Thu, Jan 29, 06:00 AM Shelly Anderson Reached New Milestones in 1997

Courtesy of Jeff Romack - Pontiac Communications Returns in Parts America Dragster

DETROIT

Despite a disappointing season in which she was hoping to finish higher than 10th place, Shelly Anderson still managed to reach a number of major milestones during a year that solidified her position as one of the most influential women in motorsports.

Anderson, 32, drives the Parts America Pontiac Top Fuel dragster on the 23-event NHRA Winston championship tour and is the younger sister and teammate of Randy Anderson, the driver of the Parts America Pontiac Firebird Funny Car. The patriarch of the Anderson Family is father Brad Anderson who owns the race teams and builds many of the components for the nitro engines used by several teams in the sport.

"This sport has always kept our family close," said Shelly. "My sister runs Dad's business that manufactures everything for our race cars. It was probably junior high before I realized that this wasn't what every kid did on the weekend.

"I thought everyone went to the race track. It also helped us when we started racing because we weren't intimidated and starry eyed and it helped us understand what it took to race full-time." Shelly's Top Fuel career started during the middle of the 1992 season and she finished 14th in points running a partial schedule. The next year Anderson won her first career race at the Keystone Nationals in Reading, Pa.

In 1994, she broke into the Winston top-10 for the first time with a tenth-place finish, winning the Winternationals at Pomona and the Big Bud Classic, becoming only the second Classic rookie to win the event. She followed up in '95 with a ninth-place finish and finished eighth in '96. She has five career wins in six final rounds with her best year coming in 1996 when she won the Pennzoil Nationals in Richmond, Va., and the Northwest Nationals in Seattle. She has also set the national speed record three times, once in 1996 and twice in 1997, reaffirming her position as the fastest and quickest woman in the history of the sport.

Among her many accomplishments in 1997, Anderson improved upon her career-best elapsed time at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., eclipsing the quarter-mile in 4.617 seconds. She also raised her career-best top speed to 317.46 mph at the Slick 50 Nationals in Houston on March 23. Anderson's best race day performance also came at the Slick 50 Nationals where she lost to Bob Vandergriff in the semi-finals.

Her goals coming into 1998 are a higher finish in the point standings, a couple of wins and a better, more consistent performance out of her race car. "We don't see any reason why we shouldn't be a top-five finisher in points this season," said Anderson. "Last year was disappointing because we didn't finish as well as we would've liked, but at the same time, we made some improvements to the car that are going to pay off this year. Everyone will be in the same position when the season starts all over again, and we can win this title just as well as anybody."