Susanne Callin wins second straight European Top Fuel title at Santa Pod in September
Susanne Callin clinched her second successive European Top Fuel championship in September at the Santa Pod drag strip near Northampton, winning the elite Top Fuel title for a second year running.
Top Fuel is described in the article as the fastest form of motorsport, with cars accelerating to more than 300mph (483km/h) in races that last about four seconds and drivers enduring greater g-force than an astronaut during launch; the class is noted as the only elite motorsport where women frequently defeat men for major titles. Women have won seven of the past nine European Championships, and until recently US driver Brittany Force held the world speed record in the sport, while More Than Equal reports women make up about 10% of participants across motorsport and 4% of elite drivers but comprised 20% of drivers in this year’s US and European Top Fuel seasons.
Top Fuel cars run on nitromethane fuel and race two abreast down a straight 1,000-foot (305-metre) track, with the most intense acceleration and g-force occurring in the first second and again when the clutch fully engages about halfway through a run. Brakes cannot slow the cars sufficiently, so parachutes are deployed from the rear at the finish, producing an abrupt deceleration that Callin describes as "like someone kicking you in the chest" and saying, "You lose your breath." Spectators are advised to wear ear defenders because the noise is comparable in decibels to standing next to a fighter jet taking off.
Drivers require lightning-fast reactions and fine steering inputs to keep the cars on track, and Callin speaks to the immediacy demanded by the sport: "It has to be instant reactions with everything," she says. She also calls the adrenalin rush "extremely addictive" and tells BBC Global Women that while "the safety really does work" concern over risks "is always there." Safety procedures were intensified after fatal crashes in nitromethane-fuelled cars in 2004 and 2008, and drivers now compete in shortened races, wear fire-resistant suits and sit in highly protected cockpits.
Callin has experienced two major crashes, sustaining a concussion and a bruised collar bone but reporting no lasting injuries; she characterises serious accidents as a "very small percentage." The highest official Top Fuel speed recorded in a race is over 346mph, compared with 231mph in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, and the cars can go from zero to 100mph in less than a second. Parachute-assisted deceleration and the physical toll of sudden g-forces are recurring features of the discipline.
Historical and recent female successes are prominent in Top Fuel: Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to win the NHRA Top Fuel Championship in 1977 and later became the first driver to win three titles with further championships in 1980 and 1982. In the US, Brittany Force won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 2017 and 2022 and held the world speed record until recently. The article highlights that women have won Top Fuel titles across the US, Europe and Australia, and that individual female drivers have achieved victories in other regions, citing examples such as Fabiola Dal Bo in Brazil and Indian driver Uvashri Kannadasan Balajeyanthi winning events between 2022 and 2024.
Campaign group More Than Equal calls drag racing "the most gender-equal motorsport in the world," and Fran Longstaff, the group's chief innovation officer, tells the BBC that seeing women compete and win has become "normalised rather than treated as exceptional," citing "sustained success" in Top Fuel. Longstaff says research she co-led did not identify physical or biological factors explaining the trend and instead points to a "continuous stream of visible female role models," accessible grassroots structures including junior programmes and open pits, and a family-oriented, collaborative culture within the sport.
Callin and other drivers trace their involvement to family connections: Callin followed her father and uncle into racing, her husband Keith Bartlett runs Santa Pod Raceway and two of her daughters competed in junior dragsters at 80mph before reaching the legal driving age; her youngest, Jacqueline, is now 19 and racing in adult classes. Callin says, "I never feel I've been underestimated or treated badly for being a woman - never." Her Swiss rival Jndia Erbacher notes the sport's camaraderie—"We hate each other at the starting line, but we love each other at the finish line"—and jokes that it takes "balls" to compete in Top Fuel.
Callin describes her back-to-back European titles as a "massive achievement" and is aiming to become the first driver, male or female, to secure three consecutive European Top Fuel championships, a goal the article reports she is already pursuing.