Generational speed: girls grow into women on Alaska Raceway Park

BUTTE— Racing is in Riley Soper’s blood.

She started drag racing when she was nine years old, after her father Monte Soper bought her a junior drag race car. He took her around the neighborhood to get comfortable behind the wheel, then to the drag strip to feel the need for speed.

“I loved it. I just wanted to go faster,” Riley said.

Monte is accomplished drag racer who’s been crowned Alaska Raceway Park season champion several times, won numerous division races and competed twice in the drag racing World Finals in Memphis.

Riley quickly fell in love with the fast and furious lifestyle. She joined Alaska Raceway’s Junior Dragster division, which is for children and teens ages seven to 17. During the summer of 2015, She quickly showed everyone that she has natural talent for this sport, like her father before her, and she won her first race.

“Riley is an amazing little racer. She’s very focused. She’s really good at what she does,” Alaska Raceway Park Operations Manager Michelle Lackey Maynor said.

Riley’s first year was a prolific start to the drag racing lifestyle. She received the Rookie of the Year award. She also teamed up with Monte and won the Father’s Day race.

The achievements kept stacking up as she honed her skills. She’s won two championships and made a lasting impression around the track. Maynor said she’s giving her peers a “run for their money.”

“I’m excited to see what happens when she gets to ride in a big car,” Maynor said.

Nearing 14 years old, the junior drag racer has no intention of slowing down. She said that she’s reached speeds up to 84 miles per hour on the strip. She said that one of the most important lessons she’s learned over the years has been “speed and consistency.”

She said that she’s also learned the overall value of advice and practice, saying that if she listened to her dad’s advice more, her skills would be even sharper.

“Everyone’s getting better so you have to get better with them,” Riley said.

Riley’s mother Angie Nelson said that she worked at the raceway’s snack bar when she was 12 years old. She grew up around the track. Her grandfather Lee Nelson built the park (originally called the Polar Raceway) in 1964.

“So she’s got in the blood on both sides,” Nelson said.

Lee Nelson successfully ran Alaska’s hub for drag racing until 1994, selling the track to Earl Lackey. Lackey and his family renamed it the Alaska Raceway Park and have been running it ever since.

“Mortar sports has always been a family thing,” Maynor said.

Riley and her father have invested countless hours working on her car and testing it out on the track.

“It’s definitely good bonding for father and daughter or father and son out here working on cars together,” Nelson said.

Riley is one of several girls in the Junior Dragster division. She calls all the boys and girls in her division her friends, sharing a friendly rivalry and mutual love for the sport. Nelson said that she’s noticed a growing trend of women racers entering the sport.

“Women have definitely come up. They’ve stepped up the game. They’re focused. They’re determined,” Nelson said.

Maynor is no stranger to speed and she also grew up around the racetrack. She’s an accomplished snowmachine racer, on and off the snow. She won the Arctic Man in 2015.

She’s also very proficient racing a snowmachine rigged with wheels on asphalt. Snowmachine asphalt drag racing is fairly common in Alaska, Canada and states like Michigan and Wisconsin. She won a championship while she was pregnant with her son.

She said that finds herself missing those glory days sometimes. She still jumps on her machine every once in a while but most of her time is spent managing Alaska Raceway so racers like Riley can enjoy it.

“I enjoy making the event happen,” Maynor said.

She said that over the generations, people keep coming back to the track because they love to rev their engines and share that familiar bond with others. She said that most people in the racing community are very supportive of their peers and the next generation.

“There’s not many people who have a cool job like this,” Maynor said.

Riley said that if she can make drag racing into a career, she will. If not, she wants to at least keep it as her favorite hobby if she can afford it. All she knows, is she’s got plenty of rubber still to burn and no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“Racing in general is awesome… I definitely want to stay in it for a long time,” Riley said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com