WAVING THE CHECKERED FLAG
Drag racer Britt Taylor is club series champion
‘You don’t have to be a kid to learn, any age can do it ... and it comes with the territory that you learn to work on cars. That is very empowering.’
– Britt Taylor, drag racer
FITCHBURG » Drag racer Britt Taylor was recently crowned the 2021 Northeast Old Drag Racers and Musclecar Association series champion, coming in first place this season out of 79 active racers, an impressive feat she never imagined she and her race team could accomplish just three short years into her racing career.
“You hope for it, but you never know,” she said. “I am still basking in the glow. I feel like I was set up for success as far as my car and team.”
Taylor, 25, a proud Fitchburg State University graduate and city resident, drives a 1968 Pro 9-second Camaro in the races held at the Lebanon Valley Speedway in New York. She and her Britt Taylor Racing team, which includes crew chief Eric Baird and pit crew member Robyn Comeau, who also manages marketing and sponsorship, travel together to West Lebanon every weekend from April to October, dedication that has certainly paid off.
“These are the people who have been here since the beginning,” Taylor said of her team. “It has been a labor of massive love.”
The racing team said they enjoy making the commute to New York together and are in the process of converting a city bus into a trailer that will sleep them all.
“We usually go down Thursday night, and the minute we roll through that gate all the stress of the week goes away,” Baird said. “You put it all away.”
Taylor said her Camaro “is really at the peak of its performance,” with her fastest run this season a head spinning 9.87 seconds for a quarter mile race, 1,320 feet of pure adrenaline.
“I usually hit my stride and get comfortable around July and that was definitely the case this season,” she said.
But she said the start to the season, during which Taylor put in “a lot of seat time,” was a bit shaky, including missing the first two races due to car problems.
“In the beginning weren’t seeing the kind of consistency we needed,” she said of the Camaro. “We pulled the engine and brought it to a guy in New York and after that, things turned around.”
As the only female driver in
the league, Taylor said she was welcomed with open arms from day one by her fellow racers who are for the most part well above her age bracket and have been racing for decades.
“We were very much strangers but now we are all great friends and there is a lot of playful banter,” she said. “They joked about evicting me at the end of the season.”
The NODRAMA drivers are paired up randomly with a fellow racer at the beginning of each race and assigned the left or right lane for the bracket style lane races. Taylor upset reigning club champion Jeff Kraenzle when she was dubbed champion after the final race on Oct. 23.
“I was nervous, it was a tight race, dangerously close,” she said of the last race, adding that the overall points difference from the season between her and Kraenzle was just 45 points.
She said they “have some incredible neighbors at the pit that are a wealth of knowledge,” including race car driver Wayne Farquhar, whom Taylor credits with being the first to put her in a car and teach her “the essentials.”
“He taught her to go to the track and win,” Baird said of Farquhar. “You’re all best friends until you are at the starting line.”
Taylor said there “is a lot of strategy” to drag racing, and that she and her team have learned a lot from her fellow racers, such as Mike Fitts and Grant Nichols, who having been more than willing to share their knowledge and expertise.
“They explained to us how to get more out of the car and how to read the weather, which is one of the reasons we won this year,” she said. “It’s not lost in you how hard it is to win.”
The camaraderie between the racers, some who like Taylor and her crew drive hours for the chance to race, is clear to see in a photo taken after the last race.
“They all stayed to watch my race and be in the picture,” Taylor said.
Their track friends were clutch when it came to helping Taylor and her team be able to participate in the last race, coming to their rescue with parts, oil and other assistance after the team pulled Taylor’s car off the trailer the night before the race and discovered it had a “giant crack down the oil pan and multiple organ failure.”
“It had been sitting there for two weeks,” Taylor said of her Camaro that they worked on until 11 p.m. the evening before the race, “the longest night.”
“Our track family rallied around us and helped us make it to the finals and be able to race,” she said. “It was a Christmas miracle that took a lot of high temp silicone and prayers.”
Comeau echoed those sentiments, saying they are grateful for the track community and proud of how the season ended.
“There were smiles and tears, trials and tribulations,” she said. “Anyone can win. This time it was our turn.”
Taylor has attracted quite the following, including one fan from Vermont who attends every race she is in to cheer her on, many social media fans, and young girls who come up to her at the racetrack and ask for her autograph.
“Everyone is so supportive,” she said.
She said future plans include getting more people involved in racing in general and teaching them how to race and fix cars.
“You don’t have to be a kid to learn, any age can do it,” Taylor said, “and it comes with the territory that you learn to work on cars. That is very empowering.”
Although she normally shies away from the spotlight, Taylor was recently interviewed by Greg Fossa for his local series, “City of Champions,” which gave her the chance to spotlight racing. She feels there is a genuine interest in racing, and because of that she would like to get more local interest going.
“We would love to grow the team and expand the program,” Taylor said. “My ultimate goal is to teach and bring people into this sport. There are many tiers to get involved, and I believe that anyone can do it.”
For now, she is content to work on fixing up cars during the offseason at her racing team’s home base and sponsor, Renegade Rides on River Street owned by Richard Gonzales, including a 1968 Ford Mustang for a shop customer and a 1970 Chevy Nova as a second race car for herself.
“It has good potential to be a good teaching vehicle,” Taylor said of the Nova. “It is a big project and would be a way to build our team.”
She said they pooled their winnings from the season and plan to purchase some supplies and necessities and have a big team celebration.
“We weren’t able to have one last year,” Taylor said of the party.
Her six shiny trophies from this winning season sit at the shop and Taylor will receive a championship trophy at the club banquet in February and another one at the Lebanon Valley Speedway banquet in March. As the season champion, she said she was able to pick the colors for the NODRAMA championship jacket that she will receive one of — black and purple, the same hues as her Britt Taylor Racing team colors.
“I ran track for eight years and never got a jacket,” Taylor joked.
For more information follow Britt Taylor Racing on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.