Dodge Racer Madi Turley Named Grassroots Ambassador for NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals

There is an unfortunately low number of high school-aged participants in the drag racing world, but Madi Turley and her Dodge Challenger have been turning heads on the track since before she was old enough to legally drive on public roads. Turley got her first bit of national attention when she was signed to the developmental driver program of D.H. Davies Racing (DHDR) at 16, allowing her to expand her racing program to more events and to add more power to her Mopar muscle car. During her time with DHDR, she has proven to be a top competitor in the Women and Wheels drag racing series and this season, she is competing in the DER Bracket Racing Series at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Based on her success at such a young age, Madi Turley was recently invited to serve as the Grassroots Ambassador for the DER Bracket Racing Series at the upcoming NHRA Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals. Turley will have her black Dodge Challenger on display at the NHRA event and she will make exhibition runs with the NHRA Sportsman class. The goal of the grassroots ambassador program is to show other young people that there are opportunities to get involved with the sport at the high school age, and that it isnt a million-dollar effort to compete at the local level.

In addition to appearing with her Dodge Challenger to speak with fans, Madi Turley will be doing some PR work for DHDR at the Bristol NHRA event alongside Elon Werner of Werner Communications. The 17-year old high school senior will also accompany Davies’ Challenger Drag Pak to the staging lanes during the Factory Stock Showdown class, so in addition to helping promote the sport among younger fans, she will be assisting her race team.

For those readers who arent familiar with David Davies of DHDR, he is the CEO of FlexJet, which is the sponsor for the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown class. More significantly for this discussion, Davies races a Dodge Challenger Drag Pak in addition to owning a 2018 Demon and a 2023 Demon 170. In other words, Davies is a Mopar man and with his developmental driver program, he is giving young Mopar racer Madi Turley a leg-up in the sport.

While Madi Turley’s early success in the racing world is impressive to many, she has battled through severe health issues since before she was born – so breaking into the world of drag racing has actually been one of her easier battles. Click here to read about her health issues prior to being born and through the first few years of her life – it is truly an inspirational story of perseverance by Madi and her family.

Images provided by Terry Ferrell of Dialed In Drag Racing Photos.