Spring Hill drag racer Megan Meyer sizzles in step up to Top Alcohol division

Megan Meyer’s step up to the professional ranks is off to a fast start, which is a good thing since drag racing is in her blood.

Meyer’s father, Randy, raced in the National Hot Rod Association’s Top Fuel division for eight years from 1988 to 1995.

He switched to the Top Alcohol division, which a less expensive classification that’s basically a step under Top Fuel, after his daughters — Megan and her younger sister, Rachel — were born.

Now Megan, 22, is following in his footsteps. She has stepped up from the Super Comp division into Top Alcohol full-time this season for the family-owned competition outfit, the Randy Meyer Racing Team.

Megan, a 2011 Spring Hill graduate and the racing team’s manager, currently sits second in the Top Alcohol national points standings behind Joey Severance — not a bad showing for her rookie campaign.

She reached her third consecutive final round April 24 at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, N.C., claiming her first Top Alcohol dragster victory in the championship pairing against Josh Hart.

Megan — who will try for her second career win at the Kansas Nationals, which begin Friday and continue through Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka — set a personal record with a 280-mph pass at Charlotte, one weekend after she recorded her fastest run in 5.203 seconds at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway en route to her first career final.

Of course, it would mean even more if Megan could win another Wally — the nickname for the trophy that the NHRA passes out to its winners — this weekend at Heartland Park.

The track closed down last season, though the NHRA still staged an event on its own. But Heartland Park reopened this year under new ownership in time to keep its Kansas Nationals weekend on the national touring schedule.

“Everyone in our community was devastated after what happened last year with the track closing down,” she said. “We were fortunate the NHRA got enough volunteers and funding to have a race last May. It was really exciting for us to have that one last race, because we didn't know what the future would hold.”

Megan considers it her hometown track, having raced on Heartland Park’s quarter-mile drag strip roughly 100 times in regional Junior Dragster and Super Comp races.

She made the semifinals in Top Alcohol last season during a regional race at the track, dipping her toes into the division’s waters in preparation for the jump this season.

Megan narrowly missed a finals showdown with her father last year but wouldn’t mind meeting Randy, who is running a part-time schedule after retiring from full-time racing last season, with a Wally on the line Sunday at Heartland Park.

“I’m excited to come back and do one better,” she said. “Hopefully I can make it to the final this time, especially since all my friends and family will be there.”

Megan, who won junior dragster season championships in 2009 and 2010 at now-defunct Kansas City International Raceway, will have some more intrafamily competition next year.

Rachel, 21, a mechanical engineering major at Pittsburg State, also plans to join the Top Alcohol ranks after she graduates.

This season, Rachel is still primarily running Super Comp races, but she won’t race this weekend and instead will serve on the family race team’s pit crew.

Rachel never won a title at KCIR, but her racing resume includes a Super Comp win at Mo-Kan Dragway in Asbury, Mo. — a feat Megan can’t claim.

Megan became the 12th woman in NHRA history with a Top Alcohol win this season. Rachel is a good bet to become the 13th.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 8:06 PM with the headline "Spring Hill drag racer Megan Meyer sizzles in step up to Top Alcohol division."