By Andy Furman
NKyTribune Reporter
Maddie Lawson says she does it because it’s her first love.
Maddie Lawson
She’s been at it for almost eight years.
Her dad has different thoughts.
“We’re in it too deep to quit now,” dad Jason told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “She could drive a tractor and a Bobcat when she was six,” he said.
Maddie Lawson is a dragster.
And at the ripe-old age of 15, Maddie Lawson is a veteran of the racetrack – with trophies and sponsors to prove it.
“I started racing in 2016, when I was eight,” she said. “My Pawpaw drives a ’73 Nova, and that’s really how I got started.”
While most families were preparing for Santa and the holiday season, the Lawsons trekked to Gulfport, Mississippi so Maddie could compete in the Junior Dragster Invitational.
“It was Christmas on the Coast,” she said, “with 220 entries for the eighth-mile race.”
The event was open to the 12-17 age group.
Yes, she needed a new motor
It didn’t go well for Miss Lawson.
“I blew a rod on the motor, when I started the engine,” the 10th grader from Gallatin County High School said, “We replaced it with an old motor, but it wasn’t cutting it.”
Yet, there was a silver lining.
“When we came home, grandma surprised me with a brand new motor,” she said. Not your ordinary Christmas present for a 15-year-old.
All hasn’t been lost for the promising star of the racing world.
She displayed her car at the Cavalcade in Coney – Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio – and placed first in the Junior Dragster.
“We were the best-looking junior dragster there,” she beamed. “And, we won the Rising Star Award for Outstanding Engine.”
Next stop is Ringgold, Georgia – March 24-26 – for the Junior Jam.
Maddie races at Thornhill Dragstrip in Kenton County – off 177 in Morningview; she also has raced at Edgewater Sports Park in Cleves (Ohio), and Kentucky Dragway in Clay City.
But balancing schoolwork and practice might be a problem – or is it?
“During the winter months it’s a bit tougher,” she admits.
It wasn’t always racing for Maddie.
“I played basketball in fifth-grade,” she said. “But racing was in my blood.”
In her first race in April 2016 she says, “I was pretty good.”
That very same year, she won the Ralph Payne Memorial at Thornhill.
But Maddie, isn’t racing dangerous?
“I wear fire-proof pants and a jacket and have the Hans Device in my helmet,” she said. “I also have an arm restraint and wear special shoes.”
The Hans essentially works like an airbag. But instead of inflating a cushion to arrest occupant motion in a collision, it uses a raised collar and two polyester fabric tethers to secure the driver’s head. The driver’s shoulder belts hold the tall, still collar securely in place. The device was designed in the early 1980s by an American scientist and researcher, Dr. Robert Hubbard, a professor of biomechanical engineering at Michigan State University.
Last year was a good one for Maddie Lawson – she won the 2022 Queen of the Hill at Thornhill and placed second overall in the points. She‘ll be recognized for her achievement at the annual banquet Feb. 18 at St. Matthews Church in Morningview.
Maddie will remain a junior racer until she’s 16, says her mom, Mary Ann – and then she goes for the “Big Car.”
“I’m a mini-dragster now,” she said. “I drive a Mike Bos Chassis Craft, 2022 Model, we have about $16,000 invested in it.”
Not counting grandma’s gift of a motor, costing about $5,000.
Speed and sponsors are the lifeblood of racing – and Maddie seems to be – pardon the pun – on the right track.
As for sponsors, she rattles off: Lucas Oil, Bavarian, JL Construction and Excavating and Brian Lawson with Lawson Farms.
The speed?
“From the start,” she says, “it takes 7.90 seconds in an eighth-mile race to get to 82 miles-per-hour.”
Those eighth-mile races usually have 20 cars entered – a big race, she says will have 75 or-more.
Her goal this year is to win the Thornhill Junior Championships.
And perhaps, get her drivers license when she turns 16.
