KELLY BETTES
D
DIVERSE
PORTFOLIO
R AG R ACING IS PERHAPS THE MOST DIVERSE
motorsport, with countless different classes and subsections
spread out around the world, each with their own unique
style and fan base. Kelly Bettes, the 2017/2018 400 Thunder
Top Fuel champion, has experienced that diversity in a big
way over the last several months.
Before kicking off the 2018/2019 season with the Lamattina family’s
“Carrot Kings” Top Fuel dragster at Sydney Dragway’s East Coast Thunder
in early November, Bettes traveled to the U.S. with Jett Racing and their
one-of-a-kind single-turbo, 4-cylinder Datsun pickup truck to race at the
FuelTech World Sport Compact Challenge at Orlando Speed World Dragway.
She managed a semifinal finish,
making a statement in the loaded
sport compact world. But the rac-
ing environment itself left an equal-
ly strong impression on Bettes and
her team. With an estimated 30,000
passionate fans coming through the
gates over the three days of the event,
it was unlike anything Bettes had
ever seen.
“The enthusiasm of the fans tru-
ly blew me away,” Bettes, 34, says.
“The enthusiasm of fans in America is
definitely a step up on things here in
Australia. We have enthusiastic fans,
but it just goes to the next level over
there. When you’re towing out in the
pit area, you’re having people come
up to the car and wanting to shake
your hand or give you a fist bump to say good luck on your way out. You
could be in the car on the starting line and you could almost hear the ex-
citement and the cheer from people on the outside. It was just unbelievable.”
Bettes and the Jett team returned to Orlando a month later to take on
the World Sport Compact Challenge at Orlando. She posted a career-best
6.946-second lap at 194.66 mph in the high-winding “ute” in testing, then
used a string of low-7-second passes in qualifying and eliminations, coupled
with holeshot wins in the second round and semifinals, to reach the final
round. There, the ill-handling Datsun forced Bettes to lift and abort the
run, but it was still considered an overwhelmingly positive experience, one
that left her wanting more.
“To me, coming from Australia and racing in America is the ultimate
dream for a lot of us,” Bettes says. “That was my first taste of being able to
do it. I would love to run over there again if any opportunity presented itself.”
Bettes received another incredible opportunity earlier this year when Jett
Racing team owner Collin Wilshire asked her to drive his Proline-powered,
twin-turbocharged Mustang Pro Mod in testing. Wilshire’s recent shoulder
surgery would prevent him from testing – and later racing – the Mustang, so
Bettes was called in to shake down the car in advance of the major Sydney
Jamboree event. The resulting test session was a learning experience for
Bettes, who quickly realized she was dealing with a whole new monster.
“I found I had to drive the Pro Mod car more like the fuel car,” Bettes
says, explaining the differences between the driving styles of the Pro Mod,
Top Fuel dragster and the Datsun. “The Datsun has a 92-inch wheelbase
and has a 1,400-horsepower turbo
4-cylinder engine, so that thing is
pretty mental and it’s very darty on
the track. There’s a lot of steering
that goes into it.
“On one of my first runs (in the Pro
Mod) when I went through to half-
track in it, I found that I was giving
it too much steering input, so I was
almost driving it like the Datsun, like
a short wheelbase car, expecting it to
need that real sudden movement on
the wheel,” Bettes continues. “But it
actually really wanted to be driven
more like the fuel car where you’re
giving it more finesse and encourag-
ing it one way or the other, not really
giving it any kind of harsh movement.
I learned pretty quickly on that with
the car. As soon as I calmed down the steering input I was giving it, the
car responded a lot better.”
As of early March, Bettes only planned on racing the Pro Mod at the Syd-
ney Jamboree in late March, with future driving opportunities depending
on Wilshire’s recovery process. In the meantime, she’ll focus on defending
her title as the Australian Top Fuel champion.
“The main goal I have this season is backing that up because I want to be
a two-time Top Fuel champion,” says Bettes, who became the first woman
to win a professional drag racing championship in Australia. “I have that
intensity of wanting it so bad now that I guess in some cases you could
say there might be a little bit more pressure, but in the same breath I’d
say that it’s the same pressure because last season my goal was to win a
championship and that hasn’t changed for this season.” - NATE VAN WAGNEN
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