The Accidental Groundbreaker
How Amy Faulk helped pave the way for women in drag racing
By Jim Samuel
Photos courtesy of Auto Imagery, SEMA

Amy Faulk does not see herself as a pioneer. Sure, she was one of the first women to get a competition permit in drag racing and started her career when female race drivers needed a special permit and could not get licenses.

Yes, she was the first woman to win a national event in an alcohol dragster. It’s true; she was the first woman to win an NHRA division championship. And she was even one of the first women to work in the performance auto parts industry and was on the board of directors of the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA).

But the veteran drag racer, who lives in Collierville, Tenn., near Memphis, said that through it all, she wasn’t out to break new ground or blaze new trails. Instead, she was just doing something she loved to do and she worked hard to excel at it.

"I was never really conscious of it," Faulk said of being one of the first female drag racers. "I just loved racing."

Faulk said that as one of the first female drivers in drag racing, she heard her share of comments from people who did not think she belonged on the racetrack but that those comments just made her more determined to excel on the drag strip.

For example, when she first started driving a Competition Eliminator car, she said a male racer came up to her and said, "That’s a nice car. Now you just have to get someone who knows how to drive it."

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Instead of showing her anger and letting the other driver know that he had struck a nerve, Faulk said that she instead calmly replied, "Well, then I’ll just have to learn how to drive it." Faulk remembered that driver and his comment for a long time. "I was infuriated and he had an X on his back. I was gunning for him every time I went to the track," she said.

Like many drag racers, Faulk grew up around cars. "Both my parents worked when I was growing up," she explained. "My dad owned a radiator and body shop and my brother and I spent our days there. He (her father) was a Mr. Mom before it was fashionable. I was always around cars."

While her interest in cars came early in life, her interest in drag racing came a few years later when she met her husband-to-be. The two got married in 1971 and Faulk got behind the wheel two years after that.

"I met Kenny when I was at school in Memphis," she said. "He raced cars but he really just liked working on them so he always had partners or hired drivers. Finally, he asked me if I wanted to drive the car."

Though she had no experience as a drag racer, Faulk wanted to drive the car and started the process of getting her competition license. "At that time, you had to have a special women’s permit to race," Faulk said, "They got rid of that rule about a year after I started."

To get the special women’s driving permit, Faulk needed to get the signatures of two track owners and three licensed drivers. "It was a lot harder to get the women’s permit than it was to get my alcohol license," she said. "One of the problems was that we raced every weekend at local tracks. At most of the tracks I was going to, there weren’t many licensed drivers."

Now, she said, the entire licensing processed has been changed and is the same for men and women. "Now, if you do what you’re supposed to do, you have no trouble getting someone to sign for you," Faulk said.

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In the beginning, the Faulk racing team was not very good, she admitted. "When I started racing in Super Stock, it was ‘whoever got there first.’ You were paired off in the order you got to the staging lanes. Everyone was chasing us down to try to get the early win."

But, she said, her early experiences only made her more determined to become a better driver. "None of this came easy to me. I had to work hard to be good at it," Faulk said. "I think the reason I stuck with it was because I was so bad. "It was a tough group of guys we were competing against and it really made us good."

Faulk got better in a hurry and it wasn’t long before she started to win races. "My first win was at a national event was at Gainesville. I won my class and I thought I had won the world," she said.

When she started racing, NHRA sportsman championships were decided through eliminations among the division points leaders at the season finale in Pomona. In 1979, Faulk made it to Pomona and won the Super Stock championship there. In 1980, she was elected to the car Craft Magazine All–Star team.

"In 1983, we moved from Super Stock to Competition Eliminator and I won a national event in Atlanta," Faulk recalled.

The next year, Faulk and her husband decided to make another move. "We bought an alcohol dragster from Al DaPozzo because he was looking to move into Funny Car," she said. The couple became part of "Team Strange," a group that was made up of Chris Karamesines in Top Fuel, Austin Coil and Frank Hawley's "Chi-Town Hustler" Funny Car, Albert Clark and Don Coonce in Pro Stock, Faulk in Alcohol Dragster, Fred Mandolini in an Alcohol Funny Car, Larry Kopp in Competition Eliminator and Keith Lynch in Super Stock.

Unfortunately for Faulk, her time in the alcohol dragster did not last as long as she and her husband would have liked when the car was destroyed in an early season race one year. "The guy in the other lane lost control of his car and came into my lane," she said. "My husband and I were paying for everything ourselves so that was a big loss."

While the crash ended one part of her driving career, it helped start another phase. "We weren’t racing and were working toward getting back when a friend asked me if I wanted to drive his Stock Eliminator Camaro," she said. "I always liked driving full-bodied cars so I did."

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Faulk was at a racetrack with the Camaro when another friend approached her and her husband. "I didn’t know you drove in Stock," the friend said. "If you’re interested, I may be able to get you some help."

That conversation at the racetrack led to another conversation, this time with a representative from Pontiac. In the end, the Faulks ended up with a new Pontiac to race in Stock Eliminator and they were back in racing.

"I really like the speed of the alcohol cars but I enjoy driving the full body cars just as much," Faulk said of her decision to abandon the alcohol dragster division and move into Stock.

Faulk’s participation in drag racing was not limited solely to her time spent behind the wheel. In the early 1970s, she went to work for a company that supplied performance parts to racers. "I had the opportunity to sell racecar parts and I followed that opportunity," she said. Today, Faulk is chief administrative officer for Hypertech, Inc., a manufacturer of performance computer chips and modules for automobiles.

She has also been very active in SEMA and other organizations, having served on the board of directors for SEMA, as well as having been the chairperson of SEMA’s Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Committee. She was named the association’s "Person of the Year" in 2001.

Among her current activities for SEMA are frequent visits to high schools, where she talks to kids about career opportunities in the automotive field. Faulk said she thinks that her visits to schools are particularly important today as many school districts are forced to eliminate programs due to budget cuts.

As one of the first women in drag racing, Faulk has heard comparisons between herself and Shirley Muldowney, but said that the two approached their role as female racers in different ways.

"Shirley paved the way," Faulk said. "She had her way of doing things and I had mine. Shirley was outspoken and I was the exact opposite," Faulk said, adding that she just worked harder to show that she was as capable as a male driver.

But even though they approached their roles as female racers in different ways, both she and Muldowney watched what the other was doing. "After we had decided to move into alcohol, I was in the staging lanes in Atlanta and was strapped in the Comp Eliminator car," Faulk said. "Shirley walked over to me and said ‘I like the move you made and I’m glad to see you in a dragster.’"

Faulk said that she and her husband once considered turning pro but decided that it would not offer them the life they wanted for themselves. "When we won the division championship, we had the opportunity to go pro," she said. "We didn’t do it because we never wanted to do something that was not fun. I could see the future and the future was not as being a professional racer."

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Instead, the Faulks decided to continue racing their Stock Eliminator car, though they have now cut back a bit on their racing activities.

We’ve given up on chasing every point we could get," Faulk explained. "Now, we choose the races we go to. We just made a decision that that’s not the way we wanted to do it."

When asked how long she plans to continue racing, Faulk quickly responded "As long as it’s still fun. Kenny does all the work. He builds the motors. As long as he loves working on the car, we’ll still do it."