Sunday, 9 February 2014

Interview on Today Fm

This morning, Gabby was interviewed by Anton Savage of Savage Sundays on Today Fm. You can listen to the interview here: Today Fm

Meeting with Irish Ministers

In January, Gabby met with Minister Leo Varadkar and Minister Brian Hayes about getting Drag Racing recognized as a sport here in Ireland.

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Gabrielle McDonald from Dublin Ireland

Gabrielle, or Gabby as she is known by most, used to race a junior dragster in the UK Junior Drag Racing Championship and won the triple British Junior Drag Racing championship and led the NDRS Nordic Drag Racing Championship for most of 2010.

Eventually finishing in 6th place as she did not have the funds to get to Sweden to compete for the final rounds, Gabrielle was so far ahead in the Nordic Championship that she basically only had to turn up at one of the Swedish events and qualify to take the Nordic series. Which consisted of the combined championships for Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.

In 2010 Gabby also won the Shakespeare County Raceway Sportswoman of the year award and finished third in the Alamo Jr. Drag racing Championship. Gabrielle has raced three times in America, twice at Bristol Drag way, the famous Thunder Valley drag strip in TN. In 2008 she represented Santa Pod Raceway and Ireland at the Eastern conference Finals at Bristol.

In 2009 Gabrielle raced at the Halloween Haunting Midwest Jr. Super Series and qualified twice in the top 16 in Outlaw 330 Junior Dragster at two events on the day at the I-57 Drag strip in Benton IL in the US. In 2011 she represented Shakespeare County Raceway and her country again at the Bristol venue. She would like to say a special thank you to Half scale Dragsters, Whaley racing engines, Junior Specialities and all those who helped her while in the US at the Bristol events.

Gabrielle
`s only other racing in 2011 was at the European Drag Racing Championship where she was invited to race for the Alamo Junior drag racing team at Santa Pod, in 2012 she started her licensing for Top Fuel Dragsters at Santa Pod England. She did four passes down the strip, first doing her burnout then her 60 foot runs and then her 330 foot pass.

Her fastest run was a 6.90 second time, while lifting off the throttle at the 60 foot marker. You can only do a full drag strip run when you have worked your way up to that point, so you have to start with the burnout and work on each on the various distance marker points until you finally get to do a foot to the floor, 1000 foot pass run, which would have you travelling at over 300 mph (512kph) in around 4.5 seconds.

Top fuel cars now don’t run the full ¼ mile distance for safety reasons, so the 1320 foot  (1/4 mile) distance was reduced to 1000 foot. Gabrielle`s next set of licensing runs will be at the Easter event at Santa Pod England in March 2013 where she hopes to finish her licence off. It is believed that Gabrielle is the first kid in the world to go straight from junior dragsters up to Top Fuel Dragsters. At this event she will have to make two full passes down the drag strip in 4.50 seconds to obtain her licence and she hopes to break the Irish landspeed record while at Santa Pod. The Irish landspeed Record currently stands at 301 mph and it can be broken outside Ireland as long as the driver is an Irish citizen.

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Santa Pod 2012

October test in Santa Pod Raceway


Finally something better than winning the Junior Dragster triple of UK National and Club Championships as she spent the weekend making her first licencing passes in one of Rune Fjeld's stable of Top Fuel Dragsters. Gabrielle made a total of four passes at Santa Pod Raceway over the weekend culminating in a 6.907/103 off the throttle and chutes out at 330 feet.

Gabrielle, now nineteen, originally planned to move to Super Pro ET but managed to persuade her mum and dad that they really wanted her to go Top Fuel and there was only one choice for the venue. "When I went through the gates at Santa Pod I felt I was home". "This was probably one of the most scary experiences of my life, but it was also thrilling and I can't explain how amazing it is. I found I was very popular afterwards. I had Friend requests and messages and when I turned on my phone I had loads of texts!"  

Thank You to Rune, Lyndsey, Jamie, Paul, Mark and Luke who were "Just amazing",  and to Laurie Bamford and Shelley Pearson for advice. "The biggest thanks go to Mum and Dad", she said. "They have supported me through all of this and have been just amazing even though Dad had a heart attack every time I ran and said "Don't ever do that again!". Thanks also to Dave at Santa Pod who taught me to drive a Junior Dragster six years ago. He was there at the weekend and he was so proud. Had he not taught me to drive the Junior I probably wouldn't be here doing this now."

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