CONWAY — Madelyn Roper of Conway describes herself as “pretty versatile,” which may be an understatement for a 19-year-old woman who drag races, dances and competes in pageants.
When most preschoolers were watching cartoons, Roper was sitting in the driver’s seat of her grandfather’s 1969 Camaro or peering under the hood, learning about engines. She said her Pawpaw, as she calls former professional drag-racer Bobby Roper of Toad Suck, “took me under his wing.”
“He was such a good teacher. I used to go out and help him; that’s where I fell in love with it,” she said. “Before I could even talk, I knew I wanted to [race]. I always tease that I have motor oil in my veins instead of blood. I came out a race-car driver.”
Her grandfather, a machinist, raced with the National Hot Road Association. Although the 74-year-old is retired and sold his Camaro about four years ago, he serves as his granddaughter’s crew chief and stores her car at his shop.
“She went with us very, very early — when she was just a baby — we were going to the national events and all pro-circuit races; that’s where I ran my car,” Bobby Roper said. “Maddie was right there as a baby growing up in that world.”
He said Madelyn met professional racer Tony Schumacher — her idol — at one of the race church services.
“He would turn around and pick at her. She was probably 2, 3 years old,” Bobby Roper said.
Madelyn Roper said she “begged” for a race car when she was just a toddler, and when she was 8 years old — the earliest she could race — her mother rented the track dragster at Centerville Dragway for her.
Roper said that first car was “really slow,” but she started winning bracket races. For her 9th birthday, she got her own dragster that she named Drama Queen.
“I was really into theater at the time,” she said.
Roper said she lived in Jerusalem until she and her mother, Hollie Roper, moved to Little Rock. They moved to Conway when Madelyn was 7. She attended St. Joseph Catholic School in Conway through the eighth grade and transferred to the Conway School District, where she graduated.
She just finished her first year at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, where she was named first runner-up last year in the Miss UACCM Pageant and is a two-time Teen Miss Daze at Toad Suck Daze in Conway. She’s taken dance since she was 3.
“Sometimes I’d go to a dance competition on Friday, a pageant on Saturday, a drag race on Sunday and back to school on Monday,” she said, laughing.
After the Miss UACCM Pageant, Roper had a race the next day. “I still had my hair fixed and my makeup on,” she said.
She doesn’t mind getting grease under her fingernails, though. Some people come to the track just to race, but Roper said her grandfather always insisted that she learn the mechanics of the car, too.
“He said, ‘If you’re going to race the car, you’re going to know everything about it,’” she said. “I spent multiple days learning about it before he’d even let me race. I feel like it made me a better racer.”
During one race, when the car was having a problem, she said she knew what was wrong.
“She’s very good,” Bobby Roper said. “Madelyn is very structured. She does exactly what her Pawpaw tells her to do, so she has learned basically from me. She’s very conservative. If she feels like there’s a problem in the car or something’s not right, she comes and tells me.”
When she was 13, Madelyn Roper graduated to an even faster dragster. It went one-eighth of a mile in seven seconds. She named it No Mo Drama.
“I just felt like I was done being a little girl, and I was in a big-girl car ready to kick some butt,” she said.
She won the first race with that car, too.
That was her car until she turned 18, almost to the day, when she got Longshot. It already had a name and a paint job that she thought was hideous.
“I hated the paint job on it; it was retro, and it was not my style,” she said. Roper considered repainting the car pink and purple, but she decided to give it a year.
“I realized once I got out on the track with all these grown men who’ve been racing all their lives that I was a long shot,” she said. Roper also changed her mind about the paint and likes it now. The maroon is “the exact same color of my Pawpaw’s car,” she said.
Her grandfather’s machinist skills also come in handy when he needs to make parts for a car.
“He can take a block of metal and turn it into anything,” she said.”We built the motor ourselves.”
She competes in the Super Pro Dragster class, and her car goes one-eighth of a mile in 5.3 seconds, 130 mph.
“I love it. It’s such a rush, but not a scary rush,” she said. Roper said she is an advocate of all the required fire-retardant safety equipment.
Although she hasn’t won a race with that dragster, she has won “some rounds, and that felt pretty good. I’ve had some men come up and say, ‘You’re doing an awesome job for just starting out.’ That was my biggest fear, that these men wouldn’t respect me.”
Roper said she’s dating someone who isn’t a drag-racing fan, although she hopes to turn him around. “I’ve dated guys who raced, and I loved it till we raced against each other, and I won. It was a tough ride home.” She laughed — obviously not too concerned with it.
Her racing goal is to turn pro, but that means money and sponsors. She said her family helps as much as possible. In addition to her mother’s and grandfather’s support, Roper said her biological father, John Vogel, helps with her race-entry fees.
“I want to race a top-fuel dragster,” which has speeds of 320 to 350 mph, she said.
Her grandfather has reservations about her dream.
“I’m against that in one form or fashion. I do know it is dangerous,” Bobby Roper said. “It’s a lot safer than it was 20 years ago, … but to go 330 mph in 4 seconds — and they’re even now getting down in the 3 seconds — is a very, very dangerous situation, and for her being my granddaughter, in that aspect, I don’t want her going into it, but I know she loves it; she loves the speed. Eventually, at some point in time if she wants to do it, I would support her.”
Even if she doesn’t end up racing professionally, Roper said, she plans to race as long as she can.
That’s along with a possible career in nursing or occupational therapy — not out of the question for a “pretty versatile” woman.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.