While qualifying for just her second Top Sportsman race at Bristol Dragway in April of 2012, her car crossed over from the right lane and wound up on top of the left guard wall before ending up on the wrong side of the wall. The incident thrust Lizzy into the spotlight for a while, but it’s something she has now put behind her.

In fact, she’s still in the spotlight these days but for entirely different reasons. After moving up to the PDRA’s Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous category this season, Musi made class history when, in just her fifth race, she took out previously unbeaten Jason Harris to claim the first win of her career during the PDRA’s U.S. Drags at Virginia Motorsports Park. Even more impressive is the fact that she took the win from the No. 1 qualifying spot, besting a record field of 32 of the absolute best cars in the game with a record 3.74-second blast at 199.23 MPH. The eighth-mile run was also the quickest-ever on American soil by a doorslammer not utilizing a supercharged engine.

Lizzy possesses a sparkling personality, and is always ready to talk about her life and experiences as one of drag-racing’s next generation.

“I can’t remember ever not being around racing – my mom told me that when I was a baby she used to push me around in the pits at Raceway Park in Englishtown and I would be sound asleep while the fuel cars were roaring down the track,” Lizzy said with a laugh. “It’s just been second nature to me all of my life. My dad’s friends that he raced with always tell me stories about those days, for instance about how I used to hang out at the Lenco trailer when I was a baby and play by pulling shifter levers. I guess it was just in my blood.

“My sister Tricia and I had Jr. Dragsters starting when I was 8, but to be honest it was my dad’s idea at the time – he was really gung-ho about it but we never really raced in competition until I was seventeen. By that time I was into it and did pretty good, finishing high in the points at our local track. Before that we just played around with the cars because dad was so busy with his racing. We made a lot of time runs, and made a lot of passes that were much quicker than the other cars were making even though we never actually raced back then. We had some pretty hot cars and we had a lot of fun with them.”

After being away from the track for five years, Lizzy eventually followed in her dad’s footsteps when she strapped herself into a fast doorslammer for the first time.

“When I was 21 I got into Top Sportsman racing, and I did that for two years,” Lizzy said.” I got off to a rough start when I crashed at Bristol, and that took a lot out of me. I wasn’t hurt physically, but it took me a long time to get over the experience. Being a new driver and having that happen makes you feel that people are going to doubt you and your ability to handle a car. My self-esteem was really low for a while, I have to tell you, but I worked myself out of it because I just wanted to race so badly.”

At the beginning of the 2014 season Lizzy jumped into Pro Nitrous competition with the PDRA, and proved in very short order that she certainly had what it took to keep a family tradition going strong. Driving a Jerry Bickel-built 2009 Dodge Stratus owned by Curacao’s Frank Brandao, Lizzy quickly established herself as a top contender. Her biggest moment of the season came when she won at Virginia from the top qualifying position and settled into the No. 2 spot in championship points behind Jason Harris.

Musi’s accomplishment wrote a new chapter in the Pro Nitrous history books as she became the first female racer in the class to win an event.

Looking back at her huge weekend in Virginia, Lizzy is still basking in the glow of her emotional victory.

“We were really shocked when we ran that 3.74 during qualifying,” Lizzy said. “Honestly, my thought was to just go out and go rounds; do the best you can do, right? We were trying some new shocks and they really didn’t work too well. We thought we would have some more testing time but they cut the testing short, so during the night session we went back to our old set-up and didn’t even mess with the tune-up at all. We just wanted to get down and qualify – that was the main thing. I was sitting in the lanes and cars ahead of me were running like 3.81 so I figured that we would be all right, we’d get down the track. When I saw the scoreboard light up with a 3.74 I couldn’t believe it! I was going crazy inside the car. It was an awesome moment.”

There was even more to this remarkable story. As Lizzy was backing up from her burnout the car shuddered to a stop just beyond the staging beams with a trashed reverser.

“That was the craziest thing – there was no lining up at that point, wherever I was is where I was going to be. I knew I had to stay calm and do my job.”

Showing remarkable coolness under pressure, Lizzy focused on the task at hand and reeled off a monster blast to go to the top of the qualifying sheet.

Lizzy spends her off-track days working at Pat Musi Racing Engines, which recently relocated from New Jersey to Mooresville, North Carolina. Business is great according to Lizzy and as a result she is constantly on the run.

“I’m multi-tasking on just about everything,” Lizzy said with a laugh.” “It’s really a family effort, a family team here. I handle mostly the parts and part orders, shipping, invoicing, e-mails and all that; my sister and my mom do the paperwork and my dad gives me the orders. So it’s basically like a big teamwork deal.

“It’s busy and it’s crazy, especially when my dad is gone helping customers. He goes all over the world and it’s a lot of work when he’s gone. A lot is going on at once, but my dad says if you want to race you have to work for it, so I don’t mind at all.

As for her future plans, Lizzy had this to say: Down the road think I would like to drive a fuel car. That would be unbelievable. I really want to go fast and I can’t think of a better way to do it. I really enjoy what I’m doing now, though, because my dad does the engine program and it’s just very cool. I’m happy right where I am right now, running with some awesome people in the PDRA. I really love racing with the PDRA - I have to give the owners a lot of credit for forming a new organization and having so much success right out of the box. It’s great.

“I have so many people helping me and I sure wouldn’t be able to do this without them. Of course my mom Elizabeth and dad Pat come first, then there’s my crew chief Gary Henry, Joe Dunne, Ryan Lowry, my car owner Frank Brandao, Lucas Oil, Edelbrock, Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah of Kuwait and his Drag 965 team, and our newest sponsor, Mike Bankston and Bankston Boyz Racing. I also have to thank Rickie Smith, who has been a great help to me this season. Thank you all!”


Photo Credits: Gary Rowe / RaceWorks.com / PDRA66.com
Article: Brian Wood