Alison Lee

Alison Lee didn’t just show up to Top Fuel drag racing—she wrenched it, tuned it, and made it scream down the quarter-mile faster than most men could dream of, earning her place as the first First Lady of Top Fuel racing.

EARLY YEARS

Before Alison Lee ever laid a wrench on a Top Fuel dragster, she was chasing speed on four legs instead of four wheels. She started riding horses competitively at just five years old and racked up wins—proof that her competitive fire was lit early, even if the horsepower came from a different kind of engine entirely.[1]

The details of her childhood, where she grew up, and what her family did remain frustratingly scarce. What we do know is that horsepower—whether equine or automotive—was never foreign to her. That early taste of competition, of pushing herself and her mount to win, set a foundation that would later translate to the drag strip in ways no one, probably not even Alison herself, could have anticipated.

OTHER INTERESTS

Competitive horseback riding was her first arena, and she didn’t just dabble—she won. Starting at age five, Alison proved she had the grit and focus to compete and come out on top, long before she ever stepped foot in a pit crew.[1] Beyond that, the archives are silent. No hobbies cataloged, no side hustles documented, no interviews revealing what she did when she wasn’t elbow-deep in a Chrysler engine. It’s a gap that feels almost intentional, like her life outside the drag strip wasn’t what mattered—what mattered was what she built with Jim Lee in the pits.

EARLY SUCCESS

Alison’s entry into drag racing came through her husband, Jim Lee. The two were drivers initially, piloting a Logghe-chassised dragster together. But in 1965, after Jim had an accident at Numidia Dragway in Pennsylvania, they made a pivot that would define their legacy: they became Top Fuel owner/operators.[1]

That same year, they debuted their fifth Don Long Top Fuel chassis at the March Meet, powered by an Ed Pink 392 Chrysler engine. Alison and Jim qualified eighth, then promptly lost in the first round to a guy named Don Prudhomme—no shame in that. They hired drivers like Bub Reese and Hank Westmoreland, the latter recommended by Ed Pink himself, and got to work building a reputation.[1]

It didn’t take long. At an Island Dragway points meet, Hank Westmoreland drove their car to a win, and suddenly the Lee team out of West Virginia wasn’t just another hopeful—they were contenders.[1] Alison wasn’t just along for the ride. She wrenched. She served as crew chief. She was in the trenches, making sure that dragster was dialed in and ready to rip.[2]

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 1965: Debuted at March Meet, qualified No. 8; won Island Dragway points meet with driver Hank Westmoreland.[1]
• 1969: Set a national record of 6.64 seconds at Atco, New Jersey, with driver Dick Raley.[1]
• 1970: Broke their own record with a 6.63 at Atco, then dropped it to 6.53 at the World Finals in Dallas, qualifying No. 1.[1]
• 1971: Named Car Craft Magazine’s “Fuel Crew Chiefs of the Year” alongside Jim Lee—the first duo ever honored with the title.[4]
• 1973: Campaigned a U.S. Army-sponsored Top Fuel car, the only sponsored season on record.[1]
• Undated: Driver Dick Raley won two Division 1 championships and seven regional events in the Lee car.[1]
• Undated: Later fielded a Nostalgia Top Fuel car driven by her grandson.[2]

INSPIRATIONS

There’s no record of who inspired Alison Lee—no childhood hero, no mentor she cited in interviews, no book or race that lit the fuse. Maybe it was Jim. Maybe it was the sound of a nitro motor at full song. Maybe it was just the stubborn refusal to let anyone tell her she didn’t belong in the pits. Whatever it was, she kept it to herself.

REPUTATION

In an era when women in motorsports were often relegated to trophy duties and timeslip filing, Alison Lee was turning wrenches and calling shots. She and Jim ran one of the fastest Top Fuel cars of the 1960s and ’70s out of West Virginia, a state not exactly known as a drag racing hotbed.[3] The fact that they not only competed but excelled—setting national records, winning events, earning a crew chief of the year nod—speaks volumes.

Car Craft Magazine didn’t hand out “Fuel Crew Chiefs of the Year” honors lightly, and in 1971, Alison and Jim became the first duo to receive it.[4] That wasn’t a participation trophy. That was recognition from the industry that the Lees knew what they were doing, and they were doing it better than most.

She earned the title “first First Lady of Top Fuel racing,” a moniker that stuck not because she was married to a racer, but because she was out there doing the work—wrenching, tuning, strategizing.[1] The NHRA’s tribute to her after her passing captured the respect she commanded, even if the broader motorsports world didn’t always shout her name from the rooftops.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

Alison Lee has passed away. There are no future goals, no 2025 schedule, no next chapter. Her legacy lives in the record books, in the memory of those who watched her team dominate the strip, and in the example she set for women who refuse to stay out of the garage.[1][2]

References:

Remembering Alison Lee, NHRA.com
Allison Lee, drag racer, has died, Jalopy Journal
Drag Racing School Archive, Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School
Historical Feature, Cacklefest