From Shirley Shahan to Maddi Gordon: A history of NHRA's 100 female winners

In 1966, Shirley Shahan became the first woman to win an NHRA national event; nearly six decades later, Maddi Gordon became the 100th winner with her victory in Top Alcohol Funny Car in Seattle. Here's a historic look back at the road to 100 female winners.

Maddi Gordon’s Top Alcohol Funny Car victory at the NHRA Northwest Nationals made her the 100th different female racer to hoist an NHRA national event Wally, an incredible milestone even for a sport that prides itself on diversity.

Those 100 women have accounted for 380 victories in total, including 195 in the Professional ranks, but the road to 100 female winners began long ago, on Feb. 20, 1966, when Shirley Shahan won Top Stock at the 1966 NHRA Winternationals.

Shahan, already the most accomplished woman in the sport with a series of other big wins and national records to her credit, had learned to drive at age 10, at the wheel of her dad’s ’34 Ford pickup, and, as the oldest of four children, she also was dad’s mechanic helper during his own racing forays. “At an early age, I knew the difference between a 5/8 and a 9/16 wrench,” she recalled proudly.

But it was at the wheel of her Drag-On Lady Plymouth, in front of a huge television audience on ABC’s fabled Wide World of Sports, that she hit the big stage with her victory and helped open the door for women to realize that they, too, could be successful in what was a male-dominated sport.

In the early 1960s, the number of women competing at NHRA national events could probably be counted on two hands, and acceptance was hard to come for those who did. Just six years before Shahan’s victory, female racers had been banned from all but the slowest classes competing at the 1960 NHRA Nationals in Detroit based on the frail evidence that the only incident at the 1959 Nationals involved a female driver.

As momentous as Shahan’s win is in retrospect, back then, it received surprisingly little major attention.

“I was about five years before women's lib,” she said in a 2008 interview with NHRA National Dragster. “A professional manager would have been a great asset at that time, but the ladies that are racing now are doing such a fabulous job. I take my hat off to them.

“It was a great thrill at the time and still is. I especially remember the fans who stood up as I passed by after my final run, cheering for me. I will never forget them and their support.”

Yet it took more than five years before another female racer visited a national event winner’s circle when Judi Boertman won the 1971 NHRA Summernationals after her husband, skilled veteran Dave Boertman, fouled against her in the final round, setting off a whole round of jokes about “sleeping on the couch” had he beaten her.

Even as the number of female racers grew exponentially over the years, buoyed by the emergence of Top Fuel legend Shirley Muldowney, it took 21 years from Shahan’s initial win for the list of women to win an NHRA national event reached double digits. Muldowney was the sport’s first Professional-class winner, winning at the 1976 Springnationals, where she became the fourth female winner after the1972 Winternationals Super Stock triumph by “Miss Mighty Mopar,” Judy Lilly.

With the introduction of more affordable cars, entry-level classes, and widespread availability of technologies, the list has grown by leaps and bounds since the 1990s, and every class of NHRA national event competition has had at least one female winner. Female winners in the NHRA no longer are rarities or anomalies.

Read more: Girl power! The big list of female firsts in NHRA Drag Racing history (July 2023)

The countdown to Gordon’s historic win at Pacific Raceways accelerated the last two seasons with Camrie Caruso’s Pro Stock win at the 2023 NHRA Arizona Nationals and Bri Bergh’s Top Sportsman win in Denver later that year. Julie Bierman became the 99th winner with her victory in Stock at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals in mid-May of this year, and Michele Costa came one round away from being the 100th winner with her runner-up in Comp eliminator at the PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals.

Maddi and her sister Macie first gained national attention during the 2020 COVID-19 season when, with time off from school, they began wrenching on their father’s Funny Car and were part of his first of three world championships that year, and they played a huge part in the 17 national event wins — including two at the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals — that he scored in his final four seasons at the wheel.

Maddi took over the controls of the family’s Beta Motorcycles Camaro this season from her father, who retired at the end of last year after winning his third world championship. Maddi was runner-up in her first career points-earning race at the West Region event in Phoenix this season, then was runner-up at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas. She finally reached the winner’s circle for the first time at the North Central Region race in Indianapolis in just her fifth career start, won again at the Central Region event in Missouri, and then was runner-up at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Ohio just three weeks before her breakthrough win in Seattle.

Gordon grew up idolizing her grandfather, Mike, who competed in the class before handing the reins to his son, Doug, but also Annie Whiteley, who has a long and successful history in the class and with Gordon is just one of four women to win in the competition class.

"For as long as I can remember, Annie has been out there racing in this class and being successful, so I thought, 'Maybe I can do it, too'; but I don't know, she's way cooler than me," Gordon remembered with a smile. "The first time I sat in her car was the first time I ever felt comfortable. My sister and I grew up around her, and she's been like family to us."

"It's just an honor, considering how many women have raced and won before me, and for it to be me, it's like, 'How do I deserve this?' I could have been No. 99 or No. 101," she said. "It's really special, with the sign they had at the top end and all of the people who have congratulated me, people I didn't even think knew who I was, from Jimmy Prock to Ron Capps to Erica Enders.

"This is really cool; I'm still on a high. I'm in awe and feel very fortunate; just to be driving an Alcohol Funny Car is my greatest dream come true, and to be successful is almost more than I could expect, and I am just so honored to be the 100th winner."

Here's a historic look back at the road to 100 female winners: