A sport for the masses Sep 11, 2008
Top Fuel legend Shirley Muldowney and Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Angelle Sampey have three NHRA championships each ... Brown laid the foundation for his career in the sport there, and it's also where Angelle Sampey built a winning legacy that links her directly to one of the greatest names in motorsports history, Shirley Muldowney. (News & Observer -- Sports)
NHRA to visit Reading Aug 15, 2008
Pennsylvania s own Joe Amato and Shirley Muldowney ran the first side-by-side four-second top fuel pass there in 1989. ESPN2 commentator Mike Dunn and Blaine Johnson made history as the first top fuel drivers to eclipse the 300-mph mark in competition. (Yahoo News -- Auto Racing)
SISTERS IN SPEED: Female drivers look for equal ground May 23, 2008
Pioneer driver Shirley Muldowney working on creating new team ... Decades after Shirley Muldowney knocked down the gender barrier at the top levels of drag racing, success by women in motor sports is still largely hit or miss. (SportsIllustrated.CNN)
Women hope to change look of auto racing May 18, 2008
Since Janet Guthrie and Shirley Muldowney started knocking down gender barriers in the late 1970s, there have been more women drivers, more women owners and, yes, even a growing list of women winners. The encore to Patricks historic IndyCar win in Japan last month came the following week when Ashley Force beat her dad, John, to become the first woman champion in drag racings Funny Car division. (MSNBC -- Sports)
Women racers driving side by side into history May 11, 2008
Shirley Muldowney won 18 races as well as three Top Fuel championships in drag racing before Force was born ... Said Force: I don't know if I could have taken the criticism and the things that Shirley Muldowney went through when she raced. (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Sports)
Questions/Answers May 8, 2008
Shirley Muldowney won three NHRA Top Fuel championships. Angelle Sampey has won 41races in the NHRA Pro Motorcycle class. (Yahoo News -- Auto Racing)
Ashley is the Force this time May 2, 2008
Shirley Muldowney led the way, not just for Ashley to win in Funny Car but fo so many other women trying to be in this sport. Women are showing their stuff here in this sport. (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Sports)
NHRA sends congratulations to Danica Patrick Apr 22, 2008
NHRA's first major female winner was Shirley Muldowney, who earned a Top Fuel victory in 1976 ... Shirley Muldowney, Top Fuel, 18 (first at Columbus 1976, last at Phoenix 1989) ... Shirley Muldowney, TF, 13 (first at Columbus 1976, last at Phoenix 1989). (Yahoo News -- Auto Racing)
Pomona: John Force preview Feb 6, 2008
He's won more races (125), won more championships (14) and won more rounds (992) than Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and Don Prudhomme, combined. He once qualified for 395 consecutive races, a record that not only may never be broken, but may never even be challenged. (Yahoo News -- Auto Racing)
NHRA (GLENDORA) - NEWS NUGGETS Dec 4, 2007
Shirley Muldowney (1982) and Don Prudhomme (1976) are the only other drag racers to ever win the Titus Award. RACING ELECTRONICS RENEWS AS NHRA OFFICIAL SPONSOR: Racing Electronics, a leader in providing radio communications products to the motorsports industry, has renewed its sponsorship as the official radio communications company of NHRA, its five owned and operated drag racing facilities, and the NHRA Safety Safari, officials from the world's largest motorsports sanctioning body announced. (Yahoo News -- Auto Racing)
Critic's corner Nov 21, 2007
ComcastFor all its spareness of gesture and modest B-movie look, this biography of champion auto racer Shirley Muldowney, starring Bonnie Bedelia, is a knock-out. Its appreciation of the emotional consequences of a woman outperforming men in a macho setting makes it one of the best American films about a woman. (Boston Globe)
Accountant goes from rat race to drag race Aug 27, 2007
1976: Shirley Muldowney becomes the first woman to win an event in the NHRA's fastest division ... Today, 30 years after legendary racer Shirley Muldowney helped shatter the machismo barrier, women still make up less than 15 percent of the 35,000 licensed competitors in the National Hot Road Association. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
No denying Danica? Pressure to win even more accelerated May 24, 2007
With the exception of pioneers Shirley Muldowney, one of the greatest drag racers of all time, and Janet Guthrie, the only woman to race in the Indy 500 and NASCAR's famed Daytona 500, Patrick is one of the most accomplished female drivers in motor sports history. She also has had to work amid a media and commercial crush. (USA Today -- Sports)
Force on her way to being a force Feb 11, 2007
Shirley Muldowney won the last of her three Top Fuel titles weeks before Ashley was born in 1982. Melanie Troxel won two Top Fuel events and placed fourth in the final standings last year. (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Sports)
NHRA duel reignited Feb 8, 2007
But because they were on different career paths Bernstein followed his to Top Fuel just as Force began taking off in the late 1980s a rivalry never developed, at least not in the vein of Don "Big Daddy" Garlits vs. Shirley Muldowney or Don "Snake" Prudhomme vs. Tom "Mongoose" McEwen. Such competition might not blossom this season either, but drag racing fans won't have to wonder what could have been. (USA Today -- Sports)
JEFF WOLF: Ashley Force, Fuller going in right direction Jan 19, 2007
First, he credits her mom, Laurie, and adds Shirley Muldowney to the list for not just opening the door for women in drag racing but smashing it off its hinges. "It's been open thanks to Shirley Muldowney," John Force said. (Las Vegas Review-Journal -- Sports)
Pit Passes: By Bill Center Jan 18, 2007
The only woman to have any success in the Funny Car division was Shirley Muldowney in the mid-1970s. The three-time Top Fuel champion never reached the final round of a NHRA Funny Car meet, although she lost to Richard Tharp in the finals of the 1972 International Hot Rod Association U.S. Open. (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Sports)
Column: Force Car Given to Daughter Jan 17, 2007
" Ashley is hardly a pioneer in one sense. Three women had reached drag racing's winner's circle even before Shirley Muldowney began regularly clocking male rivals in the 1970s and early 1980s, inspiring "Heart Like A Wheel," the first movie made about a drag racer of either sex. And last season, Melanie Troxel was good enough to nearly duplicate Muldowney's last series championship title a quarter-century ago. On the other hand, the John Force-Ashley Force duel will almost certainly mark the... (San Francisco Chronicle -- Sports)
