Growing up in England, Debbie O\u2019Rourke didn\u2019t necessarily dream of a career in high-level drag racing. But through a course of twists, turns, and moves of thousands of miles, the daughter of a British rally racer has competed in a 5-second Top Alcohol Funny Car in Australia and now serves in a variety of roles in professional-level doorslammer drag racing here in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #189, the Women of Power Issue, in July\/August of 2024.]<\/em><\/p>\n When O\u2019Rourke was in her early 20s, she went to Australia on a backpacking trip and ended up immigrating there. She met her now-husband, Grant, who was into cars and took Debbie to Sydney Dragway to check out the scene. The young couple felt drag racing was something they could do, so Grant started racing a 16-second street car and gradually improving it. Debbie gave it a try, and by that point it was an 11-second car competing in Super Sedan. With some guidance from their friends in Pro Mod, the O\u2019Rourkes started building a Pro Mod in the late \u201890s. Again, Grant drove it for a while before Debbie asked, \u201cCan I give it a go?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI got in and my first quarter-mile pass in a PSI-supercharged, small-block car was a 7.30 down the quarter mile,\u201d O\u2019Rourke says. \u201cThe funny thing about it now is that I didn\u2019t realize the speed that I would be doing, which was over 234 MPH straight up and with a short shutdown area. I pulled the \u2018chutes too late and tried to then go around the corner and then put it on its lid \u2013 very gently. That was my first altercation with a wreck. But from there we just developed it more and more and we became more successful.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple then built a second car for Grant to drive. One of the cars even had a passenger seat that was used to give rides down the track. Then, there was a shift in the Australian drag racing politics at the time, and the O\u2019Rourkes decided to build an alcohol Funny Car for Debbie to drive. At that point, she was the only woman in the class in Australia. She admits her short stature at first made it a challenge to drive the clutch-equipped Funny Car, but with some R&D and seat time, she made it work and ran the pro circuit for about 10 years. For the last few years of their Australian racing careers, Grant also ran a Pro Mod while Debbie raced the Funny Car, but the grind became too much after a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHaving two cars and doing the pro circuit in Australia, because the tracks are so far apart, is too expensive,\u201d O\u2019Rourke says. \u201cAt the same time, I was in the corporate world as a strategic consultant and I had a team of people in Australia and New Zealand. I was away from home a lot and it was a little stressful at the time, so we decided that we needed a change and that\u2019s why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n The O\u2019Rourkes came to the U.S. in 2017 and quickly found places to utilize their skills, with Debbie leveraging her corporate strategy background and Grant showcasing his abilities as a crew member.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a hybrid, but now I throw in the U.S. as well to the U.K.\/Australian\/U.S. breed,\u201d O\u2019Rourke says. \u201cWe have not regretted the move. It\u2019s been great for us because of our passion for drag racing. I felt that with my career background I was able to bring something to it. Since then, I\u2019ve just been paving a bit of a way wearing many hats.\u201d<\/p>\n Debbie initially helped the drag racing industry by completing a number of small projects before being engaged by Pro Line Racing to work on media and marketing initiatives. That led to working with Pro Line co-owner Eric Dillard and race promoter Donald Long to launch the FuelTech Radial Outlaws Racing Series in 2022. She also works with Dillard and several key Pro Mod advocates within Finish Line Consultants, the group that manages the relationship between NHRA and the NHRA Pro Mod racers and teams. O\u2019Rourke has used her experience to develop partnerships to fuel the series that has battled participation struggles in the recent past.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve formed a body of people together to try to overcome some of those issues,\u201d O\u2019Rourke says, \u201cand from that we\u2019ve been able to build some blocks and steadily grow it back with the intention of increasing car count, increasing the exposure and the sponsorship side of it, and really creating a real B2B mechanism presented by the foundations that we\u2019ve managed to lay down.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Rourke stays connected to her roots as a racer by working with Pro Line Racing drivers like PDRA Pro Boost competitors Randy Weatherford, Scott Lang, and Travis Harvey to provide a variety of video angles that help both drivers and tuners learn about what happened in a pass and how to improve.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love being part of the race team because that\u2019s my background, and if I could get in there and turn a few spanners, or wrenches, I would. I\u2019m not sure they trust me enough to do that,\u201d O\u2019Rourke laughs. \u201cIt makes me feel part of the race team. It\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n The desire to drive again is still there for O\u2019Rourke, who says she\u2019d like to try driving an automatic transmission-equipped car after years of running a clutch. But she realizes driving opportunities come with a hefty price tag, so she\u2019s content with her other roles in the sport that keep her plenty busy. With 10 NHRA Pro Mod events, eight PDRA races, eight Radial Outlaws races, a handful of standalone outlaw races, and various test sessions, O\u2019Rourke spends around half the weekends of the year on the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n It all sounds like a lot for someone who came to the U.S. to get away from stress, but O\u2019Rourke is driven by her passion for the sport. Plus, she enjoys seeing the results of her efforts, especially when they involve improving the community she loves.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI try to be as professional as I possibly can, and I\u2019ve turned into an implementer \u2013 a doer \u2013 whereas before I was more of the strategist,\u201d O\u2019Rourke says. \u201cMy world has completely changed from Australia to here, and adapting is probably my biggest challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n This story was originally published on August 23, 2024. <\/p>\n The post DI Women of Power 2024: Debbie O\u2019Rourke Adapts and Overcomes<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing up in England, Debbie O\u2019Rourke didn\u2019t necessarily dream of a career in high-level drag racing. But through a course of twists, turns, and moves of thousands of miles, the daughter of a British rally racer has competed in a 5-second Top Alcohol Funny Car in Australia and now serves in a variety of roles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95573","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}