DI Women of Power 2024: Debbie O’Rourke Adapts and Overcomes
Growing up in England, Debbie O’Rourke didn’t necessarily dream of a career in high-level drag racing. But through a course of twists, turns, and moves of thousands of miles, the daughter of a British rally racer has competed in a 5-second Top Alcohol Funny Car in Australia and now serves in a variety of roles in professional-level doorslammer drag racing here in the United States.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #189, the Women of Power Issue, in July/August of 2024.]
When O’Rourke was in her early 20s, she went to Australia on a backpacking trip and ended up immigrating there. She met her now-husband, Grant, who was into cars and took Debbie to Sydney Dragway to check out the scene. The young couple felt drag racing was something they could do, so Grant started racing a 16-second street car and gradually improving it. Debbie gave it a try, and by that point it was an 11-second car competing in Super Sedan. With some guidance from their friends in Pro Mod, the O’Rourkes started building a Pro Mod in the late ‘90s. Again, Grant drove it for a while before Debbie asked, “Can I give it a go?”
“I got in and my first quarter-mile pass in a PSI-supercharged, small-block car was a 7.30 down the quarter mile,” O’Rourke says. “The funny thing about it now is that I didn’t realize the speed that I would be doing, which was over 234 MPH straight up and with a short shutdown area. I pulled the ‘chutes too late and tried to then go around the corner and then put it on its lid – very gently. That was my first altercation with a wreck. But from there we just developed it more and more and we became more successful.”
The couple then built a second car for Grant to drive. One of the cars even had a passenger seat that was used to give rides down the track. Then, there was a shift in the Australian drag racing politics at the time, and the O’Rourkes decided to build an alcohol Funny Car for Debbie to drive. At that point, she was the only woman in the class in Australia. She admits her short stature at first made it a challenge to drive the clutch-equipped Funny Car, but with some R&D and seat time, she made it work and ran the pro circuit for about 10 years. For the last few years of their Australian racing careers, Grant also ran a Pro Mod while Debbie raced the Funny Car, but the grind became too much after a while.
“Having two cars and doing the pro circuit in Australia, because the tracks are so far apart, is too expensive,” O’Rourke says. “At the same time, I was in the corporate world as a strategic consultant and I had a team of people in Australia and New Zealand. I was away from home a lot and it was a little stressful at the time, so we decided that we needed a change and that’s why I’m here.”
The O’Rourkes came to the U.S. in 2017 and quickly found places to utilize their skills, with Debbie leveraging her corporate strategy background and Grant showcasing his abilities as a crew member.
“I’m a bit of a hybrid, but now I throw in the U.S. as well to the U.K./Australian/U.S. breed,” O’Rourke says. “We have not regretted the move. It’s been great for us because of our passion for drag racing. I felt that with my career background I was able to bring something to it. Since then, I’ve just been paving a bit of a way wearing many hats.”
Debbie initially helped the drag racing industry by completing a number of small projects before being engaged by Pro Line Racing to work on media and marketing initiatives. That led to working with Pro Line co-owner Eric Dillard and race promoter Donald Long to launch the FuelTech Radial Outlaws Racing Series in 2022. She also works with Dillard and several key Pro Mod advocates within Finish Line Consultants, the group that manages the relationship between NHRA and the NHRA Pro Mod racers and teams. O’Rourke has used her experience to develop partnerships to fuel the series that has battled participation struggles in the recent past.
“We’ve formed a body of people together to try to overcome some of those issues,” O’Rourke says, “and from that we’ve been able to build some blocks and steadily grow it back with the intention of increasing car count, increasing the exposure and the sponsorship side of it, and really creating a real B2B mechanism presented by the foundations that we’ve managed to lay down.”
O’Rourke stays connected to her roots as a racer by working with Pro Line Racing drivers like PDRA Pro Boost competitors Randy Weatherford, Scott Lang, and Travis Harvey to provide a variety of video angles that help both drivers and tuners learn about what happened in a pass and how to improve.
“I love being part of the race team because that’s my background, and if I could get in there and turn a few spanners, or wrenches, I would. I’m not sure they trust me enough to do that,” O’Rourke laughs. “It makes me feel part of the race team. It’s good.”
The desire to drive again is still there for O’Rourke, who says she’d like to try driving an automatic transmission-equipped car after years of running a clutch. But she realizes driving opportunities come with a hefty price tag, so she’s content with her other roles in the sport that keep her plenty busy. With 10 NHRA Pro Mod events, eight PDRA races, eight Radial Outlaws races, a handful of standalone outlaw races, and various test sessions, O’Rourke spends around half the weekends of the year on the road.
It all sounds like a lot for someone who came to the U.S. to get away from stress, but O’Rourke is driven by her passion for the sport. Plus, she enjoys seeing the results of her efforts, especially when they involve improving the community she loves.
“I try to be as professional as I possibly can, and I’ve turned into an implementer – a doer – whereas before I was more of the strategist,” O’Rourke says. “My world has completely changed from Australia to here, and adapting is probably my biggest challenge.”
This story was originally published on August 23, 2024.
The post DI Women of Power 2024: Debbie O’Rourke Adapts and Overcomes first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
