DI Women of Power 2024: Lauren Freer is Having Her Say in History
Last year, North Carolina racer Lauren Freer was busy making history at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk. Racing in Super Comp and Super Gas, Freer became the 30th driver in NHRA history to double at a national event. She was also the first female driver to accomplish the feat.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #189, the Women of Power Issue, in July/August of 2024.]
“It’s always been a bucket list thing for me,” says Freer, who has also claimed wins at NHRA divisional events and in big-money bracket races. Her most recent win before the Norwalk double was in 2017.
“I’ve always wanted to be the first; the first girl to double, the first girl to win The Million,” she says. “I’d had two cars in the semis before, two cars in the third round and then ended up winning in one but didn’t make it to Sunday in the other. I knew I wanted to double. That was the ultimate goal – but after I won Super Comp, it had been so long since I’d won one that I had the attitude, ‘I want to win, but I can’t be mad if I don’t.’”
It was past due for Freer to win Super Gas, though. She’d been competing in the category for years and won at the division level, but she hadn’t claimed a single national trophy in the class.
“Finally winning the double was pretty surreal,” expresses Freer. “I had wanted one of the Norwalk ice cream scoops [Summit Motorsports Park’s special trophy at the event] for years and won one in 2016 in Top Dragster, but to get two more at one race – and for them to be the commemorative ones honoring Bill Bader Sr. – was really cool.”
Surprisingly, Freer – who races with the support of husband Jonathan Jackson, dad Paul, mom Teresa, and longtime friend B.B. Williams – was dedicated to cheerleading for many years while her father was wrenching on a Top Fuel hydro boat.
“But fast was always a thing for me,” says Freer. “One day, my dad brought home a Jr. Dragster, and I think I quit cheerleading two weeks later.”
Driving an older, slow, and heavy car didn’t send Freer ahead to as many rounds as she would have liked, but that first year allowed her to learn the basics. The new-to-her car that came next equipped her to turn knowledge and comfort into success. Although Freer says it took a good two years to understand bracket racing, by the third year, she won the track championship and the IHRA World Bracket Finals in a new half-scale car that her family had built.
Freer raced Juniors until she was 18, with a bit of overlap in her transition from the half-scale dragster to bracket racing big cars. After a couple of years of bracket racing, she moved up to IHRA Quick Rod, where she experienced much success, including a division championship and plenty of Ironmen to line the shelves.
In the mid-2000s, Freer began running NHRA division events in order to get grade points to run a national event, and she finally got to do so in 2007 at World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis. Making quick progress, Freer won Super Comp at Bristol Dragway in just her second-ever NHRA national event.
“I just didn’t really know the difference at the time, but after I won Bristol, my dad was like, ‘I don’t think you really understand what you’ve just done,’” she recalls, now fully aware of the level of difficulty.
Freer stuck with Super Comp and later added Top Dragster to her repertoire. In 2013, because Top Dragster wasn’t regularly run at the national events at her home track – zMAX Dragway in Charlotte – Freer added Super Gas to the mix. She licensed through Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School.
“It was a learning curve,” admits the competitive driver who is a radiation therapist and treats cancer patients during the week. “I like racing two cars. It gives you two chances to win. There’s also more pressure to do well in one car if you lose in the other, though.”
While the bucket-list items are being ticked off, Freer is continuing to learn, year after year, in the sport to which she has devoted so much of her life.
“I’ve become a lot better loser over the years,” she says with a wry grin. “I think I’ve just grown in the way that I drive. I’m a very superstitious person, but I’ve kind of eased off on that a bit. It got in my head, but Luke Bogacki and the This is Bracket Racing membership has helped a lot with that over the last few years.
“Hopefully, there will be a lot more win lights in my future, and hopefully a lot more bracket racing. Being a better bracket racer makes you a better .90 racer, and that’s what I love. It will always be in my heart.”
Freer thanked Michael Scott and Right Trailers; Mickey Thompson; APD Carburetors; Hughes Converters; Jeff Miller Transmissions; Nesbitt Racing Engines; Miller Race Cars; Luke Bogacki and This is Elite Bracket Racing; and Don Higgins and Crew Chief Pro software.
This story was originally published on August 23, 2024.
The post DI Women of Power 2024: Lauren Freer is Having Her Say in History first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
