Bold grew up racing Jr. Dragsters, where she qualified for the IHRA World Finals in Memphis, won her division, earned a points championship, and collected numerous event wins. After aging out of Jr. Dragsters, she moved up to a bracket dragster, which she drove to more event wins, collecting two Wallys and some big checks in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taking turns driving with her father, Mark, McKenna ran in the 7.40s in the quarter mile and 4.80s in the eighth mile. So, it was quite a jump, Bold admits, to make the move to Top Alcohol Dragster, where she\u2019s been as quick as 5.189 seconds at more than 270 mph. But with coaching from two-time world champion Megan Meyer, 2023 world champion Julie Nataas, and Meyer, himself a proven driver, Bold has quickly adapted to the new driving experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have someone like Randy guiding you through the process and drivers like Megan and Julie around as well, it\u2019s just a recipe for success,\u201d Bold says. \u201cI always felt if I ever had questions, they would get answered right away, and I just never felt like I was going in blind. I\u2019ve always had great guidance and support from the team, and you kind of feel like a part of their family.<\/p>\n
\u201cJulie was around when I got my license, so she was there really helping me with all of my questions, especially just because it\u2019s such a different procedure compared to the Top Dragster, having the clutch and everything,\u201d Bold adds. \u201cShe was able to answer any questions I had. It\u2019s been a learning experience, even just stuff like packing the \u2018chutes because on the Top Dragster we pulled the \u2018chute once a year, so I didn\u2019t even really have a lot of experience packing bigger \u2018chutes like that. Megan kind of walked me through all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bold also credits her teammate, Matt Cummings, who joined Randy Meyer Racing this season after winning six races with McPhillips Racing over the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a teammate during this has been amazing,\u201d Bold says. \u201cA lot of these tracks I\u2019ve never even been to, so just being there to give me some guidance on the different tracks and some of the little quirks, he\u2019s been great to work with and have as an additional resource.\u201d<\/p>\n Bold earned her Top Alcohol Dragster license in Las Vegas following the NHRA Nevada Nationals last fall. Since then, she\u2019s competed in the Winternationals in Pomona, both Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas and Charlotte, and an NHRA Lucas Oil Series divisional race in Dallas. She reached the final quad at Charlotte, where she left second behind first-time winner Brandon Greco but smoked the tires at the hit. As of early June, Bold sits No. 9 in the Top Alcohol Dragster national points standings. That\u2019s a feat for any rookie driver, but Bold is aiming higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWinning a world championship is 100% the goal,\u201d says Bold, who\u2019s based in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. \u201cStepping into this, that\u2019s why I wanted to go full time right in my rookie year. Seat time is so important in drag racing, so I want to get as much of it as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n With a 2025 schedule made up of 16-17 events, Bold will get plenty of seat time this season alone. Giving drivers the opportunity to gain experience is one of Meyer\u2019s strong suits. He\u2019s trained a growing list of drivers who\u2019ve moved up to the nitro ranks, including Nataas, who\u2019s driven Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars since driving one of Meyer\u2019s dragsters and his A\/Fuel Funny Car. While Bold didn\u2019t deny aspirations to follow a similar path, she also insists that\u2019s not her focus at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI try not to get too far ahead of myself, so right now the goal is bringing wins and a championship to Randy Meyer Racing,\u201d says Bold, who works in the medical field and enjoys playing hockey and high-performance driving when she\u2019s not at the dragstrip. \u201cI think as a driver, everyone has goals beyond that, and I definitely do, but I try to just stick to the task at hand and just focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n With a support system anchored by her parents, Mark and Denise, Bold is proudly pursuing her dreams in a class stacked with both fellow rookies and seasoned veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy parents are the reason I\u2019m able to do what I get to do, from supporting me and getting me into a Jr. Dragster and then the family-owned Top Dragster,\u201d says Bold, who also thanked team sponsors Maxima Racing Oil, GUNK, and NGK Spark Plugs, as well as her own longtime supporter, Simpson Race Products. \u201cI also appreciate all my friends who support me as well. It\u2019s been pretty awesome just reflecting back, especially on all my hometown people I race with, just how much support they give me and how proud and excited they are. It\u2019s been really awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Bold Move: McKenna Bold Enjoying Top Alcohol Dragster Rookie Season<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since McKenna Bold was a teenager, she dreamt of competing in NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster as a member of the Randy Meyer Racing team. That dream became a reality early this year when Bold, 25, made her debut at the NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip behind the wheel of one of Meyer\u2019s nitro-injected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/image00003.jpeg\")