The Big Go

Kat Redner
Sep 7, 2017
2 min read

The Big Go. The Most Prestigious Drag Race IN THE WORLD. The U.S. Nationals!

The crowd was enormous, the BBQ baked potatoes were to die for, and the drag racing was of course insane.

To begin with, in Indy I was the girl with all of the gadgets- a DJI Osmo, 2 phones along with a bunch of charging cables (gotta come prepared!), 3 GoPros/GoPro accessories, a lavaliere microphone set and some Replay XD action cameras... I had to take a ton of footage because I am filming and editing a new video-- somewhat of a documentary on jet racing (not gonna lie, I'm pretty pumped about editing this one).

Other than the role of recording everything that happened at the track, I had to do brake clean (Fun fact just in case you don't know what brake clean is-- we use Safety Kleen brake cleaner and a rag to wipe down all of the tires of the jet car before the Crew Chief and Driver start it up. We do this to prevent the car from sliding on the track!). I also put Elaine Larsen and her Florida Tech/Space Coast jet dragster on the line, and then joined the group of anxious and excited onlookers watching in the middle of the track. This leads me to my favorite part of the weekend.

The best part about the U.S. Nats was definitely the people. I had the most fun on the starting line, because I was surrounded by people who had never seen jet cars at all before. When the cars shot down the track, they jumped, high-fived eachother, wooed and yelled, and even hugged the NHRA track officials. Their jaws literally dropped in awe of what they had just witnessed. That's exactly what I loved about it. It awesome and even more fun to see other people that excited about what we do at LMS.

Now that the U.S. Nationals are over, our next stop is the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway- one of my favorite places!!! Additionally, I should hopefully be getting my jet car licensing done soon. I was supposed to try and complete it this week, but unfortunately Hurricane Irma and Mother Nature do not want me to get it just yet! Stay tuned to catch more of my #JetLife with the teams!