Faster than F1: The extreme motorsport where women keep winning

Key points

• Women have won seven of the past nine European Top Fuel drag racing championships, a level of dominance unmatched in other elite motorsport.
• Top Fuel cars exceed 300mph in four-second races, exposing drivers to more g-force than an astronaut during launch.
• Susanne Callin won her second straight European title in September at Santa Pod and now aims for a third, which would be a first for any driver.

Top Fuel drag racing is the only elite motorsport where women regularly beat men to major titles. Women have won seven of the past nine European Championships, while female US driver Brittany Force held the world speed record until recently. By contrast, it is 50 years since a woman competed in a Formula 1 Grand Prix race.

Women make up about 10% of motorsport participants and just 4% of elite drivers, according to campaign group More Than Equal. Yet they were 20% of drivers in this year's US and European Top Fuel seasons. More Than Equal calls drag racing "the most gender-equal motorsport in the world".

How the sport works

Top Fuel races take place on a straight 1,000-foot track, usually between two cars. The cars surge to over 300mph in about four seconds, with drivers experiencing more g-force than an astronaut launching into space. The highest official speed in a Top Fuel race is over 346mph, compared with 231mph in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Brakes alone cannot stop the cars, so parachutes deploy from the rear at the finish. Swedish driver Susanne Callin, 43, a two-time European champion, says the halt is "like someone kicking you in the chest". She describes the start as like being shot out of a cannon, and the adrenalin rush as extremely addictive.

We hate each other at the starting line, but we love each other at the finish line

— Jndia Erbacher

Why women keep winning

Fran Longstaff, chief innovation officer at More Than Equal, says research she co-led found no physical or biological factors behind drag racing's gender equality. She points instead to a continuous stream of visible female role models, an accessible grassroots structure, junior programmes, open pits and a family-oriented, collaborative culture.

Callin clinched her second successive European Top Fuel title in September at Santa Pod near Northampton. It is the fourth year in a row a female driver has won. In the US, Brittany Force won the NHRA championship in 2017 and 2022. Callin now aims to become the first driver, male or female, to win the European title three years in a row.