Hadley Yoder, center, fourth place winner of the WDRA Summit World Championship Race in Montgomery, Alabama, poses Oct. 25 with her family – her brother, Kelbie Yoder; her dad and crew chief, Dustin Yoder; and her mother, Nicole Yoder.

Hadley Yoder is fast moving, quick thinking and buckles up with one foot on the gas pedal.

At the age of 13, Hadley has three years of driving experience under her belt with her own race car. Her elapsed time for the 1/8th was 8.13 seconds going 79 mph at the Magic City International Dragway (MCID) track in Minot.

Hadley is the daughter of Dustin and Nicole Yoder of Minot and granddaughter of Mark and Marilyn Yoder of Rugby.

She and her brother, Kelbie, are third generation drag racers, following in the footsteps of their dad and their grandfather.

Hadley raced against other teens in the Junior Dragster League and was invited to race at the WDRA Summit World Championship Race in Montgomery, Alabama.

“To get invited to this race you need to be the track points champion from your home race track,” said Dustin Yoder. “The class that Hadley and my son, Kelbie, race in is called Junior Dragsters. They are basically a half scale version of the full sized rear engine dragsters you would see on TV. These track champions come from race tracks all over the United States and Canada. The Junior Dragster class age range is from 7-18 years old and the cars speed in the 1/8th mile range from 40 mph to 80-plus mph.

“Hadley broke 84 mph this year at 13 years old. We, as the parents, have absolutely no control over the cars. They are 100% controlled by the drivers, which is pretty impressive considering the acceleration they have. We like to say that for kids this is the equivalent of a top fuel dragster or top fuel funny car,” he said.

Yoder said there were 45 track champions who made the trip to the world finals.

“Of these, I would say that two-thirds of them are 17-18 year olds that are getting to the end of their Junior Dragster careers. Hadley placed fourth, which I am very proud of given this was the first time she had ever run on a track outside of Minot. This can be intimidating as the comfort and consistency can be thrown off by a change in the routine. She did very well keeping her composure, knowing that the competition was at a level that she had not experienced before. We spent a lot of time one on one, talking over the procedure and taking it one round at a time. We have to win the round to worry about the next one. She lost out in the quarter finals but still a super successful first showing at a world championship race.” Yoder said.

Their trip to Montgomery was 26 hours one way. Hadley, Kelbie and their parents, along with Neil Black, one of the members of the Dirty White Boys Racing team, made the trip in a crew cab pickup pulling an enclosed trailer with the race cars and golf cart.

“It was a test of our wills to not get on each other’s nerves. It was pretty uneventful other than we ran out of gas, but, luckily, we had a gas can in the race trailer that we were able to pour in and get to the next gas station. Overall, this was a super fun experience for us and unforgettable for Hadley. I don’t know if the gravity of what she accomplished has been fully understood,” Yoder said.

“We are already talking and planning for next year. If either one of my kids wins points champ in Minot, we will for sure be making the trip to another world finals. Like my dad said, as the next generations come into the sport we take a step back and do everything we can to give them the opportunities to be successful,” he said.

Friends and family who made the trip to Alabama to cheer on Hadley besides her parents, brother, grandparents and family friend Black included her uncle, Austin Yoder.

“We also had another class champ from Minot down there, Blake Seba. He was the MCID bike (motorcycle) class champ. We represented two out of the five classes from MCID this year at the championship race,” Dustin Yoder said.

The family said they appreciate the support from the MCID track staff and racers in helping make Hadley’s success happen.

“I could not think of a more unforgettable experience for a 13 year old to get to have a race season like Hadley had to be track champion, then to cap it off with a fourth place finish at a World Finals event,” he added.

Hadley said what she did differently this time when she jumped off the line was, “It just clicked. When the win light came on I started dancing in my car.”

“It was a perfect light,” her dad added.

Hadley’s mom, Nicole Yoder,said, “I’m proud of her because she has ADHD (and) for her to focus, drive in a straight line and win. She was diagnosed at the age of 10 in the fifth grade. She (Hadley) started riding horses and I noticed a difference with her, and this was around the same time she decided to race. She was a cheerleader, in 4-H indoor archery, volleyball, and competed in the power wheel derby in Bottineau with her brother Kelbie.”

Hadley’s grandfather shared some of the family’s involvement in drag racing. Mark Yoder said he bought his first dragcar without asking his mother.

“I was a sophomore in school when I bought my first car. I was a crazy motorhead. My mom was mad at me for about five years because I was hanging out with guys who were around 18. I bought a candy apple red race car and started racing. It was a 1969 Camaro. After winning a couple times, my mom was no longer mad,” he said.

He spoke fondly about his time racing, meeting his wife, Marilyn, who is the secretary at Rugby High School, and starting a family while fitting in drag racing.

“In the late 1970s-early ’80s, I did some drag racing in Sabin, Minnesota, then Marilyn and our three boys (Dustin, Nathan and Austin) came along. A few years later the boys started racing. Dustin and Nathan drag raced and Austin raced dirt bikes. Our weekends were busy traveling throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and one province as we followed the boys’ drag racing. For several years we drove our ’56 Chevy; the boys hauled their drag cars. Hadley and Kelbie kept up the family tradition and started drag racing at the Magic City International Dragway in Minot,” Yoder said.

“During the years we created the Dirty White Boys Racing, and we are still adding racers to our club to this day. Now the grandkids are racing. They are doing very well. Hopefully, for many years to come,” he added.