FEATURE
T
he Queen Bee is a fire-breathing, bone-rattling monster with some eye-popping stats associated with it: 1,000 horsepower, 555-cubic inch engine, 24 feet in length, alcoholbased fuel, 190-m.p.h. top speed.
Its driver? Five-four, 125 pounds, 21 years old, loves to wear fuzzy slippers and enjoys English muffins with a little butter. A true Beauty and the Beast pairing, Sarah Edwards and her Queen Bee dragster are poised to tear up the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) racing circuit after about 15 competitive challenges and a very respectable recent win. “My first summer was all learning, getting from A to B,” said Edwards in a late fall morning sit-down at her family home in the quiet suburbs of Stamford, Conn. She earned her drag racing license in July 2010. “This past summer, I was only losing by small fractions. The summer of 2014 promises to be a big one. We’re expecting big things to happen, especially if we gain a sponsor to help cover our costs and enable us to go to more races. We can do some great things with a modest investment.” A slender blonde with an Ultrabrite smile and girl-next-door personality, Edwards had a breakthrough on the track July 6, 2013. At the Atco Dragway, in Atco, NJ, she had a first-round win best showing to date. Recording a 7.569-second time in a ¼ mile reaching a top speed of 178 m.p.h., she said, “It was the first time I legitimately beat someone in a competition.” A future driving a growling, tarmac-eating supercar was not really in anyone’s thoughts as she burst into the world March 13, 1992 (Friday the 13th) at Stamford Hospital. Dad Scott, an appliance tech and her current crew chief (Sarah’s boyfriend Stephen Frycz is co-crew chief), worked for a paving company when he met Sarah’s mom, Lisa, the “Queen Mum” and an administrative assistant at
Photo: Mike Lauterborn
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CONTEMPORARY CULTURE//MAGAZINE
Photo: Dave Milcarek
an accounting agency. Scott did have motorcyles and hot-rod cars like a Dodge Challenger, and he enjoyed going to the track in Englishtown, NJ to race his dump truck. “He would win often but not even really realize it. He just had so much fun doing it,” Sarah related. An only child, Sarah described herself as a “total girl”, playing with Barbies and baby dolls and going to dance recitals as a kid. Only occasionally did she gravitate to tools, following her dad around with her own tool belt while he was working. And all through middle school, she was a cheerleader, though she often felt she wasn’t coordinated enough for the sport. Then one day Scott heard a radio commercial promoting Englishtown Raceway’s “Night of Thrills”. It was late Summer 2006 and the family, including 12-year-old Sarah and some neighbors, all traveled down to attend. “I saw the Queen of Diamonds Jet Car powered by pure jet fuel and driven by Jessie Harris from Hanna Motorsports,” Sarah recalled. “Jessie goes 300 m.p.h., in like four seconds. I thought that was pretty badass and said to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do one day.’ All in all, we had a great time and I wanted to go back next year.” She started to watch NHRA drag racing on TV, and would also go on the Internet and check out the big name drivers like John Force, Gary Scelzi and Shirley “Cha Cha” Muldowney. She particularly idolized Ashley Force (John’s daugh-
Photo: Dave Milcarek
ter). “She was in her early 20s at the time and was driving an alcohol dragster, going about 250 m.p.h., and doing a quarter mile in 5.5 seconds,” Sarah said. “She and her family came out with a reality TV show ‘Driving Force’ that I was glued to, and I bought the DVD when it was released. Shirley also released ‘Heart Like a Wheel’, a DVD about her life and struggles to achieve racing success in a male-dominated sport. That was very inspiring and convinced me that a career in the sport might be possible. I also liked ‘Right on Track’, a Disney movie about Erica and Courtney Enders, junior dragster drivers, who were moving to super comp (890 class at 170 m.p.h.) while going to school. That gave me pointers about how I could juggle everything.” The following summer, the family went back to the “Night of Thrills” and also went to the June Super Nationals. “I saw all pros, all my idols, all racing,” Sarah said, her doe-brown eyes lighting up. “Racing is not like baseball or football. You don’t have to have a million bucks to have a great seat. You can pay $25 and meet face-to-face with the drivers. My mind was blown. It was further convincing me this was the way to go and I started wondering how I could go about it.” Edwards stayed connected to the sport, but still peripherally. Then her Uncle Kevin found out Clockwise from bottom left: Sarah Edwards with her dad Scott and mom Lisa, next to the engine of her Queen Bee dragster; Sarah behind the wheel at Atco Dragway, NJ; heating up the tires of her dragster; speeding down the track at Atco Dragway; with her dragster in a trailer outside her home. Previous page: Sarah’s getting into racing position at Atco Dragway.