By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Robin Loughlin never dreamed she’d be drag racing, but in September the Groveland Township resident put the peddle to floor at the Mid Michigan Motorpex, and edged out an .058 of a second win.
“The very first time we ever went to drag race, it was an eighth mile race in Indiana at least six years ago,” said Loughlin. “We were just going to get together with some Studebaker friends, and I was just going to watch, and they convinced me to try it.”
Loughlin went on to drag race on a quarter mile track in 2017, her first year racing. She won her 1 on 1 race and went on to take second place in the winner’s bracket. This year she entered the race again on the same track.
“I haven’t drag raced in two years, so I did my best in my qualifying time. 15.7 seconds, that was my best ever,” she said.
Loughlin raced a 1964 Studebaker Daytona hardtop V8 four speed against a 1969 Cougar Eliminator V8 automatic. This year she won two out of three races against the car.
“The very first race, he won, but we expected that,” she said. “So we get in line to do our second race, and I won. We go back and we’re one and one, and we get into the next race and I won again. His elapsed time was actually a little faster, but I beat him off the line by a minuscule of a second.”
The amount of time Loughlin won by is about 1/17 of a second.
“It was something that I never, ever thought I would do,” she said. “I was just thrilled.”