Husband-and-wife racers making most of Funny situation

[Schwartz Fan]

Husband-and-wife racers making most of Funny situation


Melanie Troxel and Tommy Johnson Jr. are accomplished drag racers, multi-event winners in the NHRA's Powerade Series who are driving this season in the Funny Car division. They're also married to each other, which raises the possibility that husband and wife are going to square off somewhere, someday, and race down the quarter-mile.

The next chance is this weekend in Atlanta in the sixth fixture of the NHRA national event season.

"I don't think either of us is looking forward to racing each other," Troxel said. "We know it could be a really good media marketing deal out there, but us personally, we're not looking forward to it. We're just going to do it, hopefully, with the attitude that it's just another competitor in the other lane and that's the way you should really deal with it.

"You're racing the track. That's what we tell ourselves to do. Unfortunately, it gets in your head what's going on over on the other side and we both want bragging rights."

Troxel and Johnson had their wedding on New Year's Eve in 2003 and both have been competing in NHRA national event competition since. But until this year, Troxel was racing in Top Fuel and Johnson in Funny Cars, the NHRA's most powerful divisions with their nitromethane-burning 7,000-horsepower engines. They didn't create the situation by design.

Troxel had a strong season with two victories and finished ninth in the points with Morgan Lucas Racing. But her sponsor, Torco Fuels, encouraged a switch to Funny Car with Gotham City Racing.

"There was always a part of me that wanted to try Funny Cars," Troxel said. "I had gotten my alcohol Funny Car license and driven in one match race in Canada early in my career, but after that my opportunities came in dragsters. I thought (Gotham City) was a good opportunity .

"Tommy and I talked and he wasn't real crazy about the idea. He knows how competitive we are. We had problems even when he was in Funny Car and I was in Top Fuel and I was having that really good beginning to the season and he was struggling. It was hard to manage that. You're enjoying your weekend and he's having a bad weekend. You've got to meet in the middle somewhere. He thought this (both in Funny Cars) would amplify those issues."

The situation of imbalance arose in 2006, when Troxel was having a breakout season. She won twice and went to the final round in five straight national events to open the season. Troxel led championship through 12 of 23 events before finishing fourth in the Top Fuel championship. She was the recipient of the Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswomen of the Year award.

Johnson closed strongly in 2006, winning two events and finishing sixth in the Funny Car championship for Don Prudhomme's Snake Racing. He has 10 NHRA national event victories, seven in Funny Cars, two in Top Fuel and one in the sportsman alcohol dragster division.

Johnson made the change from Top Fuel to Funny Car in 1999, when Joe Gibbs offered him a job. He joined Prudhomme's team in 2001 and moved to Kenny Bernstein's Monster team this season.

Both Johnson, 40, and Troxel, 35, come from drag racing families. They were teenagers when they met in the mid-1980s.

"I was racing alcohol Funny Car at the time and her dad (Mike) was racing alcohol dragster and we'd be parked by each other a lot of times in the pit areas," Johnson said. "My sister and Melanie would hang out together and we got to know their family really good. That's when I met Melanie."

Troxel, four years and four months younger, says she had a "little crush" on Johnson but he didn't notice. Johnson says the age gap was "a bigger deal" then.

They went through the '90s without seeing much of each other.

"I turned professional and started running Top Fuel and didn't run a lot of the same events her dad was running," Johnson said. "When she was 16, she started driving in the Sportsman level, so I didn't see much of her. There were quite a few years where I never saw her."

Troxel worked her way through the Sportsman, a category that isn't fully professional but isn't fully amateur, either. She won two Top Alcohol dragster (No. 1 Sportsman category) national events in 1999 and finished second in the NHRA championship.

It led to Troxel making her professional debut in 2000 in Top Fuel. She drove in three races at the start of the season before the team stopped.

"We were sponsored by In-N-Out Burger in Top Alcohol and they where stepping up for us to do Top Fuel," Troxel said. "But Guy Snyder, the CEO, passed away in December, and they didn't want to go forward. We had a contract, but under the circumstances, we agreed to do three races and park the car. It got my name out there."

Troxel was hired by Don Schumacher Racing to drive a Top Fuel car for the final seven races of 2000, but the sponsor didn't return for '01. Troxel didn't drive again for 16 months.

"Melanie started racing Top Fuel in 2000 and we started seeing each other again," Johnson said. "We were at the same events and started talking to her. We started dating. She made me work for it the second time around." Adds Troxel: "We reconnected."

Troxel was unemployed for the final half of 2003 and all of 2004 before Schumacher hired her again for the final half of 2005. The 2006 and 2007 seasons are the only full NHRA seasons Troxel has had.

To continue into 2008, her best bet was switching to Funny Car.

"When she first asked me about it, I said, 'Why would you want to do that?'" Johnson said. "I had to remove myself and put myself in her shoes and kind of look through her eyes. It was a good opportunity for her and I can't fault her for taking it. It wasn't what I would have drawn up on the chalkboard but, at the same time, it's a good thing too."

Late last year, Johnson found himself looking for a new team when Prudhomme lost a sponsor for his Top Fuel car and took the Funny Car sponsor and transferred it.

There was a period when it was possible both Troxel and Johnson might be without teams for 2008.

"It's funny how things change," Troxel said. "Tommy's deal went away and he had no job for a while and it kind of put things in perspective. All of a sudden, it was, 'I don't care if we race each other as long as we're both racing.' I think it was a really good, healthy experience for both of us. Torco pulled out and we questioned whether the whole household was going to be out of work.

"It put things into a new perspective, that we might not have rides. Tommy wasn't worried any more about us racing each other."

Both Troxel and Johnson are off to slow starts. Troxel has failed to qualify for three and Johnson two of the events. He's 15th in the points and she's 20th. It's part of the reason they haven't run into each in an elimination round.

Both know that will change.

"Oh, yes, someday, it will happen," Johnson said. "We've tried to downplay it. We're like, 'Aw, don't even worry about it.' It boils down to you're in a lane against another team. We were both in the elite classes of the series and now we're in an elite class against each other. The dramatics have changed a little bit, but I don't think it's going to effect us too much.

"I figure I can't win either way. If I lose to my wife, they'll say, 'You can't beat your wife?' And if I beat her, they'll say, 'What are you doing, beating up on your wife? You can't let your wife win.' So, I'm going to lose either way."

When your wife is Melanie Troxel, there's no disgrace in losing. But what about those bragging rights?




It's a Funny life for husband-and-wife drivers - Tim Tuttle - SI.com