Drag Illustrated Issue 151, December 2019 | Page 34

Special Section
A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WASN’T EVEN ON KIMBERLY MESSER’S MIND WHEN SHE STEPPED OUT OF HER MESSER RACING JR. DRAGSTER
OVER THE WINTER AND JUMPED INTO LUCAS OIL TOP DRAGSTER 32 THIS SEASON. SHE JUST WANTED TO GET SOME EXPERIENCE AND HAVE
FUN RACING WITH HER FATHER, RICKY. WHILE MESSER’S RUNNER-UP FINISH AT THE SEASON-OPENING EAST COAST NATIONALS PRE-
SENTED BY FUELTECH AT GALOT MOTORSPORTS PARK DIDN’T NECESSARILY ADD PRESSURE TO HER SEASON’S GOALS, IT DID HELP THE
DAUGHTER-FATHER DUO REALIZE THAT THEY MIGHT BE ON TO SOMETHING. “IT WAS JUST A CRAZY WEEKEND AND WE WERE ALL SO
HUMBLED AND EXCITED THAT I COULD DO THAT IN A BIG CAR,” MESSER, 19, SAYS. “IT REALLY JUST BOOSTED OUR CONFIDENCE. WE JUST
KIND OF WENT FROM THERE. WE WENT TO THE OTHER RACES AND I STILL DID GOOD AND I STARTED PULLING IN FIRST PLACE. IT GOT TO
the point where we were like, ‘Hey,
this is something we can go for.’”
As she alludes to, Messer’s season
continued to pick up steam. She
added a semifinal appearance at
the Mid-Atlantic Showdown pre-
sented by Modern Racing at Vir-
34 PDRA660.com
ginia Motorsports Park in May,
which started to inspire her cham-
pionship aspirations.
The Messers didn’t originally plan to
race at the Summer Nationals pre-
sented by Lithium Pros at South
Georgia Motorsports Park or the
Northern Nationals presented by
Callies Performance at Ohio’s
Dragway 42, as they were the furthest
PDRA races from their home in Smith-
field, North Carolina. But with a
championship now on their minds,
they decided to go to both races, a
decision that paid off in a big way.
Driving her PAR Racing Engines
598ci-powered ’16 Race Tech drag-
ster, Messer raced her way to the
final round at South Georgia,
where she used a 4.67 on a 4.66
dial-in to defeat Mandy Teets-Seal,
who broke out with a 4.509 on a
4.51 dial-in.