Not many drivers can say that they won a major NHRA race within months of getting their first dragster on a track. Kristen Dennis can. She got licensed a mere two months before her first major win, the Dallas divisional, last year.

But before her first career win, she started out at NHRA Houston in April 2010, a race that didn’t go as well as she hoped. With half her dragster’s cylinders not firing, Dennis left as much fuel in the air as tire smoke. She ran a 13.502 at just 65.07.  Most drivers would be discouraged after a race like that, but after the first round defeat, Dennis remained confident in her abilities.  It paid off when she got the divisional win in Dallas.

Dennis says, “Winning is always a good confidence booster, but every run the car throws something different at me and I am still learning and experiencing different situations. It just takes seat time.” With a year and a half of seat time now under her belt, 2011 has proven be a good year for her.

This weekend, Dennis will be taking her racing career to the next level.  She will be hitting the track in Martin, Michigan, joining the ranks of the IHRA Nitro Jam.  With the stakes upped even further, she says she is “ready to add a win to the resume and show a little ‘girl power’ in the winner’s circle.”

The “girl power” will definitely be at a high when Dennis shares the track with up with Cherissa Smallwood in this weekend’s IHRA events. Smallwood, a 17-year racing veteran, joined the Nitro Jam in April of last year. Both women balance drag racing and their roles as mothers. Smallwood says that being a female driver takes some getting used to, but says that in the end, “gender doesn’t matter.…once the cars are staged.”

Needless to say, we can’t wait to see what happens once the cars are staged.

In just a year and a half of racing, Kristen Dennis has accomplished more than many drivers can even hope to do. The first time she hit the track, in April of last year, she’d only had her license for about two months.  She didn’t win