Fridays After 5 Featuring Debbie Ziegler, SDA

SDA’s member spotlight Fridays After 5 showcases the varied creative, fun, adventurous, or interesting achievements our members accomplish after business hours.

Ready to put the pedal to the metal and head into the weekend? 

Us too. Or maybe we’re just revvved up over this week’s Friday After 5 featuring Debbie Ziegler! And thought we’d discuss drag racing, we think you’ll find Debbie’s story full of deeper truths by which to drive your own life.

Debbie Ziegler, SDA, is the office administrator and receptionist at AndersonMasonDale Architects (AMD) in Denver, Colorado where she has been for seven years. Prior to AMD, Debbie worked in the insurance and medical industries. Debbie is a member of the SDA-Denver Chapter where she currently serves as Secretary.  She was awarded the Star Award at EDSymposium 2021 in June. 

How did you get started with drag racing?

My late husband Dave loved drag racing. We met in 1991. In 1992, he decided to rebuild an old car and turn it into a car for drag racing at Bandimere Speedway. He purchased a 1965 Ford Falcon and installed a big Ford motor. The race car has had several Ford motors over its time. The last motor he put in is what I’m currently running, a Ford-514 Big Block.

The point of drag racing is to see how fast you can go down the drag strip in a quarter mile along with the challenge of finishing at the time that you selected or “dialed in” before the race.  My husband raced for more than 20 years and over time was very consistent at hitting his dial in. He perfected the car to about 10.80 seconds in the quarter-mile. His best consistent time that he'd always raced was 10.89 down the track. 

Unfortunately, in 2016, he passed. Since that time, the car had sat in the garage. In 2020, I decided that it shouldn't sit there any longer and I need to either sell it or race it.  My husband’s old drag racing friends stepped in and helped me work on the car, to get it race ready and take care of some much-needed maintenance. 

Once the car was in good working order, we made modifications so it wouldn’t run so fast. I felt I needed to at least drive it down the track myself, just to know what he always loved about it.  The first time I took the 65’Ford “Falcon Dave Car “(as I call it) out, was September of 2020. After completing that first run, I fell in love with drag racing myself. I was hooked! It's both fun and a little bittersweet at the same time; wishing Dave was with me teaching me how to drag race. 

My second race was in October 2020.  I’m not really into racing for the competition but rather, just to have fun. I’m just interested in taking the car out there and learning about all the different aspects of racing. Currently, I’m doing 12.00 seconds in the quarter mile. Last year I raced three times on July 24 then on August 22 and September 18. I have purchased a new racing helmet and I am excited for this year’s race season to come!

Walk us through a typical race day.

The day really starts the night before, getting things organized and the race car ready and loaded on the trailer. We get up early on race day, finish loading everything we need and try to get on the road to the racetrack by about 6:30-7 am. We then wait for the gates to open so we can get a good pit area since they are first come first serve.  When you arrive, you receive a driver's wristband and tech card.

Next, once inside we get settled in, we take the car off the trailer and set up race camp. I fill out a tech card with my name, address, and car info, then I take the car down for “car tech in” near the staging lanes and they safety inspect it for the day. The safety tech does a quick inspection of the car to make sure everything's fine. I am given a punch card and then I’m good to go racing for the day!

After tech in, I stop for race fuel and fill up the fuel jug, to ensure enough for the whole day of racing. After that I make my way back to our pit area and wait to be called for my class to go down for our first round of racing.  We hang out in the pit area between rounds and or go to the stands to watch and enjoy the day of racing. 

When they call my race class, I then head to the staging lanes to race. I write my dial-in on the car windows, get buckled in and put my helmet on. It’s race time! They'll punch my card each time I make a run down the track until after the first rounds of competition. So, that means, I’ll get three punches, two-time trial punches, and my first competition run. If I win the first competition round, I’ll go onto the next round and so on. Once you lose a competition round, you're done for the day. After each pass you get at racer sheet with your stats of how well you did or didn’t do.

How do you prepare first-timers going to the track with you?

Okay, well, first of all, I call it race camping. Because people can relate to camping and what it takes to go camping, right? So, I tell people, you don't know what the elements are going to be: it can be hot, windy, or rainy and cold. So be prepared for the weather and plan for all day.

You want to wear good walking shoes (leave your stiletto heels at home!), an umbrella, earplugs, a hat, sunscreen and some water or something to drink. You're welcome to bring a cooler or your camp chair. I always tell people I like to provide lunch if they're going to come and watch me race. I’ll have drinks and food in our pit area for them. If not, there's a concession stand and a gift shop if they fancy that. When you're a spectator and you come in through the gates, it's free to be in the pit area as well; you're welcome to come to sit in the pit areas and hang out too if you prefer. They are also welcomed to sit in the stands and watch the racing, which I encourage the most.

A quick lesson in Drag Racing 101 helps to understand what the drivers are trying to achieve. They are racing to hit the number of what they “dialed in” (how fast they think they will go down the quarter-mile track). On each side of the race lanes at the end, is the dialed-in time boards. At the starting line you will see the lights drop down before they take off and can see if they leave on a green light or if they leave too soon on a red light. If it’s red, they automatically lose that round.  

What advice would you give another SDA member if they were interested in giving drag racing a try? 

The first step would be to find a dragstrip track near you (use those online research skills) and go out and watch. You can learn a lot by observing from how the cars line up and start, and the lingo. Talk with other people who are racing also. When you’re ready to move out of the stands, most people’s first drive on the track is in their street-legal car. Many dragstrips will have a special day or days for beginner drivers. Most of all remember to just have fun doing it! 

If you want a little more education or training before you try drag racing, there are drag racing schools across the country. You will see half-day, whole day and even three-day classes. Depending on the class you may be using one of the school’s vehicles or using your own. 

Do you have any favorite drag racing film scenes?

I have a couple of favorites. The movie Grease has a classic Thunder Road scene where they wager with their “pinks” meaning pink slips or ownership papers. Another would have to be the race scenes from Days of Thunder. 

Grease Thunder Road Race The Race scene

Days of Thunder (1/9) Movie CLIP - Dropping the Hammer (1990) HD

What is your favorite aspect of drag racing?

The passion and dedication everyone has for drag racing. One of my favorite things is being up there and seeing people come up and enjoy the day. I like watching other racers go down the track and how dedicated the racers are to their cars and to the sport of racing.  

Racing, in general, is a strong community. For example, you may hear an overhead page saying “Hey everyone, we have a racer who is broken and is in need. He's looking for this or that part.” Several racers will come up with that part to go help them. So, it's not about triumphing over someone. Most people are there to help support each other, so we all can race and have fun. Because after all, what you really want is to race! 

To do what your passion is, your dream is, and your love is…. by getting that car you built with your own hands and are modifying, to get it out there and see how well you can drag race it. That's what it's really about. It's the feeling of being in the car, and the adrenaline rushes, and going down the track to do the best time you can by hitting your dial in at the same time beating that guy next to you to win. You race yourself as much as you are racing the other guy. It’s great fun!

It’s great to see the little kids be so excited about seeing someone go down the track - their dad, mom, aunt, uncle, brother or friend and win. It's so exciting! Everybody gets so much joy out of watching them along with you. It's a lot of work, but I think in the end, people are doing what they love to do and that's what it was for my husband. It was his dream that he made come true and that's what life's about. Making our own dreams come true. 

I detect that you find deeper meaning in the sport?

Yes, I do. My husband Dave had always wanted to build a race car and race it.  He was inspired by his brother who raced at Bandimere Speedway when they were in high school. In 1991 after we met, he was finally able to build his own car and race.  He had tears in his eyes the first time he raced it at Bandimere. I wanted to be there to support Dave and help him realize his dream. He was so happy and achieved his dream before he left this world.

After he passed, to honor Dave, I took an old photo of him in the car at the starting line, and you can see the entire quarter mile drag strip with the boards on each side that tell his time at the end.  The “Christmas Tree” starting line light, shows he’s got his green light and ready to take off. 

At the top of the photo, it says “Live Your Dash.”  Live Your Quarter Mile! You might have seen something like this before: that life IS the dash in between your birth and death date.

How are you driving your quarter-mile dash? Life is so short. Your life isn't when you're born and when you die. Is it? That's just what happens. That's what has to happen. But what are we doing with our dash? Our line “in between” Are you living your quarter mile? Make all your “in between” moments matter!!