When the National Hot Rod Association began sinking its roots deeply into the cultural topsoil of the post-war years in America, the wide gulf that stretched between the accepted roles of men and women in the expanding world of motorsports was clearly defined.

Men drove. Women helped with everything else. That's the way it was.

But there were exceptions. Racing pioneers like Betty Skelton and Denise McCluggage were gaining respect in the sports car fraternity. Later, women such as Debra Gregg, Lyn St. James, and Janet Guthrie successfully competed and occasionally won in major league racing venues as diverse as Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In the NHRA, one woman is rightly credited with opening the door for others of her gender to strap themselves into the cockpits of nitromethane-burning dragsters and funny cars and race head-to-head with the menfolk.

Three-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney. And it wasn't easy.

She began her professional career in 1974 and three years later won her first championship. The greatest Top Fuel driver in history, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, signed her license which allowed her to embark on her remarkable career but respect was something that took a long time in coming.

She said, "Most of the new people that are in the sport today, aren't even close to knowing what we (me and my crew members) were forced to put up with on a steady basis. Week after week, year after year. I will admit that the constant fights and run-ins were something that fueled and motivated everyone on the team. When I think of it now, I'm somewhat thankful for most of what did happen because it truly, in the end, helped me to find my way to the top.

	Shirley Muldowney was the first woman licensed by NHRA to drive elite Top Fuel dragsters.

Most of the negative experiences -- and there were many of them -- would have been a good learning lesson for anyone, male or female, in knowing how to stand your ground. That was and still is a necessity in what I'll describe as the very tough world of motorsports."

Shirley still competes today and it would be hard to find a woman in any category of NHRA POWERade drag racing who doesn't acknowledge Muldowney's contributions in making their racing careers possible.

But getting the opportunity to compete in a male-oriented sport and being afforded acceptance and equal treatment by your male adversaries are two different issues. So, do women in drag racing today receive the respect and admiration that men drivers have long been afforded?

Yes and no.

Rhonda Hartman-Smith drives the Fram/Autolite Top Fuel dragster. Last year, she enjoyed her best career points finish at No. 10 and her tuner is also her husband, John Smith. "I've never had a problem with anyone," she said. "I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up in the sport. My dad, Virgil, has raced for a long time and I've always been around the sport. My brother, Richard, has driven dragsters and funny cars and everyone out here knows us. I think that's made it easier for other racers to accept me. They know I've worked my way into this driving job and didn't just get here because my dad bought me a race car."

Hartman-Smith understands the essential differences between men and women who race professionally when there are children to be raised. "Men aren't usually faced with making that tough decision between racing and parenting. They can race and be fathers while it's expected that a woman has to choose between the two. My daughter Megan is three-years-old now and I can bring her to all the races. My sponsor is really great about that and they like the family aspect of our team. But when she gets older, I don't want someone else to raise her while I'm out here racing. That's when I'll probably have to consider retiring from racing."

The 28-year-old mother from Anderson, S.C. may be well on her way to another top ten points finish in 2002, but what about a two-time NHRA champion who is still a newlywed? Are her experiences any different from Hartman-Smith's?

Angelle Savoie has won the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship for the past two years. Last season, she became the winningest female racer in NHRA history when she won the Mopar Parts Mile High Nationals in Denver, giving her 19 career wins, eclipsing the previous highwater mark, 18, held by ... Shirley Muldowney.

How was Savoie's arrival on the professional racing scene received and has she won the respect of her male counterparts since then?

She replies, "I heard all kinds of stuff when I started racing bikes. 'Oh, she'd better look out or she could get blown right off that bike!' and 'She's asking for trouble out here on these machines. She's gonna get hurt.' But my team owner, George Bryce, said just tune it out and do what you know you can do. When we started winning and especially after we won the championship in 2000, that kind of talk pretty much stopped."

Her record speaks for itself. The 31 year-old native of Luling, La., won last weekend's Summit Racing Nationals in Atlanta for her 23rd career national event win giving her the 2002 POWERade points lead. She has run the second-quickest elapsed time in class history and her seven wins last season are the most by a female competitor in NHRA history regardless of class. Recently married to Nicky Savoie, a tight end who competes in the Arena Football League, how has she been able to fulfill the duties of a young wife and attend to the responsibilities that go along with racing professionally for her teammates and sponsors?

"I think one reason it's been pretty easy is that Nicky understands what it's like to be involved in a professional sport. In fact, one reason it has always been hard to have a relationship while I race is that someone who doesn't appreciate what goes along with all this will come to the track and basically sit around while I work with the team, sign autographs, make appearances for the sponsors, and wait until things quiet down. Nicky is an athlete, he goes through many of the same things I go through, and that really takes the pressure off."

Savoie maintains that children are not a consideration for her and Nicky for at least the next three years. In the meantime, she enjoys her success as the sport's most prolific female race winner and expects to contend for the Pro Stock Bike championship at least that long.

Over the year's, other female drivers have entered into the ranks of the touring NHRA professional. Some had relatively brief tours of duty. Some raced longer. Some are still competing. Melanie Troxel, Danielle Deporter, Rochelle Splatt, Shelly Anderson, Gina Ferrara, Cristen Powell, Paula Martin, Bunny Burkett, Stephanie Reaves, Sondra Sykes, Connie Cohen, Lori Francis, and numerous other women who race in the NHRA's sportsman classes have unquestionably broken the gender barrier.

Still, there is a vast differential in the numbers of men vs women racers in the world's fastest motorsport. Can we expect to see that differential whittled down in the near future?

Perhaps.

The most popular drag racer in the history of drag racing, 11-time Funny Car champion John Force, has recently been devoting much of his time away from his three-car Team Castrol campaign to help his 19 year-old daughter, Ashley, embark on her racing career. She now competes in the Super Comp class, a category that runs on an 8.90 elapsed time index and features some of the most accomplished amateur drag racers in the country. Her Ford-powered dragster is serving as a training platform for her eventual move to much more powerful machinery, most likely, a nitro Funny Car when she's ready.

"We're working with Ashley one step at a time," said her dad. "She really wants to do this and I think she's going to be great at it. When she gets the handle on the car she's racing now and can feel comfortable with how fast it goes, then we'll see about the next step. She's driven an alcohol car at Frank Hawley's School and says she really likes how it feels inside a full-bodied car. But we won't let her get hurt or push her into something she's not ready for. But my sponsors like the idea of my daughter driving one of my cars so we'll see where this all leads."

With Ashley Force extending the magic of her dad's mystique into the immediate future, there's every possibility that more women will pursue their personal drag racing destinies. Those who have already been involved with drag racing in some capacity before moving to the driver's seat, such as Rhonda Hartman -Smith, may find acceptance more quickly from members of the opposite sex. Women who try their hand at the quarter-mile as relative newcomers, such as Angelle Savoie, may have to prove their abilities before winning the respect they seek. But in the final analysis, Shirley Muldowney may offer the most profound observation on the ever-evolving role of women in drag racing.

"Just about everything and everyone in the business has changed in one way or another (for the better). I simply cannot imagine where my wayward life would have taken me without the sport and many of the people involved -- many of those same friends I fell back on for help and support throughout my career.

What a wonderful "ride" this has been. I'm truly thankful everyday of my life that I got the chance to be part of drag racing both in the early days and now. It's a very satisfying feeling to see that the sport and the people involved have finally gained the respect they have long deserved."