Liz Lancaster has had a life long obsession with drag racing and in particular, Top Fuel, so it was no surprise when she jumped at the chance to spend a day crewing with the PremiAir Racing Top Fuel team at Willowbank Raceway in 2018

Fast forward 12 months and now 31 year old Liz is the Operations Coordinator for the PremiAir Hire Brisbane office.

“Rob Oberg, a friend of a friend, knew I was a lifetime Top Fuel fan and called me to see if I wanted to be a crew member for a day and I of course jumped at the opportunity,” Liz explained.

“It was a very hot day, but very enjoyable and nothing can quite prepare you for what it will be like.

“I remember when we were towing out for our first qualifier, it was like the seas parted ways. Standing there on the start line the crowd was just silent waiting for these majestic kings to fire up. Then as I was standing waiting for them to come into stage, they hit the throttle & it was like a grand piano hit me in the chest – I was completely unprepared, but it was amazing.

“I had friends in the corporate box behind me and they said I jumped around six foot in the air. Pete won that day and took home his first gold Christmas tree, he hasn’t won again since so I figure I must be his lucky charm!” she laughed.

Liz has been a part of the drag racing scene since she was only eight years old, after being introduced to the sport by her best friend, Matthew McKnight, who today races in Supercharged Outlaws.

“I fell in love with it at eight and never left. My seven year old daughter now loves Top Fuel and is counting down to when she can have her own Junior Dragster!” Liz laughed.

“It is a very family orientated sport and it is like no other – you can literally feel the noise, and to me that is just out of this world.

“Top Fuel is really something that you can’t explain, you have to be there to witness it and gain a full appreciation of the noise, of the feeling under your feet when they take off, your nose is burning, your eyes are burning. They set car alarms off in the process – it is just next level.

“It really is like nothing else you will experience, the craziness from go to woah, and when you get down into the detail – I mean everyone pays attention to detail in racing, but this is next level stuff. You just can’t wrap your head around it, the Top Fuel guys are in a whole league of their own.”

When Liz isn’t at the track, she is hard at work in the Brisbane office of PremiAir Hire after joining the business around six months ago as the Brisbane Operations Coordinator.

“I look after all of the equipment logistics and operations for the Brisbane, Chinchilla and Gladstone areas. This includes looking after all of the servicing for the equipment, inventory management, depot coordination, transport and logistical management, and working with large corporations to make sure their equipment is up to spec, serviced and hitting their requirements,” Liz said.

“I also work with the team at PremiAir Hire to make sure they have all that they need and offer support for the Business Development Managers when they need it to get equipment to jobs.

“I am really enjoying it, I have known (Branch Manager) Theo Woollett for a long time and ever since meeting Pete at the track I have always thought very highly of him.”

For more information on PremiAir Hire Racing, please visit https://premiairhire.com.au/ or follow the team on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PremiAirRacing/