Retired dancer Sarah Allen traded her musical track for the racetrack at the age of 13. Today, she performs in smoky arenas to the sound of roaring engines.
The 21-year-old represents half of Allen Racing, a team comprised of herself and her father, Artie Allen. Sarah said her friends and family occasionally question her racing profession, but among the first to express concern was Artie.
“He was acting like he wasn’t nervous at all,” Allen said. “But my mom said after my first or second pass, he started crying. He’s like, ‘She’s not scared of the car. She likes it more than me.’”
The family makes up two of the hundreds of competitors in the National Hot Rod Association series.
Artie and Sarah competed in October at Gainesville Raceway’s new “Night of Fire” event, which engaged attendees through flame throwing jet cars, musical performances and the highly anticipated racer competition for the Wally trophy.
While these competitions offer trophies and cash prizes, Sarah Allen said it’s the relationships developed on the track that make them so enjoyable.
“You’re all family. Especially in the Top Alcohol Dragster, we’re all pretty close. Everybody lends a hand [and] helps out,” Sarah Allen said.
Sarah added this Night of Fire was particularly special due to her father’s return to the track, following a year of recovery. As a result of his job in construction, Artie, 59, underwent two knee surgeries.
“Construction, crawling in and off tractors and excavators and dirt holes wears the body out, but I feel great and able,” Artie Allen said. “I have to keep up with Sarah now.”
Despite the Allen family’s initial excitement for the event, their performance wasn’t exactly the comeback they were expecting.
“On the first pass Artie’s motor blew up and kicked the rods out, and [my] car smoked the tires,” Sarah Allen said. “They weren’t full pulls like we wanted, but that’s what happens sometimes in this sport.”
Sarah Allen said the data they gathered from the race will help them improve for their next competition and next Night of Fire in Orlando.
General Manager of Gainesville Raceway Jodee Kennedy said Gainesville’s Night of Fire marked one of the few races left in the NHRA 2024 season. Kennedy added she spent months preparing for the new event, and even longer for Gatornationals, one of the most anticipated racing weekends, according to the NHRA website.
Kennedy said it’s through events like Saturday’s that she hopes to increase awareness for Gainesville Raceway and the upcoming Gatornationals in March 2025.
“I literally, all year long, work on it. On jet cars, on the fireworks, what music we’re going to play, what classes we are going to run,” Kennedy said. “The smiles, the hugs, just interacting with everybody, it pays itself back at the end of the day.”
Kennedy shares her love for the racetrack with her 13-year-old son, Aaron Kennedy, who agreed that drag racing is underrated.
“Everybody just comes here and has a great time, and surprisingly, not that many people know about it,” Aaron said. “So, what we’ve been doing is trying to spread it to the community, hoping they would come and just have a great time with their families and friends.”
Aaron got his first taste for racing at 5 years old during the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, where his mom said he was a natural crowd pleaser.
“Everybody’s cheering for him. You can hear him as he’s going down and you look over on the jumbotron, and he’s going slow, so he’s waving,” Kennedy said. “It was the cutest. When we got down there, he goes, ‘Mama did you hear everybody cheering for me?’”
Kennedy, who turned 13 the week after the Night of Fire, said he’s excited to be moving up a division, where he’ll get to compete in faster, harder and bigger races, including the NHRA Jr. Street competition.
He added that his father and fellow racer, Chad Kennedy, encouraged him to pursue the sport.
“Other than the big racers, he’s my biggest inspiration because seeing him go down the track, knowing I can do that pretty soon, it makes me feel good,” Aaron said.
Among his other inspirations is Sarah Allen, who is not much older than he is and said their friendship developed after Aaron was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes, a chronic disease she has also battled for around 13 years.
November is National Diabetes Month, and so the pair has continued to raise awareness for the condition through stickers, some of which Aaron designed.
“We always wore it on our chest,” Allen said. “We put [the stickers] on all of our stuff. It’s on the side of Dad’s car because it makes him feel good, us feel good.”
Both drivers said nothing changed about the way they race following their diagnosis, but they left advice for anyone facing trials from the condition.
“It doesn’t matter if you have diabetes,” Allen said, “you can do whatever you want.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
