Now she’s well into the 2006 season and has discovered, like her music business, that this alcohol Funny Car racing is a way of life. “We’re pretty much gone every weekend or so. I’m a very competitive person anyway, and this is an extension of my personality that I quit doing when I was 19 years old, the gymnastics. I’ve kind of gone in full circle and back to what I should have been doing a long time ago. It just happens that I have this beautiful career in music as well, so when I’m not doing music, I’m racing, and when I’m not racing, I’m doing music. It’s kind of a balance that I’ve created in my life,” she says.
On crew is boyfriend Jeremy, son Ryan, friend Jason Marks, and Randy Urban. The Gasparellis, of course, help.
Then there’s the Ethanol Racing/Research deal. ERR is a brand-new company that is based in Indianapolis and Olympia, Washington. The CEO is Gary Munroe, and Robert Villegas from Indy makes up the rest of the main team. The young company’s overall plan is to do some significant and full-blown testing with ethanol, to try to bring that in as an alternative bio-fuel. The Matter team would like to eventually create the same amount of horsepower with ethanol as with alcohol, so it will become a competitive and possible alternative fuel that can help the United States economy as well. It’s based on corn. What’s so cool, Nancy says, is that one of the men who is a leader in the bio-fuel industry, from
Auburn University, has been invited to view ERR’s proposal about ethanol, racing and other uses to the U.S. Department of Energy during the first week of August, where the team will make a presentation there.
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Then it’s possibly on to Indy and the NHRA U.S. Nationals, where there will probably be 25 or so cars. Nancy says they will have a chance to qualify for the 16-car field.
For 2007, it will be both NHRA Division 4 races (her Camaro is, because of its PSI supercharger setup, not legal for IHRA) and some national races, probably 16 without a sponsor. ERR could eventually be THE sponsor.
“It’s a whole new learning curve, and it’s not like I’ve been a team owner for years. My boyfriend was on a fuel team for four years, so you treat nitro so differently than alcohol, and we had a big learning curve with my car,” she says.
Nancy Matter is literally now living two careers. The racing, she says, is a business, and proof of that is that she has already created it as Nancy Matter Inc. The sky is the limit, she says. “As a team owner, I’ll do this, but if the opportunity presents itself, then I will absolutely do a fuel team. Right now, it’s a lot more than people think. It’s not like being someone who can show up and go drive a few laps and go home and you’re done. It’s a full-time job, and I have very little down time, between the music studio and the racing.
“But fuel Funny Car racing? I’d sure love to go fuel racing. But I’ll take it one step at a time and see what comes. I’ll stay in TA/FC long enough to be a good driver and good team competitor, a good team owner. I’ll stay in it forever if I don’t ever get the money to do a fuel ride. I’m assertive like that.”
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