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 ZZ: Your older sister Carrie remembers your always being the first one to get to the Christmas presents under the tree. Did you always like doing things fast, even as a kid?
CP: I always wanted to be the first one to do this or that. I've always been kind of competitive by nature, and I think wanting to be in front is a part of that. So I was always racing and competing with my sisters.
ZZ: Were you the kind of kid who liked fast roller coaster rides?
CP: I loved roller coasters. I still do. I haven't actually really been on a roller coaster since I've been driving top-fuel cars, so I wonder if it wouldn't be as fun, but I mean driving the top-fuel car is like a great roller coaster. I mean it's just amazing. So I was always into things like that, and my dad always had fast cars. So I would go for car rides, and it would never really scare me. I just thought it was always fun.
ZZ: What does the ability to go 300 miles per hour in less than three seconds do to the rest of your life? Does it somehow change your perspective on the way you see things?
CP: I think the racing has changed my life in more ways than one. And it certainly changes your point of view. I think it changes the way people see you. Also just being around the racing, I think it's just been a real learning experience. It's being around older people and having responsibility, because you have people who depend on you. It's taught me a lot about life, especially the stuff that you really can't learn in school -- the experience part.
ZZ: Have you ever felt like, "Gosh! I didn't want all this responsibility. I'm not ready!" You're obviously capable of it, but just that it's coming to you so early in life.
CP: It gets hard at times, especially in the beginning when I first started driving the top-fuel car, we got a lot of media attention, people who wanted interviews. And other people wanted autographs, and it was very overwhelming.
And people say, "Don't you feel like you're missing out on being a kid?" But I think I've gotten the kid out of me. I wouldn't say I'm ready to be an adult, but people say, "Missing your prom, oh my gosh, that must have been heartbreaking for you." But I enjoyed missing my prom, because we won the race. So it was totally worth it for me. And this is what I enjoy doing.
ZZ: Let's explain that a little bit, because that's a great story. You decided not to go to your prom to be able to enter your first national top-fuel competition. And then you blew everybody away when you were the youngest woman ever to win that competition. What was that win like for you?
CP: I should have a little bumper sticker on my car that says, "I'd rather be racing." This is the only thing I really want to do, and my friends all said, "Oh, you have to go the prom. Oh, this is going to be so sad."
I had immediately decided, "No. I'm going to the race." And then we actually went to the race and won; it was such a wonderful experience and that was the big story. "Cristen missed her prom, and wow! She won the race." I would have been happy even if we didn't go and win the race, but that just added so much more to the whole experience. I mean to be able to say that we accomplished that as a team. It was such an amazing thing.
ZZ: Are you sure it wasn't just a way to get out of having to buy a prom dress…? [Laughs.]
CP: Frankly, I've never been the prom type.
ZZ: Going back to that whole thing of competition in your family, did you have to learn to be competitive with yourself in a different way when you started drag racing?
CP: Um-hmm. Actually I think riding horses was what really taught me competition. I did what's called dressage. It's very fancy. It's English-style riding, and it's very disciplined and the racing is, you know -- you might see it as the opposite. It's loud and blaring and fast, but both are competition. So I think one really taught me the basics of competition, and that's really helped me in the racing. Just having that, "I'm going to win no matter what" mentality.
ZZ: And that attitude helped you to win a national championship in 1996.
CP: Yes it did.
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Listen to Cristen explain why the prom (gasp) wasn't a huge priority.
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Cristen Powell
;)
