Don't be fooled by the term "funny car." When Courtney Mageau slips behind the wheel of her custom built race car Girl Trouble, she's a force to be reckoned with.
With the Edmonton woman behind the wheel, her alcohol-fuelled, 1,800-horsepower machine can reach face-melting speeds of up to 300 km/h as it roars down the drag strip in less than seven seconds.
"The feeling of driving a race car at that speed is remarkably akin to an airplane taking off," Mageau said in an interview with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.
"That feeling you get, where you can feel it in the pit of your stomach and are almost glued to the back your seat, that's what the acceleration feels like at that speed."
You could say Mageau, Alberta's only female funny race car competitor, has racing in her veins.
She's a third generation driver. Her grandfather started racing when the sport first started to roar to life at tracks around Edmonton, and it's been a family affair ever since.
'It's almost a surreal experience'
Her father, Jay Mageau, is a local drag-racing legend. Her sisters all learned to race at a young age, but Mageau is the only one of the four who stuck with it.
"I've been involved with drag racing since I was 13. My grandpa drag raced starting in 1965 and he definitely got my dad involved as well," Mageau said.
"So I got my hands behind the wheel was I was in junior high school … and I've been involved with it ever since."
Her parents surprised Mageau with her first race car, complete with custom paint job, long before she reached high school. The first time she hit the accelerator, she was hooked.
"When you're behind the wheel, times moves differently. It's amazing," Mageau said. "Time slows down. It's almost a surreal experience."
'This is definitely a precision sport'
Now 26, Mageau is building on her family legacy, racing as the only licensed female in her class.
And don't let her petite frame fool you.
Mageau's a master behind the wheel of her newly rebuilt race car, shaped to look like a 1955 Thunderbird.
Now entering her 12th racing season as a rookie in the alcohol funny car class, she has been powering ahead of the local, national and North American competition.
Mageau says feeding her drive to succeed requires a lot of grunt work for her and her volunteer crew of mechanics.
Mageau's custom-built funny car can reach speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour in less than seven seconds. (Girl Trouble)
Funny cars can burn through up to can burn as much as 15 US gallons in fuel during a single run down the strip.
"This is definitely a precision sport," Mageau said.
"I'm not going out there and competing in a weekend sportsman level. The amount of work that goes into these cars, you can't just drive your old Chevy Impala out to the track and expect it to work."
'Times are changing'
Despite the challenges, Mageau won't be putting the brakes on her racing career anytime soon. In an attempt to grow her small family team, she and her father have entered a competition for a $50,000 sponsorship.
The Search for a Champion contest put on by Champion Auto Parts allows grassroots racers to compete for a total of $125,000 in financial backing through an online voting process.
Mageau and her volunteer team Girl Trouble Racing have made the finals for the competition which runs from Feb. 23 to March 23 online.
Mageau is among only three female funny car drivers across Canada still in the running. Being part of the minority is something she's grown accustomed to in the male-dominated sport.
She would like to see more women succeed in racing — a sport that has given her a drive to succeed, and allowed her to keep the family racing legacy alive.
"Times are changing, and it's absolutely something where men and women can and should compete in at an equal level," she said.
"And now for my father see his daughter not only competing, but excelling, I think it brings him a lot of pride but also terrifies him a little bit.
"There's always that gut-wrenching moment when you see someone you love take off from the starting line."
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