USD Magazine, Spring 2004

have engines that must be completely disassembled after each race. McKernan says that she'd some– day like to drive one of the faster cars, but quickly adds that for now, her need for speed is sated by the Super Comp car. "From the stands, the Super Comp racers look slow when you compare them to the others," McKernan says,"but trust me, they're really fast. The thought of going almost twice as fast intimi– dates me more than I thought it would." It's pretty much the only thing about racing that intimidates McKernan.The sport appeals not only to her inherited love for cars - her father Thomas McKernan, who took her to her first drag race, is president of the Auto Club of Southern California - but also to ner intellect. A physics major at USO who currently is enrolled in the Physics for Business Applications master's program at University of Southern California, McKernan has

no problem wrestling through the complicated adjustments that deter– mine how quickly her car should travel down the quarter-mile track. "Drag racing is a lot more scientific than most people think," says McKernan, explaining that Super Comp races are handicapped, with the slower car getting a head start and both cars racing against an 8.9-second clock. "You have to take into account every– thing from altitude and humidity to the amount of rubber on the tires in calibrating the throttle.That's a lot of physics and math." But all those calculations of speed and distance are just the prelude to the best part, she says, putting the pedal to the metal for those few seconds behind the wheel. "It's hard to explain what it feels like when you get out of the car and get your time slip, and it says you went 173 miles per hour," she says. "You just say 'Wow.' " - Michael R. Haskins