Hot rod driver racing for ill kids in Snellville
Nationally known hot rod driver Melanie Troxel made a pit stop Tuesday in Snellville at a charity for medically fragile children.
Troxel, head of the Gotham City Racing Team, showed off her white Dodge Charger Nitro funny car to some of the kids at the corporate headquarters of Dream House for Medically Fragile Children, Inc., a non-profit organization helping children transition from hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers back to their...
Read the full story by Beth Warren in the Atlanta Journal Constitution
Tags: Dodge, Funny Car, Melanie Troxel, Nitro, racingMelanie Troxel may drive in World Land Speed Record attempt
March 2, 2008 by Robert
Filed under Racing News
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Steve Fossett World Land Speed Racing (LSR) Team has announced that NHRA Top Fuel & Funny Car driver Melanie Troxel has made their short list of possible drivers for their newest land speed record attempt. The organization’s newest car is a 48 foot long streamliner powered by a 40,000 HP S&S Turbine jet engine. The team’s goal is to set a new Absolute Supersonic Land Speed Record of more than 800 MPH and they want a woman to pilot the vehicle.
In addition to Melanie, two other NHRA drivers made the short list as well. Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Peggy Llewellyn and newly licensed Top Fuel racer Jessie Harris are also candidates. The list of other potential drivers includes drivers from other motorsports and two pilots.
The selected candidate will have to be available for the team’s test and run schedule for 2008, which may not fit with Melanie's current NHRA racing schedule.
Tags: Funny Car, Melanie Troxel, motorsports, NHRA, race, racing, Top FuelTim Wilkerson qualifies first in Phoenix, Worsham and A. Force DNQ
Rain cancelled Friday's NHRA Funny Car qualifying, leaving drivers with only two Saturday sessions to get into the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix.
Tim Wilkerson impressively leads the field into eliminations on Sunday. With only two sessions to qualify, the list of those that didn't make the field is surprising. Del Worsham experienced the disappointment of not qualifying his Checker Schuck's Kragen sponsored Impala at his sponsor's event. Del wasn't the lone DNQ though. Ashley Force, Melanie Troxel, Bob Tasca III and Terry Haddock were also unable to qualify.
Tags: Ashley Force, Bob Tasca III, Del Worsham, Force, Funny Car, Haddock, Melanie Troxel, NHRA, Phoenix, race, Terry Haddock, Tim Wilkerson, Wilkerson, WorshamDrag racing couple finds love in fast lane
I now pronounce you ... adversaries.
This year, driving for opposing Funny Car teams, husband and wife NHRA racers Tommy Johnson Jr. and Melanie Troxel will test their 4-year-old marriage on the quarter-mile, with their second outing of the year this weekend at Firebird International Raceway near Chandler...
Read full story by Richard Gray in the East Valley Tribune
Tags: drag racing, Funny Car, Johnson, Melanie Troxel, NHRA, race, racing, Tommy Johnson, Tommy Johnson JrTroxel makes presence felt – Los Angeles Times
Former top fuel driver ranks third for today's finals in funny car at the Winternationals, but her husband fails to make the field of 16.
She is married to funny car driver Tommy Johnson Jr., and when she made the off-season transition from top fuel dragsters to the class in which her husband competes, much was made of Melanie Troxel's marriage...
Read the full story by Martin Henderson in the L.A. Times
Tags: Funny Car, Johnson, Melanie Troxel, Tommy Johnson, Top FuelTroxel, Johnson share marital rivalry
POMONA - Drag racing's history is full of rivalries among family members.
From the father-son battle between Warren Johnson and son Kurt in Pro Stock, the daughter vs. father face-off of Ashley and John Force in Funny Car, to the husband and wife meetings between John Smith and Rhonda Hartman-Smith in Top Fuel, relation and rivalry go hand in hand.
This season, a new one has emerged, with Tommy Johnson Jr. and his wife, Melanie Troxel, who unlike the others...(Snip)
First-year Funny Car driver Melanie Troxel gets down the quarter-mile track in 4.90 seconds and 316.45 mph during qualifying run at NHRA POWERade Winternationals in Pomona, on Thursday, Feb.
Tags: drag racing, Force, Funny Car, John Force, Johnson, Melanie Troxel, NHRA, Pomona, Powerade, racing, Tommy Johnson, Tommy Johnson Jr, Top FuelESPN Drag Racing Analyst Mike Dunn Feels 2008 Could Be Year for Women in Funny Car
NHRA POWERade Series Season Begins This Weekend on ESPN2
As the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season rolls to the starting line this weekend, ESPN drag racing analyst Mike Dunn feels that drag racing fans will see history made this year with the first victory by a woman in the Funny Car class.
ESPN2 will have prime-time, same-day coverage of both qualifying and final eliminations from the 48th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals from Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. Qualifying coverage airs Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8-10 p.m., while finals coverage airs the next night from 7:30-11 p.m. ESPN Classic re-airs the finals Monday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m.
Dunn, a 22-time winner in NHRA competition during his career and one of only three drivers to score 10 or more wins in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, said that the Funny Car class will be one of the most interesting to watch this season, starting this weekend at Pomona.
“You have Melanie Troxel moving over from Top Fuel to Funny Car,” Dunn said. “And obviously with Ashley Force in her sophomore season, that’s going to be a good story because I think one of them, if not both, will win a race this year. Both of them have very good race cars. They definitely have a shot.”
All eyes in Pomona will be on NHRA superstar John Force, returning from serious injuries suffered in a crash during last year’s Dallas event. Force will be trying to win his 15th NHRA Funny Car title in the 2008 season.
“The biggest story to start off the season is the comeback of John Force after that accident,” said Dunn. “He tested in Phoenix and although he’s hobbling around and still doing his rehabilitation he was able to get in and out of the car and post the quickest and fastest times for his class on the weekend, so that’s going to be a big story to watch.”
Every February since 1961, fans have flocked to Pomona for the traditional opening of the drag racing season, and second-generation driver Dunn enjoys the excitement of the event that he started attending with his father, Hall of Fame racer “Big Jim” Dunn.
“As a kid growing up in Southern California, I used to love going to the Winternationals because everybody had new equipment and new paint schemes and everybody was just excited to get the season started after the winter,” he said.
“There’s just a whole different vibe to that race than probably any other race,” he said. “It’s our second-oldest race, only to the U.S. Nationals, so it’s a big event to win and it means a lot.”
Paul Page anchors ESPN2’s coverage from Pomona, joined in the booth by Dunn for analysis. Gary Gerould and Dave Rieff report from the pits.
Rieff and Dunn also host NHRA RaceDay at 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2. Originating from Nitro Alley at Pomona, the show will set up that day’s final elimination action with interviews and features. An episode of NHRA Thrills and Spills airs Sunday at 7 p.m., prior to the start of finals coverage.
Visit www.espnmediazone.com for ESPN's latest releases, schedules and other news, plus photos, video and audio clips and more.
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Melanie Troxel Phoenix test 2008-01-25
CHANDLER, Ariz. (January 25, 2008) - Nitro Funny Car rookie Melanie Troxel took two short blasts Friday behind the wheel of the ProCare Rx Dodge Charger at the NHRA National Time Trials at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz. On her first pass, she struggled with visibility and hit the 330-foot timing cone before coasting across the line; her second pass netted a solid launch into ...
Tags: Dodge, Funny Car, Melanie Troxel, NHRA, Nitro, race, Testing