The need for speed

She's not old enough yet, but Syracuse's Jaycee Pettry is making a good start toward a career as a professional drag racer, just like her idols Shirley Muldowney and Gary Densham.

Last year, Pettry won the championship for the junior dragster minor division class at West Valley's Rocky Mountain Raceway, and hopes to win another one this year as she competes in the major division. But, she's content where she is right now, following in the footsteps of her dad Vaughn, himself a former drag racer at RMR, and hoping for bigger things, such as racing in the National Hot Rod Association's top fuel class.

"I have Shirley Muldowney's signature on my old racing jacket," says Pettry of the longtime drag racer who was the first woman to win three national titles in the NHRA's top fuel dragster division.

Besides Muldowney, the Davis County teenager also has NHRA Top Fuel Funny Car driver Densham's autograph on her current jacket and hopes to get favorite driver Larry Dixon's signature sometime in the future. Dixon, like Muldowney before him, races in NHRA's Top Fuel Dragster division and won the 2002 national championship, a feat Pettry hopes to emulate someday.

Currently, Pettry stands third in points in RMR, just 20 behind leader Casey Ostler of Lehi. Last year, she got more points than 20 others in her class to win her first title in eight years of racing, which started at the tender age of 9 when her father bought her first dragster.

"I just got more used to my car and I got better reaction times," Pettry said of last year's championship run, which erased several years of doing no better than third in overall points.

Besides her dad, Pettry is the only member of the family to race at RMR, despite her being the youngest of 13 children in an extended family that includes seven siblings and five stepbrothers and stepsisters.

"If people want to have a lot of fun with their kids, this the way to go," says Vaughn Pettry, who acts as crew chief, main sponsor and engine builder for his daughter's 2003 J&D built dragster.

"This is her last year running juniors," he added.

Next year, the family hopes to make the jump into either Super Comp dragsters or motorcycles. With the first option, almost all of their current dragster's parts except the body and the engine move up along with Pettry. For a power plant, the elder Pettry plans to replace his daughter's current five horsepower Briggs and Stratton clone with a much larger 460 cubic inch Chevrolet racing motor, one that should get her down the track a lot faster than her current quick time of 8.12 seconds at 82 mph in the 1/8 mile.

Like most drivers her age, Pettry's dragster has to grow with her, and she's on her third one this year. And the cost is not as cheap as some may think. According to her dad, the new car cost approximately $8,500 to build, including a $5,000 motor that "should last two years" and a new clutch.

According to Pat Pettry, Jaycee's mom, the teenage driver even helped put her new ride together for the upcoming season.

"She helped her dad put the motor in," says Pat Pettry, adding that the dragster's nickname is "Chatterbox" because "she never shuts up."

Pettry also raced on May 13 in the Summit ET Series.