Days before her memorable runner-up finish at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals, Top Fuel racer Leah Pritchett was already knee deep in competition with her fellow racers. Pritchett wouldn't call her need to compete a curse, but it's a good habit she just cannot shake.

Nor, does she want to.

Pritchett competed in a spin-off, a stationary bike competition, against members of the drag racing community in a charity event to benefit a Make-A-Wish Georgia.

"I'm gonna be honest, my calf muscles are hurting, and I know there are a few drivers out there with soreness too," said Pritchett, days after the competition.

Torque and rpm determined point values, and at the end of the event the highest cumulative score determined the champion.

"Yeah, Bob Vandergriff blew us all out of the water," Pritchett admitted. "He's a great athlete and had over 500 points. No one in the class even came close."

Dave Connolly was second amongst the drag racing fraternity with 390 points.  Matt Hagan was next at 288 with Pritchett in fourth at 280.

"I don't know if I could have spun any harder than I did but if someone had told me I was only eight points behind Matt, I might have been able to," Pritchett said. "It would have been neat to beat the Hulk."

Pritchett did finish ahead of Shawn Langdon, Morgan Lucas, Richie Crampton, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Steve Johnson.

"Every once in a while they would show the standings, and you'd spike up a bit, just to get up there in competition," said Pritchett. "

The 45-minute competition netted $25,000 for the charity. The average amount to make a wish come true is $9,000.

"The lights, go out and the music comes on and the instructor tells you what torque to put your stationary bike on and what rpm to maintain," said   

"I was asked how did I do by a fellow competitor, and I responded, 'All I know is I beat Shawn [Langdon]. If I can't beat them on the track all the time, I can at least get them off the track."

And on Sunday in Commerce, Ga., she nearly got them all on the track. - Bobby Bennett

“We had a couple of great runs throughout the weekend,” Pritchett said. “This season so far we have been a very consistent car, and we’ve always been looking for that little bit of a break in eliminations and getting everything right on the track,” Pritchett said. “These past two weeks since our last race in (April 24-26 in Houston) we have been very meticulous about the details in our car and we changed our setup a little bit.”

Pritchett qualified No. 3 with a 3.792-second run at 321.81 mph in her Gumout/Dote Racing entry. Then, she made an impressive march to the finals, ousting Chris Karamesines, J.R. Todd, and three-time world champion Larry Dixon before coming up short against Brown.

“We came out rolling (with the changed setup) with a lot of confidence,” Pritchett said. “Being consistent as we’ve been instills confidence in our team and myself. It has been a while since Vegas of last year that we went to the semifinals, and it is a euphoric state that we get in (by winning rounds). That’s what I love. What my team is feeling, how positive they are. This will not be just my first Top Fuel win, it would be my team’s first Top Fuel win, my crew and my team owners and for my crew chief Doug Kuch.”

Pritchett acknowledged how tough it is to get to Victory Lane in Top Fuel.

“The struggle is real,” Pritchett said. “I feel like we definitely wanted to win this time (against Brown) and now after being that close now we really want it. I don’t think we could want it any more. I just get to drive the car and do the best that I can, but our results have been the product of intense attention by Doug Kuch and Rob Flynn and the entire crew. We had zero mistakes this weekend and we’ve actually pretty much had zero mistakes the whole year, and that’s a lot to say because we are a part-time team still. We’re running 18 races of 24 and we don’t have a full-time crew. Half of our crew is full-time, and half of it is part time. I think we definitely exceeded a lot of people’s expectations, but not quite our own because our expectation is to win, and we are really close to that.”

In the finals, Pritchett lost traction early, but she wasn’t about to click off.

“I was definitely not lifting,” Pritchett said. “When it comes to Sunday, my pedal is to the metal. I got out there, and I immediately saw Antron about 60-feet out. I knew he got me a little bit on the light, and I saw him pulling away and then we were going up in smoke and I caught it. It was a really good pedal job and I could still see him right there and my car hooked back up and then I could feel it push a gasket out and I could feel the motor was eating itself alive, but you never know. Antron could’ve pitched a belt or something, so you stick it.”

Pritchett is no stranger to winning – she won the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series in a Funny Car and most recently she won three times in NHRA’s Pro Mod Series.

“We definitely didn’t luck into getting into the final round, but it takes a little bit of luck,” Pritchett said about her performance at Atlanta. “My theory behind that is that you have to be prepared to receive the luck. You have to be at your best all of the time, and if somebody happens to mess up next to you, you still need to go make that run.” - Tracy Renck

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