Keeping Up With...Krystle Roherty

Let's Start a Revolution!

I was introduced to drag racing my first year as an automotive teacher. The high school I moved to had a long history of a coed team, The Stray Kats . I was a co-coach for the team and after a year of working on our 1965 Buick Skylark and 1991 Astrovan “Vanzilla” I was hooked. Watching the students race, the smiles, the joy of racing the car they worked so hard on, was an automotive teachers dream!

It was also during this year that I noticed something. Many of the female students loved being a part of the club, working on the cars, but often struggled to find the confidence to just dive into a job and sometimes found themselves watching one of the guys who took over. I found myself taking time to encourage the students by reminding them to just jump right in, try, and make a place for themselves. They were sometimes nervous of breaking something and sometimes their job got taken over when they left to ask a question. We found we needed to assign jobs a bit more to help ensure everyone had a part in working on the cars.

After talking with the students and my administration, I decided, the next year, I was going to see if there was any interest in a Females+ team. The goal was to interest girls who felt intimidated to try automotive in a co-ed setting, and to try to encourage those who may not be taking automotive courses to come down and try out the department and the shop. So, in September of 2023, we put out an all call at Fredericton High School.

Sixteen eager girls showed up to create a team. Some came because they didn’t know what drag racing was, some because their friends did, all because they wanted to try something new.

They worked together to craft a name, creating Revolution Racers , since they were the first all female high school drag racing team in our province! I brought in a beat up 2016 Dodge Charger, a former police car from Buffalo, that my family bought at an auction for the team. We had a lot of work ahead of us! It needed a new engine, transmission and body work. With the help of some amazing community donations, we were able to purchase a new to us engine and transmission. Our first year, the car definitely wasn’t a pretty sight, but it ran the whole race weekend, and they had a blast. We even had a local drag racer join us at the track to help train the girls the tricks and rules of racing! Not only did we spark the race bug in some of the members to race on their own but also filled others with excitement and plans for the car for the following year.

This year I had another 15 girls new and returning who arrived ready to work. Our team this year was made up of a mix cheer leaders, car enthusiasts, rugby players, and engineers. It was an absolute joy to watch them all bond and work together as a team. The girls also inspired females at other schools in the province to join their race teams and try to gather enough students for their own girls team.

This year we also gained some local female owned business sponsors and helpers. We were able to get team sweaters made and had our team members who were artsy bedazzle the car with flames and got a “for now” paint job done. We even got a light bar with our school colours to add to the roof!

We didn’t come away with a trophy this year but there were no shortage of smiles and amazing memories. One racer got to take her 75-year-old grandmother down the track for a bucket list ride and Grammy gave us a thumbs up out the window on her drive by! Some students took their dads for a trip, and I got to watch my youngest daughter race in the car with her dad. Our coed and female teams bonded under pop up tents during the rain at the track and made new friends with other high school teams.

We look forward to another successful year with plans to change the exhaust to sound more pro and compete in the burn out competition. And of course, fixing cars, building friendships and making memories!