PHOTOS : ROB PEARSON |
Figure it out , learn it , and do it . That ’ s been 19-year-old Alex Taylor ’ s mantra since day one . Born and raised in Booneville , Arkansas , the young woman is currently pursuing her marketing degree at the University of Arkansas with hopes of working in motorsports and moonlights as a diehard HOT ROD Drag Week contender . Unlike many others , Taylor didn ’ t get her start in the Junior Dragster leagues . Instead , when she was about eight years old , she started crew chiefing for her father , Dennis , who built cars and had been involved in the sport as long as she could remember . Her mother , Debbie , had a ’ 68 Chevy Camaro that Taylor loved , and , when she turned 14 , her parents gifted to her .
Although the family intended to keep the car as a daily driver , when Taylor ’ s father asked if she wanted to try HOT ROD Drag Week , she jumped at the chance . She competed for the first time in the 2013 iteration of the grueling 5-day event
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as the youngest participant ever , and had just one weekend to learn to drive and tune as the recently-turned-16-yearold “ had never been down a drag strip at that point .” For engine management , Taylor had chosen a Holley system . Problem was , neither she nor her father knew how to tune it . Undeterred , this enterprising young woman started reading , created her first base tune , and was off and running . “ It wasn ’ t anywhere close to perfect , but it worked , and I ran my tune all through my first Drag Week .” With her mother as a co-pilot , Taylor made as many passes as possible to gain seat time , and finished out the Daily Driver category with a 12.0936-second average . |
After , Taylor went on to receive her Holley EFI certification . The car “ quickly snowballed ”, and what started as a 12-second Camaro that Taylor drove to high school each day began its transition into the eight-second “ Badmaro ” she competes with now . The original plan was to run a naturally aspirated LS1 engine , but that was scrapped in favor of a set of twin 69mm Borg Warner turbochargers boosting a 6.0L engine backed by a stock 4L80 transmission .
Determined to go faster , she returned to HOT ROD Drag Week in 2014 to run in “ Street Race Small Block – Power Adder ” where a string of nine-second passes yielded a 9.5182-second average and ranked her seventh . It wasn ’ t
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November 2016 |
DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 113 |