping the clutch, you’re shifting it twice, yanking it around, it usually carries the front end to 200 feet and then it sets it back down.
“Everything in the Alcohol car happens between the start and the eighth mile; that’s the gnarliest part, and after that, it mellows out. Once you get to the eighth mile, as long as you’re not out of the groove, you’re cruising,” Gordon explained. “But with the Fuel car, it’s gnarly from start to 500 feet, and then it gets even crazier when you go from 500 feet to the back half. You keep going faster and that’s the opposite of the Alcohol car. The driving style is just completely different. I can’t really directly compare it to driving the Alcohol car, but I do think having that experience really helped me with being able to make those quick decisions and split-second seat of the pants driving calls you have to make.”
Gordon acknowledged she is out of her comfort zone in the Top Fuel car.
“Realizing that you do have to drive out of your comfort zone to a certain extent. I’m not going to be comfortable going 330 miles per hour,” she said. “I’m obviously new to this so of course I’m going to be uncomfortable for a bit, it’s just a matter of how far out of your comfort zone you can drive, so I was being a bit more timid those first few runs. It put some cylinders out, it pushed hard and I let off.
“I think an experienced driver would’ve been able to drive through that, but me, I was feeling a little bit behind the car so I didn’t feel like I could correct it back. It’s just going to be a matter of building confidence; the more times I go out on the race track, the more things I feel. The last run we made, it shook but it wasn’t really that bad of shake. It’s questionable whether it would’ve made it or not. I just need more seat time.”
