Canal Winchester High School 2022 graduate Sarah Bazell thrives with need for speed

Those in attendance at the National Trail Raceway in Hebron this summer may see a familiar face – or dragster – on the track.

Sarah Bazell, a 2022 graduate of Canal Winchester High School who plans to attend Bowling Green, has spent many of her weekends racing dragsters.

She is half of the Bazell Family Racing team sponsored by Lucas Oil. Her younger brother, Blaine, is the other half of the team.

“It’s just the speed and the desire to win,” Sarah, 18, said. “That’s what keeps me coming back.”

Sarah and Blaine grew up around racing. The family business, Bazell Oil Co. in Logan, services fuel to gas stations around Ohio and also sells race fuel in seven states.

In addition, Sarah said her grandfather, Mike Bazell, also raced pro stock cars, a class of drag racing.

For Sarah and Blaine, their journey in racing started in 2014 when Blaine was 8 and wanted to get into drag racing himself.

“He wanted to drive a junior dragster so bad,” Sarah said.

Sarah and Blaine’s parents, Brian Bazell and Shawn Tel, got Blaine a junior dragster and he found immediate success in racing, having won many races early in his career. Sarah said she wanted to give it a shot.

“He won all the time, every race we went to,” she said. “Kind of as the older sister – monkey see, monkey do – I was like, ‘I want to do that too.’”

“She saw how much fun I was having with it, and wanted to do it too,” Blaine, 16, said.

A year later, Sarah received her own junior dragster, a 14-foot-long American Race Car, and she’s been racing since.

The racing season starts in the spring, and Sarah said the Bazells hit the track every weekend until the winter.

“Once it starts, we race every single weekend until October hits when it starts to get cold again,” Sarah said.

Sarah does most of her racing at National Trail Raceway, but she’s competed at several prominent races throughout the Midwest.

In 2018, Sarah won a championship at the Midwest Junior Super Series, which stages several races throughout the season in several states such as Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky.

Sarah has also competed at the junior Eastern conference finals in Bristol, Tennessee, and the division 3 junior races at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

Unlike the full-size adult dragsters that can top out at speeds of up to 180 mph, junior dragsters can travel up to 85 mph and the fastest they can go is 7.9 seconds in the one-eighth mile race, Sarah said.

Sarah said as a drag racer, it’s not just about flooring the gas pedal.

Having a good reaction time off the line is one of the most important factors in the race, she said. Because if you’re late, “you’re obviously going to lose.”

“You can’t be too early, because that’ll be considered a red light. And you would automatically be disqualified,” she said. “You have to focus on consistency.”

Sarah said she did only bracket racing as a junior dragster. Bracket racing is a form of drag racing where the racer sets an elapsed time of how long they think it will take them to reach the end of the track.

“If you run faster than that, it’s considered breaking out, and you lose,” Sarah said. “So you want to make sure you dial the car honestly. And if you get to the finish line and you don’t see the other person there, you have to slow down so you’re safe and run your time.

“You want to be the first one there, but you don’t want to be the first there by a lot. You want there to be a small gap.

“It’s really mental. You can’t get into your head.”

Making sure the cars are running at their peak requires constant maintenance, Sarah said, though it isn't overly complicated.

For starters, junior dragsters require fresh oil for every race because the oil is drained every time to ensure residue doesn’t sit in the engine.

The fuel system also is flushed after each event to keep the the carburetor or fuel lines free of clogs.

The clutch is also serviced between every round for consistency and to make sure everything is clean, Sarah said.

Tires also are prepped before each race to make sure they can grip the track, Sarah said. Track crews apply a traction compound before each race to help with this, but Sarah said sometimes more grip is needed.

“They’re pretty easy maintenance cars,” she said. “Now when I get a big car, that’ll be a different story.”

That’s already in the works, she said, as she recently received her license to operate a full-size dragster and continue her racing career.

After finishing college at Bowling Green, Sarah said she wants to pursue a career in the racing industry.

“Drag racing is basically my life,” Sarah said. “I couldn’t imagine a weekend where I wasn’t racing. Once you get hooked on it you get hooked, and I guess it’s the adrenaline from the speed.

“It’s just so much fun. And the fact I do it with my family and brother by my side makes it even more fun.”

More information on Bazell Family Racing can be found on their Instagram, YouTube and Facebook pages under @bazellfamilyracing.

sborgna@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekSteve

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Canal Winchester High School: 2022 graduate Sarah Bazell thrives with need for speed