Tera Graves is a woman on a nitro propelled mission. She has piloted all kinds of crazy fast stuff through her driving career but for the second (third?) time she has climbed behind the wheel of nitro burning nostalgia funny car and acquitted herself perfectly with the machine. In this video you will see Tera behind the tiller of John Hale’s ‘One Bad Texan’ nostalgia nitro funny car running a 3.78-second eighth mile lap at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas. For comparison’s sake, this 3.78 elapsed time equates to a run in the high 5.70s or low 5.80s through the quarter mile. That is FREAKING GETTING IT.
Like a lot of great young drivers, Tera has the skills and the only thing missing is the funding. While we’re not sure what her immediate aspirations are, we can tell you that her and her husband Chris live this sport. They are both well known photographers who have work published in a myriad of publications both print and electronic. If they are not driving something, the are shooting something. These are the kinds of people who make it in the sport. The people that dedicate their entire existence to it.
Keep your eyes on Tera Graves, it won’t be long before these notable test runs and test sessions turn into qualifying attempts and elimination runs at races in something powered by nitromethane. Until then she’ll be wheeling the daylights out of her blown dragster and shooting photos like no one’s business.
Big props to John Hale for working with the Graves’ in making this experience possible. They have done this a couple of times and we’re sure that they appreciate it will all of their being. It takes real trust to hand someone the seat of a 3,000hp race car. Tera earned it and here’s why –
