MESA, Ariz. — When Maddi Gordon isn’t working at her grandparents’ Morro Bay Cabinets operation at Paso Robles, Calif., the 20-year-old is following her father Doug’s footsteps in the NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car class.
She’s chasing her first championship to go with her dad’s three.
But by year’s end, she’ll be rocked from her comfort zone of drag racing with team-owner grandparents Mike and Cheryl Gordon, parents Doug and Christina, and younger sister Macie (a racer in her own right serving as engine builder and car chief).
She’ll be trading a 3,500-horsepower, full-bodied, 120-125-inch-wheelbase, front-engine race car that covers the quarter-mile in five seconds at about 280 mph for a 12,000-horsepower, 300-inch-long, rear-engine Top Fuel dragster that’s the quickest-accelerating vehicle on the planet.
Maddi Gordon, who won at Seattle last year to become the NHRA’s 100th different woman to win a national event, is three-time Funny Car champion Ron Capps’ next-gen choice as he expands his four-year-old team.
He promised when he announced in December 2021 that he was launching Ron Capps Motorsports that he would provide a hand up to a deserving young racer or two.
And Gordon definitely is deserving. She digs in and works on the clutch of her Funny Car. She’s a quick learner – she and Macie used the pandemic upheaval to become deeply involved with their dad’s racing venture. So in less than five years, she has distinguished herself as a seasoned mechanic and driver.
She’s super-respectful: “I’ve been so fortunate to been blessed with the family that I have and the team that I have and surrounded by the people that I’m surrounded with. And my sister and I definitely put in the effort and put in the time. We didn’t just get handed everything. If it wasn’t for my family, I would not be where I am. Absolutely not. There’s no way.”
But Capps said, “I always had Maddi in mind. I grew up with their family. I just love that she grew up like I did, where she builds the cars, she works on ’em, she works with her family. She’s very involved in the mechanical side. I knew she would be great at it. I came up in the sport and never having to bring any sponsor money to any of my rides, I was lucky. They hired me because they thought I’d do a good job. And that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Gordon said, “The way that he just chose me is, I mean, seriously, I am picking my jaw off the floor. It’s just a dream come true. We’re super-fortunate to have the backing that we have for our Funny Car. But we don’t have the funding to go [pro]. And I’ve known that. It’s not something that we can afford.
“But with Ron, he’s just like, ‘I want to choose you because of who you are and how you drive and all that stuff, not because you have the money to do it.’ Seriously, I’m at a loss for words. It’s just an honor. And that doesn’t happen in drag racing. That opportunity is unheard of. And so the fact that he chose me and saw something in me is, I don’t know. I don’t even have the right words for it.”
Capps noticed that “there are so many social-media influencers who are women who are working on cars. And it’s really fun. We don’t just have girls who compete. We’ve got girls who win championships and races and are very good from Jr. Dragster on up. So I just felt like it was the perfect opportunity.”
It is – and God bless Maddi Gordon. She’s a delight to visit with and the bright young lady anyone would want as a daughter.
But – with absolutely no disrespect to her – how much of a chance does a young drag racer from, say, the Jr. Dragster ranks or an aspiring privateer without personal connections to a team owner gain attention?
John Force, Mike Salinas, Chad Green, Antron Brown and Tim Wilkerson helped young drivers turn pro, but they were their sons and daughters, family members, or the son of a super-valued crew chief. Shawn Langdon, a Jr. Dragster graduate and national champion at both the Jr. Dragster and the sportsman levels, got his initial break from high-school buddy Morgan Lucas.
And nothing is wrong with that at all. It’s wonderful that they got those chances. Lucky them.
IndyCar has an Indy NXT feeder system, and several teams are established in the process. NASCAR and its teams have seen the value of investing in the future. In Formula 1, the practice long has been a staple of sustainability.
Drag racing might be the only major motorsport that does not have teams with driver-development programs.
The NHRA’s Lucas Oil Series isn’t billed as such, partly because a majority of the drivers don’t aspire to join the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series level that is composed of the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes.
“I came up in a unique way,” Capps said. “I worked on these cars until I had a shot. I didn’t have big money, parents with sponsors. I didn’t have any of that. I knew I had to get a shot. I just needed a shot to get my license or get in a car. Luckily around the right people, my career took off, being in the right spots.”
The question is: How can an aspiring young racer from a modest background with no connections in the sport get that same break? That might be something for the NHRA to think about and maybe work with its teams to craft a plan.
