Drag Racing Stories

(Updated 3/31/10 )

A SALUTE TO WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

In Honor of Women's History Month
We Salute Peggy Lewellyn

Peggy Llewellyn, of Jamaican American and Mexican American descent, is the first black woman to win a professional motorsports event, racing at the NHRA POWERade event (Dallas) in 2007 and earning an appearance in the inaugural Countdown to 4 and Countdown to 1, finishing in the POWERade top five standings where she recorded her post-career-best time and speed. Peggy competed as a professional motorcyclist in the Pro Stock Bike Class for three year ; she ran an abbreviated season in 2008 where she advanced to the semifinals in Denver, finishing the season qualifying five of six races. She sat out the 2009 season due to lack of sponsorship. Peggy is scheduled to return to the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in 2010. We look forward to her return.

Peggy was Named Female Athlete of the Year by The Elements of a Champion Foundation for displaying extraordinary character on and off the racetrack, Peggy is dedicated to her community by being actively involved with the Women's Sports Foundation Go Girl Go! program and independently promoting the sport of motorcycle racing, physical fitness education, and following dreams to young girls.

Peggy also serves as the celebrity spokesperson for Divas For A Cure,
a unique national service-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Black and
Latina women, who ride motorcycles across country to increase awareness and
raise funds to support a cure for breast cancer throughout the year and participate in their signature fundraiser, Divas For A Cure Breast Cancer Motorcycle Run.

Video - Peggy Llewellyn 2007

(video taken from YouTube)

Click Here to read a personal message from Peggy about her 2010 racing season.

Here are a few links to more stories on Peggy Llewellyn:
http://www.peggyllewellyn.com/peggy.htm
http://www.latinastyle.com/currentissue/v15-2/peggy.html

(Information for this story was taken from www.peggyllewellyn.com)

In Honor of Women's History Month
We Salute Nitro Nellie Goins

(Info Taken from Draglist.com)

Click Here to View the Article in the November 1971 Issue of "Ebony Magazine" Entitled:
"Nitro Nellie - Lady Drag Racer Pits Persistence and Guts Against Racing's Best "

In Honor of Women's History Month
We Salute Billye Jean Dent Armstrong
(Story Submitted by Terrey Johnson - photos pulled from QMB 2008 Black History Files)

"Mean" Billye Jean Dent Armstrong, has been around drag racing since the late 1950s. Billye Jean was most comfortable inside her '67 Chevy SS Chevelle. This history blazing woman in the 1960s became the first Black woman to compete in a nationally televised major IHRA event. Wendell Scott, the first Black stock car driver in the US, often referred to Billye as "the fastest Black woman in the East."

Billye Jean & Wendell Scott (on right)

Lack of sponsorships drove Billye Jean, into a 20-year retirement in 1975.
But in 1995, "Mean" Billye Jean reappeared on the drag strip to the amazement of all who watched her. Billye Jean was operating on a shoestring budget, but she managed to find a way to compete. Although still in need of a major sponsor, her plans were to participate in as many NHRA and IHRA events as possible in the late 1990s.

"If only I had more sponsorships, I could have done a lot more"
--- Billye Jean Dent Armstrong

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