Each of the first four women featured in our Sisterhood of Muscle series have been drag racers, but today, we shift gears a bit as we bring you the story of Jennifer Fuller – who prefers her race tracks to have curves. With her 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT® Hellcat Redeye Widebody and some other Challengers in her past, Fuller has raced at road course facilities all over the southeast. In addition to serving as a great ambassador for female racers and the Dodge community as a whole, Fuller has written a children’s book that encourages young girls to follow their interest in motorsports.
We asked Jennifer Fuller who or what inspired her interest in motorsports and her answer was surprising.
“I’ve been into cars since I was a toddler, and I really have no idea how it started. I’m the only one in my family that loves cars and racing. One of my earliest memories is laying in the back window and spotting a Plum Crazy Challenger, I just knew it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I had to have one someday,” said Fuller. “From Hot Wheels and electric track cars as a kid to real life track cars now, it’s a lifelong obsession. Dodge deserves some of the credit for fostering the community of automotive enthusiasts and sponsoring events for us to use these cars for the purpose they were built.”
Jennifer Fuller’s first modern Dodge was a 2013 Challenger R/T – which she calls the catalyst of her love for going fast. While she had been to the drag strip and had always enjoyed drag racing as a spectator, her Challenger R/T was the first that she took down the track. Weekly trips to the drag strip and the support of her local Mopar® owner’s group gave her the courage to make her first quarter-mile run and from there, she was hooked on the thrill of high-performance driving.
She immediately wanted to go faster, leading Fuller to trade her 2013 R/T for a 2016 Challenger R/T Scat Pack in her favorite heritage color, Plum Crazy. This car would serve as a great performance car on both the drag strip and the shorter road course tracks until she upgraded to her 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. That car provided the power to keep up with the vast majority of street cars, but when the Redeye came out with 797 horsepower, Fuller upgraded once more to the car that she owns, races and daily drives today – her 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody.
Today, her 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody is her daily driver about 70% of the time and it is the chosen vehicle for longer road trips, calling it the most comfortable car in her garage. Her garage also houses a 2018 Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody and a 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.
When Fuller bought her 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, it was her only car, so while she planned to spend time drag racing and road racing, she also relied on this car to get her to and from work every day. She had spent time on the road course tracks at Road Atlanta, Carolina Motorsports Park and Charlotte Motor Speedway and had planned to do so with her Redeye, but she wasn’t sure if her motorsports budget would be better spent by modifying her Challenger for drag racing or road racing.
Initially, she looked into participating in SCCA Time Trials, but she learned that Dodge Redeye models are only permitted to compete in the Unlimited class. That led her to focus on High Performance Driving Education (HPDE) and track days at the various road racing facilities at the Intermediate level, where she is often the only woman in her group.
“I would love to have more members of the Sisterhood of Muscle out on track experiencing just how surprisingly well these cars do out there,” said Fuller. “My hope is that I can influence some other girls and women to get out and participate in a track day or try drag racing. I have held women’s drag racing clinics at a local track to get more women out there in a safe and unintimidating environment. I also wrote a children’s book about drag racing, Jenny Drives a Race Car.”
For those wondering, while Jennifer Fuller has added some upgrades to her Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, she did not have to add a long list of aftermarket components to enjoy her time at the track. She removed the back seat and added the Direct Connection rear seat delete kit and added higher quality brake fluid shortly after getting the car. When she spends time at the road course, she switches her street brake pads for a set of Hawk DTC 70 pads that handle the prolonged, repeated braking exercises, and she says that the pad swap makes a huge difference on the track.
Those simple changes have allowed Jennifer Fuller to turn in a personal best lap time of 1:51 at Carolina Motorsports Park while at the current Charlotte Motor Speedway (two chicanes), she consistently runs 1:49 laps. As mentioned above, she has also spent time on the legendary road course of Road Atlanta, along with Atlanta Motorsports Park, Pickens Motor Speedway and Virginia International Raceway.
When she heads to the drag strip, she swaps on a set of Forgestar wheels with Mickey Thompson ET Street R drag radials – the same type of tire on the new SRT Demon 170. She also has a Per4Mance Development to protect the rear differential and driveshaft, while also calming down the rear differential movement under hard acceleration. Going forward, she hopes to add some goodies from the Direct Connection catalog, once all of the expected items become available.
Fuller’s goals for 2023 include more drag racing events, such as the Women & Wheels class of the Street Car Takeover. She attended the event at zMAX and had a “fantastic experience”, along with spending more time on her favorite road course tracks. David Jones, her boyfriend, crew and biggest supporter, also road races his SRT Hellcat, and she hopes to get to some events where both supercharged muscle cars can flex their muscles.
Long term, Jennifer Fuller says that her “ultimate dream would be to find herself racing on the iconic Woodward Avenue”, but on the grander scale, she wants to continue to encourage other women to pursue their interest in motorsports.
“My other long-term goal is to facilitate more events for women who might not otherwise feel confident in a motorsports environment, it’s so empowering and I have developed some great relationships with other women through the love of cars. And, who knows, maybe it’s time for a sequel book about Jenny and her Challenger?”
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