Some kids grow up playing in the backyard; Megan Meyer-Lingner and Rachel Mayer-Curl grew up in a race shop.
Their dad, a drag racer since his late teens, had them working on cars from an early age. By the time Megan was 10 and Rachel was 8, they had graduated from the shop to the starting line, climbing behind the wheel of their own junior dragsters.
Two decades later, both sisters are NHRA World Champions. Megan won back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020. Rachel picked up right where her sister left off, winning the championship in 2021. Both stepped away to start families and build careers off the track. Megan runs a motorsports marketing coaching and consulting business, and Rachel designs playground equipment as a mechanical engineer. Now, both are finding their way back to the track.
Their story is one of persistence, curiosity, and the kind of hands-on problem solving that starts long before the green light.
Raised in the Shop
Growing up in a racing family shaped everything for the Meyer sisters. Nights and weekends were spent in the shop, and racing season set the rhythm of the year.
"We really didn't know anything outside of that," Megan says. "It was just the normal."
Their dad followed the NHRA national schedule, traveling coast to coast from California to Florida. That meant he was gone a lot. When Megan turned 16 and could drive the truck and trailer herself, it was often just the two sisters heading to the track on their own.
"We didn't have a full-time crew," Megan explains. "It was just me and Rachel and our dad working in the shop whenever he needed the help."
That kind of independence taught them more than just how an engine works. It taught them how to figure things out, how to ask for help, and how to keep showing up even when things didn't go according to plan.
Learning to Lose Before Learning to Win
Neither sister had overnight success. Megan didn't win a track championship in junior dragsters until the tail end of her time in the class. When she moved up to the more demanding Super Comp division, the wins didn't come at all.
"It was a lot more demanding mentally as a driver," she says. Between school, work, and racing, something had to give. "I just couldn't ever give it 110% like I needed to, and so it was kind of just more of a hobby at that time for me. But the passion was still there."
And their dad had a rule: both sisters had to graduate from college before they could step into his Top Alcohol Dragster. He was serious about it, too. "He's very strict with us," Megan says. "We had to get all A's and pass college and all that stuff before we could ever jump into what he was racing."
"He always says you're only as strong as your weakest link," Megan recalls. "He really taught us about work ethic, never giving up."
That mindset paid off. In 2016, Megan won her second professional race. By 2019, she and her team had one of the fastest cars in the country. Everything clicked, and she won the world championship…and then she won it again in 2020.
When Megan stepped away to start a family, Rachel filled the seat. Her championship came down to the second-to-last race of the season, a winner-take-all final round in Las Vegas. She won. And the very next weekend, she flew home and got married…not a bad two weeks!
More Than Just Driving
What makes the Meyer sisters stand out isn't just their record. It's how deeply they understand the cars they drive.
"Not all drivers are second generation or have decades of experience working on a car," Megan says. "Sometimes they're just drivers. I think that's what helps us stand out."
Rachel, who studied mechanical engineering technology at Pittsburg State University, handles the clutch work and helps tune the car between runs. Megan, who studied graphic design, manages the team's branding, marketing, sponsorships, and business operations.
A typical race day involves far more than just hitting the gas. Between every run, the team is fueling the car, replacing the clutch pack, packing the parachutes, making adjustments based on temperature, track conditions, and tire shape. It's a full team effort, repeated over and over throughout the day.
"I'd say it's 90% the team," Megan says. "We have to trust that our crew guys did their job correctly. If it was just one person, it's way too much to keep track of."
And for the drivers, the challenge is as mental as it is mechanical.
"Your mind could be racing thinking about a hundred different things," Megan explains. "But when you put the helmet on, you just need to have that experience to be able to shut that part of your brain off and focus on the race that you have in front of you."
Routine matters, too. As drivers, Megan says they have to do the exact same thing the exact same way every single run. "Even if you slip up by one or two seconds, it can kind of throw the other people off."
Women at the Starting Line
Drag racing has come a long way when it comes to welcoming women into the sport. Both sisters say they've seen a real shift in recent years.
"Our class actually has a lot of women drivers in it," Rachel says. "Women are getting so much more involved that a lot of people are phasing out of the mindset that women can't do this. Because we can."
That doesn't mean there haven't been moments. Rachel remembers pulling up to a race years ago and watching the driver in the other lane laugh when he saw who he was racing against.
"That was probably 10 years ago," she says. "I was pretty young back then, but it still gets frustrating."
Megan took a piece of advice she heard early on from another woman racer and held onto it: "Just let the scoreboard do the talking."
"It doesn't matter your gender or what type of car you have," she says. "Whoever wins the race wins the race."
Both sisters are also quick to point out that there's more than one way to be part of motorsports. You don't have to be the driver.
"There's a role for everybody," Megan says. "I handle all the business side for our race team. The marketing, the advertising, the bookkeeping. That's more my passion than being hands-on with a car like how Rachel is."
Advice for Young Students
When asked what they'd say to students just getting started in STEM and competition, both sisters come back to the same idea: don't give up.
"Sometimes it is going to be hard, especially the problem solving," Rachel says. "There's so many different ways you can go about things. If one way isn't working, just keep trying until you find a solution."
Megan encourages students to stay curious and open to new skills.
"I had no experience with graphic design," she says. "I didn't even know where to start. But I was able to learn what my style is and what I lean towards. Be open to trying different things. Be curious. Diversify. Find what clicks for you and then go all in."
And both sisters agree that the earlier you start, the better.
"Looking back at it now, that age is the best time to bet on yourself," Rachel says. "Once you get older, it gets kind of harder. So go all in."
From the Shop to the Classroom
Megan and Rachel's story is a reminder that the skills students build through hands-on learning really do carry forward. Problem solving, teamwork, resilience, and the willingness to try again after something doesn't go as planned, are the same skills that took two sisters from a family shop in Kansas to the top of professional drag racing.
Those are also the kinds of skills students develop when they get to build, test, and refine their own designs in the classroom. A few Pitsco projects that bring those same principles to life include:
- CO2 Dragsters: Students design, build, and race their own dragsters, exploring aerodynamics, friction, and the engineering design process.
- Basic Mousetrap Vehicle: Students build and test a mousetrap-powered vehicle while learning about motion, energy transfer, and iterative design.
- Try This: Gravity Racer Kit: Students design gravity-powered race cars and refine their builds to see how small changes affect speed and performance.
Whether students end up behind the wheel, behind the computer, or behind the scenes, the belief that they can figure things out is something that sticks. And who knows? The next world champion might be getting started right now.