Petite but powerful

At 5 foot 1, funny car racer Jessica Cherniak may be smallest in sport

F. ANDREW TAYLOR/VIEWMike Cherniak works on Jessica Cherniak?s funny car on April 6. In addition to running his daughter?s racing crew, Cherniak operates a Tunex auto shop at 4306 E. Charleston Blvd. Justin Yurkanin/VIEWJessica Cherniak stands next to her funny car shortly after a license qualification run at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on April 9. Justin Yurkanin/VIEWJessica Cherniak puts on her protective racing gear moments before her NHRA license qualification run April 9. Advertisement

The alcohol-burning funny car rumbles like Mount Vesuvius having a bad day. At the signal, it roars down the drag strip, hitting a top speed of 220 miles per hour and covering the quarter mile in a scant 6.3 seconds. A parachute pops out, slamming the driver forward at about four gs. When it's all over, a hatch pops open, and the driver climbs out, standing a mere 5 feet 1 inch tall. She's Jessica Cherniak, and as of April 11, she is the newest and most petite driver in the National Hot Rod Association.

"I've been following drag racing all my life," the Las Vegas native said. "I started racing about two years ago, but every drag racer wants to go pro. It's kind of like a really intense roller coaster ride that you're in control of."

"The two most dangerous forms of racing are top fuel dragster and funny car, because of their speed," said John Bisci, spokesman for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "You can get theses cars up to 350 miles per hour, and when you get that speed and it crashes, there's a problem there."

Previously, Cherniak had been bracket racing, which is done in cars that are not that different from street vehicles. Funny cars go about twice as fast, at speeds hovering around the 260 mph mark. From the outside, they look much like street vehicles, as well, but that's an illusion created by a carbon fiber body, a shell that surrounds a steel cage.

"They try to keep everything as light as possible but still keep it structurally strong, because of the tremendous pressures put on it," Bisci said. "If you see a still photo of a funny car, just before it hits the finish line and it's at top speed, the body actually distorts and crushes in."

The name funny car comes from mid-1960s when American Factory Experimental, or AFX racing, began to morph in new and unusual ways. For technical reasons related to the tremendous amount of power at the start of a race, the rear wheels were moved forward on the chassis. This, combined with the center-seated driver, made the cars look a little, well, funny.

"In '68, Jack Chrisman came up with an all-fiberglass body, which made it very light and hinged it, so you could lift the whole body to get to the engine, the battery, the fuel tank, and you could work on everything," Bisci said. "That's when it really changed from AFX to funny car racing."

For Cherniak, racing is a family affair. Her father, Mike, is her crew chief and does much repairing and rebuilding of the vehicle, although Jessica Cherniak isn't shy of the wrench either.

"My dad let me take apart some of the engine when we had to send the heads out," she said. "I still have the scar to show for it."

Mike Cherniak operates a Tunex auto shop at 4306 E. Charleston Blvd. Jessica Cherniak runs the office.

"We've had the shop for eight years, and my dad's been working on cars forever, so I grew up around auto shops and was treated like one of the guys," Jessica Cherniak said.

Although her father has always been a racing enthusiast, Jessica Cherniak said he didn't push her into racing. He built a Camaro capable of doing a quarter mile in 11 seconds for bracket racing as a hobby, but it sat in the shop for two years before they got around doing anything with it.

"We finally decided that someone had to drive it and that ended up being me," Jessica Cherniak said. "It turned out that I took to it pretty good. It was easy."

There was only one problem.

"Eleven seconds was way too slow," she said. "Everyone told me that it was going to push me back, and I'd get this adrenaline rush, and I just thought, 'what's everyone talking about?' But you feel it in the funny car, you definitely feel what they're talking about."

When Mick and Larry Snyder decided to sell their old car and build a new one, the Cherniaks decided it was time to buy it and move into the pros. They purchased the Snyder's old car, which they had won three championships with, and started working on it and making it their own.

The car has a name, as does the engine and the transmission. The transmission is Troy the Tranny. The engine, her name is Nessie, as in the Loch Ness Monster. The car's name is Al.

"It came with the name. It's an alcohol-burning funny car, and it drinks about 7 gallons of alcohol in a quarter mile, so Al is short for Allen Coholic," Jessica Cherniak said. "He's got a bit of a drinking problem."

On Jan. 11 of this year, Jessica Cherniak took her first test run in the car. By April 6, she had done 31 test and licensing runs. On the most recent run, a month prior, in Bakersfield, Calif., she was a 10th of a second too slow. She and her father made some changes they thought should have brought them up to speed easily, but Nessie was having a little trouble on run 31. The engine was running on seven cylinders instead of eight.

"It always shakes, but I knew something was wrong because it just didn't have enough power," Jessica Cherniak said.

The crew had the challenging task of taking the engine apart, and getting it back up and running in time for more licensing runs that Thursday.

"There's always so much emphasis put on the driver, but it's really about the crew," Jessica Cherniak said. "The driving part is easy, but it's the crew that works so hard and makes everything run. I can't even get into the car by myself or start the engine."

As she praised the crew, her father walked into their RV, the mobile command for the crew and dug through the drawers looking for a pack of cigarettes.

"I haven't smoked in five years," he said, as he lit one up and headed back out to where the team of mechanics was nursing the engine back into shape.

"He's really the driving force behind everything. He oversees it all," Jessica Cherniak said. "My dad worked on a funny car crew in Germany when he was in the Army. I think he's pretty happy to be doing it again."

Although Jessica Cherniak is undeniably lovely, Bisci notes that unlike tennis, it will take more than beauty to make her a star in racing.

"These women are in a triple-layer fire suit that's kind of gross and ugly, and by the time they get out of the car, they're kind of greasy and oily. The gloves are black with carbon," he said. "It's not exactly sexy."

It appears that Jessica is well on her way to proving she's more than just a pretty face. The crew got Nessie back together, and she made her licensing run on April 9. She did her qualifying race for the Lucas Oil Series Race the next day, and although she didn't get into the race, she now has her first professional run behind her.

"There were only eight positions open and 21 cars competing," she said. "We're going to swap out the engine, and I'm looking forward to winning some races in June."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.