Hello everyone, I’m Jess! I have various nicknames about my height that were given to me by co-workers, family, friends, and probably people I’ve never even met. Luckily, I have a good sense of humor and now I’ve decided to use “Too Tall” to my advantage. I’m hoping the uncommon name of this site will stand above the crowd (pun intended) just like I do in almost every photo. 😂
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, drag racing has been in my family for years. My grandfather took my Dad to the local racetrack in South Carolina when he was young, and Dad started racing when he was 15 years old. Many of my family members have been racing off and on throughout the years including my Mom, Dad, both grandfathers, and even my sister!
When I was 13 years old, I got behind the wheel of a 1967 Buick Station Wagon and began racing in the Teen Championship Racing (TCR) class at Greer Dragway. After two seasons, I decided that I wanted to hurry up and race in one of the adult classes, so I entered my first Footbrake race at Shadyside Dragway. That race ended with a runner up finish and I didn’t even have my driver’s license yet!
Now let’s flash forward through years of racing and high school, until it’s time for me to graduate from college. I have an Associates degree in Allied Health Sciences with a concentration in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, which is the professional way to say that I am a registered Ultrasound Technologist (so no, I am not a full time drag racer). After graduation, I moved to Tennessee thanks to meeting a special driver during the World Footbrake Challenge at Bristol Dragway. That driver, Cody Spears, is now my husband so I’m sure you’ll be reading that name a lot in the weekly race posts!
We are going on 9 years together and I’ll go ahead and advise you, if you race and can find another racer, you better hold on to them! Simply being able to share in the disgust of giving back the stripe .0005 when you had the reaction time advantage, having the opportunity to race each other in the final round of a Super Chevy Show, or the absolute pride of watching them win an IHRA Bracket Finals….now those are true relationship goals. Honestly, just having them understand the crazy bracket racing lingo is a huge plus, because sometimes it can sound as if we are speaking a foreign language.
I would say that’s probably more than enough information for you to start with! You can find us racing almost every weekend and you never know which state we might show up in, so if we happen to be racing together come on over and say hello! 👋🏻
