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NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 9, 2016

Leah Pritchett

Glendora, California

THE MODERATOR: Leah Pritchett raced to her first Top Fuel win when she defeated Brittany Force in the finals in Phoenix. It was the first time since 1982 that an all-female Top Fuel final was contested. Pritchett used a better reaction time in the race to get ahead of Brittany Force's car, and it was her second career Top Fuel final round appearance.

Talk on that Sunday when you started going round, did it ever come into your mind, man, this could be the day we break through?

LEAH PRITCHETT: Absolutely it did. It came later in the day, actually. It was just pure realization you were going into the final round so you have a 50/50 shot of winning it. I didn't let myself think about winning the race.

You mentioned my first time around was Atlanta last year and I matched up against Antron Brown, and I remember that day thinking all throughout the day: Three more rounds to the final, two more rounds, we're in the semis, we are going to the finals.

And my attitude and my focus on that last Sunday of Phoenix was more so not letting myself think about the final round and just what's next, what's the next round, don't think about final rounds because you're not even there yet. You're getting closer.

So it really wasn't until the semis that I thought about it, and I reverted back to in Atlanta. I was excited. I remember telling myself: Live in this moment, you're doing something pretty spectacular going to your first final. And I think I was a little more too more focused on that, as well as wanting to win. And I remembered being that sense.

So coming to Phoenix and going that final round, I treated it just like I did the first, second or third rounds. And I had some awesome input from Bob Vandergriff. We were done warming up and the car was getting pulled out to go in the lane and I was just about to get in the van -- and this is where I think it really comes in for having a team owner that is also a driver.

He looked at me and grabbed me on the shoulders and he said, "Leah, Girl, you've got this, just keep doing what you've been doing, don't rise to any special occasion. What you've been doing will be enough."

And so pretty much those last words before getting suited up and getting into the car registered to me that what we have in the Hot Rod is definitely enough and as long as I keep doing what I had been doing all day and what I had been doing, that that's going to be enough. So I didn't need to add any extra pressure.

So hopefully, I look at that day and where my mental state was at and how our team operates and we just hope to duplicate that as many times as we can throughout this season.

THE MODERATOR: You join a pretty small list of overall female winners, and even a smaller list of female Top Fuel winners. What does it mean to have your name along some of the oath legendary racers in NHRA?

LEAH PRITCHETT: It's absolutely incredible. And you're right, it's a very small list. I believe I'm No. 9 and what I do know is that that list is going to grow exponentially. I truly do feel, with the amount of female racers that are coming up through the ranks at this moment in time.

But to be No. 9 in a sport that has been around for so long; and with our sanctioning body that has really embraced the diversity of females in all-around, No. 9, it's really incredible.

And when I got that text message from Shirley on Sunday, it's very special, and it's something that I hold near and dear and close to my heart, as much as being a female on that list, No. 101, the different Top Fuel winners overall, is a really big amount.

So I guess you're in the ten percentile -- and I'm just honored. I'm honored to do it. I can't say that's ever been the next focus, to be that next female. It really is just to win, just the same amount of drive and same amount of passion for the sport as every other competitor whether it be male or misdemeanor, the youngest or oldest in the class. Overall I think we share that same passion.

But to be able to have that special notoriety is just kind of like having your cake and eating it, too, and in life, you don't get to do that that often. So I'm really fortunate to be able to have that circumstance to be able to do that.

Q. Wondering what you consider your big break? And wondering how Gary is doing and if that quashed the celebration at all this weekend.
LEAH PRITCHETT: Oh, sure, sorry, your first question, wondering if this is a big break?

Q. What your big break was to get into Top Fuel.
LEAH PRITCHETT: Well, I think without a doubt, my big break of getting into Top Fuel, really had to be -- there's two. I can't just name one.

The first is when Don Schumacher, back when I was -- boy, I was 17 or 18 years old, and he had identified me as a potential driver to replace Gary Scelzi as he was upon retirement, and he had enabled me to get my Nitro Funny Car license. So really my first taste of Nitro came from Don Schumacher. So I'll forever be grateful for that, but we weren't table to materialize that into anything.

And come four or five years later after racing Nostalgia Funny Cars and Pro Mods, the Dotes was really my very big break where they saw my potential, as well, and I was a great fit with their team. And to be able to run for the majority of three years on NHRA Mello Yello Series with them is what put me on the map. That was my stage to be in Top Fuel and to show my capability as not only a driver but a member of the team, as well, from a management standpoint.

And obviously my third big break here, and I guess three time's a charm, when you say when that team was unable to continue in 2016, would be Bob Vandergriff and I coming together and making the second team be able to continue to run on the racetrack.

I can't ever attribute it to one thing. It's been a whole of many, but it's a team effort by multiple different teams and so not just myself.

Secondly, yes, Gary's injuries actually happened, his initial injury of his burn happened one week before we all went testing. So that was definitely difficult, like I'm not going to hide that.

But I think in this sport, it trains you mentally and emotionally to be very strong. There's not any driver out on the track that does not have leather skin. I don't care who you are or what color you are or male or female. You have to go through some tough stuff to be able to run out here and one of those would be if your significant other is having a difficult time.

So Gary, yeah, he had to return to the hospital the Thursday before Phoenix when we were out there. He works for Steve Horne's Top Fuel Dragster, a competing team of ours. I had to tell myself, that's the price you pay of being able to share your life and your dream and your passion and every bit of your life with your husband. And you get to go on those extreme ups and they are there when you win and they are there through -- when you get to sign that big contract. And they are also there when you lose a deal, and at the same time, if personal things happen if your life, they happen together. So I think being able to have a strong mind really plays a big part in this.

You know, come Sunday, we really -- we don't talk anyway. We're lucky if we even wave to each other or even like catch each other's eyes in the staging lanes because we are both downright down to business; and he is, too, he's working on his team.

But when he was sick, I knew, you know what, Monday is going to come and we're going to get back after it. But this is a job I've been hired to do and a dream of mine and I'm always there by his side, but we have got some business to take care of, and we did.

And people that know me know that I'm a pretty black and white person and really straightforward, and I might not be the most compassionate person in the world, but there definitely was a little bit of a wane earlier in the weekend. But let me tell you, come Sunday, being with this team has taught me to really put my blinders up a little bit more. It's only a day that you've got to get through.

And he ended up -- I mean, he was fine. He's making a good recovery. He'll be on a six-month recovery total. But he's still able to be at the track and continue his duties with Horne Racing and the most important part is that he's going to make that full recovery.

And he's been the one that's been the strongest out of all of this. To see somebody go through such pain as a burn in a pretty large portion of your body with skin graft, and for them to be strong throughout it really helps the other person be strong. So God works in mysterious ways and I think He just kind of made sure to turn up our strong-o meter, if you want to call it, for the beginning of the season. He's got some pretty cool stuff in store for us this year. It's definitely not going to be uneventful, if we've already gotten started off like this.

Q. As far as being a gender that really stands out in motor racing obviously, does that weigh on you at all when you're practicing or when you finally go to the race knowing that you can set a record that basically the guys can't; that you've got that ability to set a record for other women. Does that weigh on you at all?
LEAH PRITCHETT: I don't believe it does, and I think it's in large to for being in the sport for so long, going on 20 years.

In my mind, my normal is being around men, whether it be the team or crew chiefs or team owners or sponsors. My whole life has really been surrounded by testosterone, so that's normal. I really haven't had the female aspect of it weigh in so much as it has here lately, which is just an increased amount of benefit.

I would have never -- as much as I've dreamed of doing this and making this a profession, I'm a realist and always tried to prepare myself for if this plan falls through. I'm not the type of person to put myself in a situation to think, man, I'm going to be the absolute person to completely look up to and set all these goals just because I'm trying to do them naturally. And the fact that they have come about and have been inspirational or have been, you know, records and mile markers set for other people is an added bonus.

I think if I looked at it a little bit differently throughout my efforts of the last year to try and be a female doing things in a phenomenal sport, I might not have been able to do them the way that I was. I'm fortunate that it's happening that way, but I think because that's not -- that has not been my focus and probably I can't speak for them, but probably has not been the focus of other female drivers, say, Erica Enders, she's just out there doing her thing knowing what she knows how to do.

For me, that's my mental capacity of just doing it. I think it's an added benefit and I don't think it has extra pressure. But I definitely get to see it when I'm at the ropes and see that, yeah, there's a lot more little girls here than over down at, I don't know, say, J.R.'s pit or something like that, and it's for a reason, because we are doing great things. But I think that has just happened a little bit more natural than intentional for me.

Q. Do you think the females have a little bit of an advantage because they can watch the guys and pick up on some of their traits -- they are not watching the females for traits, not any guy I've ever met, anyway. You know what I'm saying? You get the opportunity to say, that trait, maybe I can use a little bit of that, maybe not use so much of that, that kind of thing?
LEAH PRITCHETT: I guess if you're really looking at it as a competitor when you're watching, you don't really have an option. You are going to look at the men in your sport because they are 90 percent men that you are competing against. I think I had a different situation.

I was fortunate to be team members with Melanie Troxel, and she set some mile markers of her own in being successful in both Pro Mod and in Funny Car and in Top Fuel. So we got to go through together. So I did actually look to Melanie to teach me a number of things from a driving standpoint throughout Pro Mod and in Funny Car, and it wasn't because she was a female. It was because she was my teammate and she was a really good racer.

Yeah, you know, maybe the tides will turn at some point and maybe some drivers will look to us females to see how we're doing it. But at the end of the day, obviously results speak volumes.

And Brittany and I went to the final and we were the -- yeah, we were two females in the final. There weren't two males in the final and that's for a reason. We had bad Hot Rods underneath of us, we both did our job all day long. And it could be anyone's day on any weekend. But I wouldn't sell ourselves short by any means because we're female and guys aren't looking to see what we're doing.

We do have a little bit, I'm sure, more to prove. Brittany and I, we have a lot more to prove on the racetrack to get to a point where maybe other racers are looking to us for what we're doing, but there's not a lot different. There's not a lot of differences on really how you drive a car.

You can't watch somebody go down the track and go, I'm going to go do what they did. You can see what they did right or what they did wrong but at the end of the day, how you drive that race car in my opinion is what teams feels right to you and you can't duplicate that no matter who you're watching. That's an all-natural thing and that's a talent that is either accrued over time or it's natural ability. And no matter how much you watch somebody, you can learn but you can't replace time on the track.

Q. What would it mean to win at a track with so much history?
LEAH PRITCHETT: It would be phenomenal. I would have to say it would supersede the Phoenix win. Obviously because it's the race right after it, but in all fairness, it's the largest race in my opinion on the entire circuit besides the U.S. nationals.

I think it kind of hits home for me a little bit, although I didn't grow up on the East Coast and I was never able to attend a Gator Nationals growing up, but I watched every single one since I could remember from TV and it reminded me of my home track, like Bakersfield, of being just very -- not grudge-like in a way but it encompasses all of the heritage and just pure racing.

Like the roots of our entire motorsport of NHRA drag racing is there from the actual track itself. I mean, Kenny Bernstein, setting 300-mile-an-hour records to the way the stands are set up to the people that are going there because they have been going there with their family and friends for so many years.

Not that that's too much different from the other racetracks. But it's all encompassing of the roots of our sport and to be able to win there on a Sunday behind so many incredible legends that have done before is a really big notch that you would be able to have on your resumÃ©. It would be incredible. Honestly, in my situation, to do that, that would be two wins back-to-back and that's that would be unheard of, especially for me.

So it has a little bit more meaning there, too. I couldn't ask for anything more, but that's our focus obviously to win but our strategy is round by round.

Q. A lot of drivers consider Gator Nationals one of the majors in the sport. Is that pretty obvious to you and others?
LEAH PRITCHETT: It is, absolutely. I think that is very homogenous among whether it be the drag racing community and fans or spectators to the competitors alike and I think because it really kicks off drag racing for the East Coast. We have had our two events there and tested on the West Coast now.

Now it kind of makes everything come to the realization that this tour is finally hugely in swing Nationwide. And it doesn't get any bigger and better than having Pro Stock start their season and I believe Pro Mods are going to be there. So anything race car or bike is there and everything -- it's coming together, the series is here.

And absolutely, I think it's because, like I said, it kicks off for the East Coast because people -- the East Coast has been waiting longer than the West Coast to watch some racing, and I think that's why it helps to be so big and constantly stay so big because it's finally what everyone's been waiting to see on the East Coast.

Q. In your opinion of NHRA Drag Racing, do you feel more because you're a woman in that car, or do you feel more because you are a racer in that car, and I've always looked at the NHRA as being the absolute melting pot of motorsports and in my mind, it doesn't matter who you beat or who you get beat by -- it's that you get beat or that you win.
LEAH PRITCHETT: Well, when you ask, do I feel more -- do I feel more what?

Q. Do you feel more pressure because you're a woman to win or do you feel more pressure because you're a race car driver to win?
LEAH PRITCHETT: I can 150 percent say that it's because I'm a racer to win. And the case in point being that final round at Phoenix. Barely even realizing that I'm going up against Brittany and in my mind it was just, okay, cool, I'm up against Brittany, finally not in the first round, and not a female to female standpoint.

If anything, when I think about racing Brittany, or another female, I just think about them as a racer, not about their gender by any means. So yes, we are the most diverse but from a pressure standpoint, I have a been in a lot of high-pressure situations in a lot of other categories in my life and they were all from a racer standpoint.

Now it's really not any different. If there was more extra pressure on it -- I don't know. It's already there and I don't think about it and I'm not sure that I ever will, and these might not be the right answers, I'm not really sure. But for me it's just straight racing.

And I had mentioned it before, because I'm around men all the time, and that's just what I'm comfortable with and have known to grow into that, no, it's really not -- it's a cool thing. I think it's a wonderful, excellent by-product to be able to be a female and set these mile markers and stones and records for us. But the race car does not know any different, whether who is behind the wheel.

But the path to get there, I would definitely say is different, and I think this that's very important and that that is something to be looked at. But man, as a female, the pressure of that side of it, I think comes from outside the race car. It comes from a media standpoint and what people expect and maybe stereo types and things like that. But in my mind, they don't exist.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Mike Guger's contribution to the team?
LEAH PRITCHETT: Absolutely. You mean besides making us laugh every single moment of every day?

Oh, man, I first have to say, probably his perseverance and tenacity to win and to down right throw the gauntlet out every single time is very infectious. His will to win -- I mean, everyone has a will to win. Nobody should ever show up to the racetrack without ever thinking they are going to at least be close to No. 1 or hold that Wally on Sunday.

But he's endured a lot of the same pressures I have. He went to six final round last year and wasn't able to put that final win light on.

His mechanical ability is unquestionable and his tuning ability from a motor standpoint, I think that's what complements our crew chief so much is each other. Joe Barlam is pretty much king of clutches. That's his gamut. So he understands the clutches like -- the clutch, like nobody else. And Guger specializes in fuel system and motor and making power, so they complement each other.

That's what Mike Guger brings to the table, in addition to his leadership of the team, and being able to keep a great attitude no matter what. We've already had some really down lows and highs, and we're only two races in. Being able to keep this chemistry that we have of our team is very natural.

And overall what Mike Guger is bringing from-leadership standpoint and his tuning ability and his perseverance and tenacity is something that is going to be really hard to break and that's what gives me a lot of confidence in our team is because the people at the top are very strong people, and that just gives strength to everybody else that he works with.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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