Juel roars back after flip

Dragsters are designed to go one direction – straight – except at the end of the track when you find the return road.

So when Jessica Juel of Spokane made a midtrack turn a few weeks ago at Mission, British Columbia, she knew it was not good. Juel’s dragster got into some leftover residue from a track cleanup, lost traction and tumbled out of control.

Juel got the car sideways at about 180 mph, flipped and hit the wall.

“The car was in bad shape,” Juel said. “The roll cage did its job.”

The car was nearly destroyed, but Juel luckily walked away with a bruised leg and soreness from her safety harness. Her exit from the cockpit was hastened by the sight of fire, she said.

Since then, among her, dad Don, boyfriend Mike Cofini – and some $5,500 in donations collected at the race track – the car has been put back together.

Spokane’s Nitro Extravaganza race at Spokane Raceway Park is the second outing for Juel since the crash. The group went to Seattle two weeks ago, but two days of rain washed out qualifying. Juel had to go directly into competition and won her first round with a car fresh out of the shop.

To say this season has been a bit trying for Juel, of Spokane, would be a huge understatement. The regular NHRA Division Six competitor admits she hasn’t had a whole lot of success.

The 24-year-old, second-generation driver is trying to get thing back on track. Juel will travel to Boise next week for that track’s annual Nightfire race, at which she hopes to take home a nice share of the $5,000 purse.

Smith on the sidelines

Craig Smith’s name will not end up in the results this year. The Odessa resident and defending Top Fuel champ is instead on the sidelines crewing for the Bubble-up funny Car driven by Terry Capp.

“I hate it,” Smith said of not racing, “but it’s better than staying at home.”

Smith loaned the use of his 18-wheeler and mobile shop to the nostalgia car owned by Ron Hodgeson out of Edmonton, Alberta.

Smith and Hodgeson have worked together in a number of racing ventures over the years.

As always, Smith has a number projects in the works. A top priority is to get his 15-year-old daughter, Kayli, behind the wheel of her first dragster when she turns 16.

Over the winter, Smith plans to get into nostalgia funny car racing with a replica of the legendary “Hawaiian,” of Roland Leong, who happens to also be on the Bubble-up crew this weekend.

There’s also the yearly hunt for support for Smith’s Top Fuel car that has had periodic backing, but not the millions necessary to fund a full season of NHRA racing.

Romanazzi blooms late

Just call Steve Romanazzi a late bloomer.

The driver of the Warrior Funny Car has realized a dream and started driving a fuel at age 50. Now, at 51, he’s leading the points in the Nostalgia Funny Car Association and has a win in one of the most coveted races in the nation.

Romanazzi, a commercial concrete contractor out of Visalia, Calif., said he started watching drag racing in the 1970s. After going to Orange County Raceway and watching one of the 100 funny car races, he said to a buddy, “I want to do that someday.”

After class time at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School, Romanazzi raced Alcohol Funny Cars for years.

The lure of nitro got him a couple of years back, but until Romanazzi hooked up with Donnie Couch it seemed to be two steps backward for every one forward.

According to Couch, Romanazzi blew up the car a week before the Hot Rod Reunion this past October in Bakersfield. In September, he was going to quit.