National Dragster: Splatt making a comeback Down Under

Australian Top Fuel raeor Kaehelle SpIaIt, the i'ivsl woman to exceed 300 mph on a dragstrip during; a short tenure on the 1994 NHRA national event UHIr before retiring to begin a family, will return to Top Fuel competition at the Snap-on Tools Nitro Championships at Australia's Western Sydney InCl Dragway May 13-15.

Splatt was known in Australia as "the Queen of Speed" after routinely outrunning her male counterparts, which earned her worldwide1 praise and a full-time, fully sponsored ride in the Luxor Casino dragster for the 199-1 NHUA Drag Racing season. Splatt became the first woman to crack the 300-mph barrier with a speed of 300.00 mph at that year's Houston event, earning her membership into the elite Slick 50 300mph Club.

Splatt retired from racing in early 2000 to concentrate on her family. She and husband Wayne Lusk are the proud parents of three children, daughter Kayla, 6, and sons Jayden, 4, and Dylan, 1.

"Racing has always been a part of my life, but Wayne and I needed some time to concentrate on our family. Everything at home is the way it should be and our family is complete, so the time is right to return to racing," said Splatt, who serves as general manager at Dragway Performance Engineering, a business established in the late 1960s by her father, champion drag racing veteran Ian Splatt. "Now that I'm racing again, there's something else to juggle, but any mother will tell you that if you can handle three kids, then everything else is a breeze, especially a 300-mph race car."