The Drag Racing Association of Women (DRAW) continues to be the most unheralded organization dedicated to helping the families of every injured drag racer, yet they continue to do their remarkable work in a sort of media vacuum. Everyone even remotely connected to the sport understands what this remarkable group of volunteers does, yet the media pays very little attention, and racing’s officials, while openly supportive, have long since ceased making their annual $25,000 contribution. Without that support the efforts of the women – and yes, there are a number of men also involved – are more important now than ever before.

We caught up with Rosalee Noble and her husband, Terry, at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at SREMP (ah, what the heck, let’s just call it what it is – Norwalk), and got this report. Noble reports that the group took in slightly more than $59,000 at their annual auction that took place during the Joliet race, stating, “We were very pleased with the results.

The Drag Racing Association of Women (DRAW) continues to be the most unheralded organization dedicated to helping the families of every injured drag racer, yet they continue to do their remarkable work in a sort of media vacuum. Everyone even remotely connected to the sport understands what this remarkable group of volunteers does, yet the media pays very little attention, and racing’s officials, while openly supportive, have long since ceased making their annual $25,000 contribution. Without that support the efforts of the women – and yes, there are a number of men also involved – are more important now than ever before.

We caught up with Rosalee Noble and her husband, Terry, at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at SREMP (ah, what the heck, let’s just call it what it is – Norwalk), and got this report. Noble reports that the group took in slightly more than $59,000 at their annual auction that took place during the Joliet race, stating, “We were very pleased with the results.

“We have our DRAW booth at all of the NHRA national events, and some of our area coordinators have booths at their local races and points meets. Most of our NHRA and IHRA members have received their new DRAW-themed mailing labels, and that’s one of our big fund raisers. Our biggest donors also receive a package of Christmas cards later in the year, and that’s also a good fund raiser.

“At the Dallas race in the fall we’ll have another auction, but that one’s strictly a live auction, so it should be a lot of fun.

“We generally pay out about $200,000 annually to help injured racers and their families, so that’s our budgetary goal. Now, this year, with Eric Medlen’s death we’ve received a lot of donations in his memory, and when Scot Geoffrion passed on we also received a lot of donations in his name. More and more people are beginning to remember their friends in drag racing by honoring them through donations to DRAW to help other friends when they’re in need.

“There’s going to be a golf tournament on the Wednesday of the Finals at Pomona, and half the proceeds from that will go to DRAW with the other half going to a charity of the Medlen family’s choice.”

A present DRAW is assisting 20 racers and their families, with three new names added to their list in just the past week. Included among the latest group to receive assistance from DRAW are jet truck driver Bob Motz and his son, Scott. Brandon Murray, injured in a Nostalgia Top Fuel race, is also among those getting some much needed help. Surprisingly, thee are still racers out there who don’t realize DRAW is there to help, ans as Ms. Noble
put it, “Sometimes it takes us a while to track them down, but when we hear someone’s been hurt, we do our best to get I touch and make sure everything’s all right.”

Noble readily admits that DRAW’s best trackside donations come from the Gatornationals and U.S. Nationals simply because of the size and scope of those events. The Nobles personally work 19 of the 23 NHRA races, but also acknowledge that at present the organization has no presence at the IHRA races because, as Ms. Noble put it, “We just don’t have the manpower.”

Is anyone out there listening? The racers need your help, and if you’re a regular competitor or competitor’s companion who races the IHRA series, reach out to the DRAW folks and see how you can help.