{"id":70655,"date":"2023-06-02T07:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T11:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=70655"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:49","slug":"sisterhood-of-muscle-madi-turley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/gallery\/2023\/06\/sisterhood-of-muscle-madi-turley.html","title":{"rendered":"Sisterhood of Muscle: Madi Turley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you walk through the staging lanes at any drag strip in the United States on a normal night of racing, you won\u2019t find many women getting ready to race. While participation by women is growing in all forms of motorsport, it is an overwhelmingly male-dominated world; and to take it a step further, the world of drag racing is made up predominantly of older men. Unless the track has a high school class, you don\u2019t see a great many \u201ckids\u201d (people under the age of 18) getting ready to race and among the group of under-18 racers, the ratio of men to women is still drastically slanted toward the boys\u2019 side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madi Turley is the polar opposite of your average drag racer.\nIn addition to being a young woman in a sport dominated by men, she is just 16\nyears old and, even for a 16-year-old girl, Madi is very small. Standing just\n4\u201910\u201d tall and weighing just 78 pounds, Madi is literally a fraction of the\nsize of most of her competitors, but in her short-but-successful racing career,\nshe has shown that she isn\u2019t intimidated by the age or size of her competitors.\nThat strength and bravery comes as little surprise to the people who know Madi\nbest, as just getting to this point in her life has been a tougher battle than\nmost racers will ever face. While she has only been racing for a short time,\nthis young lady embodies the true spirit of the Sisterhood of Muscle, proving\nto be a fighter from the day that she was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Early Race for Life<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Madi Turley\u2019s mother, Kennetha, knew that something was not\nright about her pregnancy during the first trimester. At her 12-week checkup,\nblood tests suggested that the baby might have an open spine, but several\nultrasounds revealed no issues in that area. However, the medical staff\nacknowledged that something was wrong with the baby, going so far as to tell\nher to terminate the pregnancy. The doctors told Kennetha and Mark that even if\nthe baby survived, she would have no quality of life. The parents were told that\nshe would likely be unable to walk, talk or do anything else for herself,\npossibly spending her life confined to a bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kennetha Turley opted to continue carrying her baby to term,\nbut things would get worse during the pregnancy. The expecting mother had told\nthe doctors that she could always smell a strange odor and that it hurt more\nthan it should when Madi kicked. Upon looking into things pertaining to those\nissues, the doctors began to think that the baby\u2019s kidneys or bladder were the\nissue. At first, the parents were told that the baby didn\u2019t have a bladder, but\nonce that was located, the doctors came back and said that she didn\u2019t have\nkidneys. Then they located the kidneys, but continued to believe that the baby\nhad developmental issues that they could not diagnose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The troubles with the pregnancy came to a head in early August of 2006, when a specialist from Chattanooga flew in to see Kennetha. That doctor told the parents that he wanted Kennetha to go to a different hospital for a few days, but they could go home, gather some belongings and spend some time with their son, who was about to start kindergarten. Mark and Kennetha arrived at UT Hospital in Knoxville, at which point they learned that Kennetha would be staying there until she delivered Madi. The baby was due October 16th<\/sup>, so the expecting mother was looking at a lengthy hospital stay, but just a week later, Madi hit her next challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Her amniotic sac was too small, so the hospital staff had to take the baby out early \u2013 just 24 weeks into the pregnancy. Madison Turley was born weighing 2 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring just 15 inches long. While the parents got to hold her for a short time, the tiny baby girl was rushed off to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where she would spend 66 days. She almost lost the battle on her third day, but the devout Christians put their trust in the Lord and their little girl pulled through. Even after those 66 days in the NICU, Madi spent a total of 200 days over the course of five years in the children\u2019s hospital, but she was never put on a ventilator \u2013 showing how hard her little body was fighting, even though she was born very premature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A year into her life, Madi Turley nearly died due to a\nreaction to a live virus vaccination. In fact, her parents were told that she\nhad just three hours to live, so more members of the family and their church\npastor came to the hospital to say goodbye, but once again, the tough little\ngirl fought her way through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After overcoming the trauma of her birth, life didn\u2019t get\nmuch easier for Madi Turley. It took her two years in physical therapy to learn\nto walk, along with six years of occupational therapy and two years of vision\ntherapy. While in the NICU, she developed idiopathic thrombocytopenia (ITP), a\nblood disorder which can lead to aplastic anemia or leukemia, but she has shown\nno further signs of those issues. In December 2012, she contracted hepatits and\nonce again nearly lost her life, but after a lengthy hospital stay, she once\nagain survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madi does have dyslexia, dysgraphia and some learning\ndisorders, but that hasn\u2019t slowed her down any. Recognizing the need to\nconstantly care for Madi, Kennetha quit her job to provide constant care and\nhomeschooling, which allowed her to make up for educational time lost while she\nwas in the hospital. Today, Madi is finishing up her sophomore year and is on\ntrack to graduate on time for her age and since fifth grade, she has only had a\nfew short stints in the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madi Meets Drag Racing<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Madi Turley\u2019s first time down the drag strip took place in her dad\u2019s 2012 Dodge Challenger R\/T, but shortly after, she went for a ride down the track in an SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat car driven by Joe Frazier, a friend of her parents. After that ridealong experience, Madi began reading more about the sport online, becoming a bigger fan of drag racing. When she was 15 years old, she was at zMAX Drag Strip with her family when she heard about the Junior Street class. Junior Street is an 8th<\/sup> mile class open to young drivers with street-legal vehicles that run 9.00 or slower, with a licensing program that is somewhat similar to the license acquired by professional racers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For Madi Turley to get involved in the Junior Street racing program, she had to get her driver\u2019s license and a car. After getting her driving permit, she expressed interest in getting a Dodge Challenger to take racing. Kennetha found a Challenger R\/T for sale locally, so the family went to check it out. Mark drove the Challenger with Madi in the back seat, where she found a tuning device. She suggested that someone had mistakenly left it in the car, but the salesman explained that the tuner came with the car. That was the sign that they needed to know that this Dodge Challenger was meant to be Madi\u2019s first racecar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mark and Madi Turley took the Dodge Challenger R\/T for the licensing process. She had to make five clean passes down the 8th<\/sup> mile, followed by a sixth run with an NHRA official riding shotgun, but her initial test runs were so smooth that they skipped that last licensing run, issuing her the paperwork needed to run Junior Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While there, someone pointed out that there was bracket\nracing there that day, and they asked if Madi wanted to be included. Although\nshe had only made a handful of passes, she registered for the bracket racing\nthat day and finished second. After that early success, family friend Doug\nCollins began calling her Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Madi \u2013 a moniker that has stuck with her since\nthen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mopar Madi\u2019s success in the Dodge Challenger R\/T got the\nattention of NHRA Factory Stock Showdown driver and team owner David Davies. In\naddition to being one of the top drivers in FSS with his Dodge Challenger Drag\nPak, Davies is the CEO of Constant Aviation \u2013 the title sponsor of the FSS\nclass in 2022. Aside from supporting the sport at the team owner, driver and\nmajor sponsorship level, Davies launched his Developmental Driver Program.\nThrough this program, Davies has helped Turley acquire sponsorships that help\nher advance in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“We’re excited to be able to bring Madi on board as part of our Driver Development Program. As we expand the team into other classes and formats, it was important to not forget how we got here,\u201d said Davies. \u201cWe should all remember that no matter what class, what format or how fast we’re going, we all started someplace. This program is an important piece of our go forward plan, it’s important to support and grow the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to the financial support, the DHDR program has\ngiven Madi a chance to meet and learn from a long list of well-known NHRA\ndrivers, including Geoff Turk, Mark Pawuk, Alan Scruggs and, of course, Davies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFuture goals that Madi would like to accomplish are racing in the Factory Stock Showdown, being on a team with David Davies, winning a Wally, competing at Roadkill Nights on Woodward Avenue and going to SEMA,\u201d said Kennetha Turley. \u201cAfter high school, Madi plans on going to TCAT of Morristown to study auto mechanics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of Madi\u2019s previous racing goals have already been\nachieved, thanks to help from Davies and his development program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can follow her progress in the racing world on Facebook (Madi Turley), Twitter (@MadiMopar), Instagram (mopar_madi), TikTok (@moparmadi06) and YouTube (Mopar Madi).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mopar Madi\u2019s Dodge Challenger<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned above, Madi Turley competes in a 2012 Dodge Challenger R\/T, powered by the 5.7-liter HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine mated to an automatic transmission. When they bought the car, it had longtube headers, a cold air intake and a mild tune. Since then, Madi has added a custom engine tune from NHRA FSS racer and modern Mopar tuning mastermind AJ Berge of Hemituner Performance, a set of Billet Specialties wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson rubber and E3 has provided enough spark plugs and coil packs for a full year of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Mopar Madi first started racing her 2012 Dodge Challenger R\/T, she was running in the mid-9s in the 8th<\/sup> mile. Since connecting with David Davies, adding some upgrades and getting more seat time, her best to date is an 8.07 in the 8th<\/sup> mile. However, the family has plans to add some upgrades after this season which should make this HEMI engine-powered muscle car even quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, Madi is using her racing fame to help some good causes, including appearing at events like church fundraisers \u2013 helping to raise money for a good cause while also showing other young gearheads that there are racing programs for younger drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n