{"id":84545,"date":"2022-03-24T18:45:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T01:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=84545"},"modified":"2022-03-24T18:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T01:45:42","slug":"celebrating-womens-history-month-with-kaylynn-simmons-nhra-nitro-clutch-specialist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/celebrating-womens-history-month-with-kaylynn-simmons-nhra-nitro-clutch-specialist\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Women’s History Month with Kaylynn Simmons, NHRA Nitro Clutch Specialist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kaylynn
Kaylynn backs up Clay Millican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be successful in NHRA\u2019s Camping World Drag Racing Series two premier nitro classes, it\u2019s vital to have a clutch expert. Since Top Fuel and Funny Car don\u2019t have transmissions, those six clutch discs are what drive an 11,000-horsepower car for 1,000 feet from water box to finish line. And if the clutch isn\u2019t right, nothing works properly.<\/p>\n

Watching mechanics service a nitro car between rounds has been likened to ballet. It\u2019s a finely choreographed dance, for sure, and one that\u2019s dependent on each of the seven crew members doing their jobs to get a car ready to win the next round. And the next. And the next.<\/p>\n

With only four opportunities to earn a Wally winner\u2019s trophy on any given race weekend\u2019s four rounds of eliminations, all that choreography has to be exceptional. And if the clutch expert doesn\u2019t have all discs in the correct order with the facing materials ground to the proper order, there\u2019s a good chance the next pass will be the end of an expensive weekend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While being the clutch specialist isn\u2019t the most glamorous job in the NHRA pits, it could easily be the most specialized and necessary. This essential job calls for someone who understands order, can focus on minute details and has the infinite desire to be successful in everything they do.<\/p>\n

That description fits Kaylynn Simmons to a \u201cT\u201d. The clutch specialist for Clay Millican\u2019s Stringer Performance Top Fuel dragster, this 28-year-old fashionista is everything you don\u2019t expect from a clutch specialist. First, she\u2019s a woman. Second, she loves getting dressed up. Third, well, she\u2019s one of a very, very few women to purvey a love and a passion for automobilia and motorsports into a career.<\/p>\n

Kaylynn comes from a local racing family in Jordan, New York, on the outskirts of Syracuse. Her dad raced karts on dirt and his daughter joined him racing, thanks to the family\u2019s ownership of an Ace Hardware in this small town. By the time she was 19, Kaylynn had amassed five track championships. An excellent student, she went to a vocational school during her two final years of schooling before going for a Business Administration degree at her local community college.<\/p>\n

Still, her love of all things vehicular got the better of her and she elected to attend University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH), a school recognized for its motorsports activities. While at UNOH, Kaylynn participated in the collegiate motorsports task, earning a SEMA scholarship and attending that trade show as a student intern with several companies. She attained her High Performance Racing, Automotive Technology degree in March of 2016 while also earning her Commercial Driver\u2019s license (CDL).<\/p>\n

About a week before Kaylynn graduated she\u2019d turned casual conversations with then-crew chief for Terry McMillan Rob Wendland into a job. Wendland had decided to give her a chance as a clutch assistant and truck driver. She left school on a Tuesday and started work with McMillen\u2019s team a day later, leaving for the March NHRA Camping World race on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before the ink was dry on her diploma.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly had zero drag racing experience and had never seen a Top Fuel car,\u201d Simmons recalled. \u201cAs a clutch assistant, I was in charge of tires. I also helped the lead clutch specialist install the clutch in the car.\u201d After about seven races as an assistant, she suddenly became the lead clutch specialist when the crew member she was working with left to take on a new position.<\/p>\n

\u201cRob didn\u2019t have anybody else, so he said, \u2018You\u2019re gonna do it.\u2019 I thought he was crazy and, for the first six months, I still think he was a little crazy. Under his wing, he taught me a ton. I really owe my career and everything I know to him. He really gave me a chance. And it was awesome. So by the end of that year, I think I was a full-blown clutch specialist,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

The McMillen team achieved their first Wally winner\u2019s trophy in the second 2017 Las Vegas race and went on to win the prestigious U.S. Nationals less than a year later, on Labor Day weekend of 2018. The team continued to race through the World Wide Technology Raceway event outside St. Louis in 2020, when McMillen\u2019s primary sponsor announced their departure, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The search for 2021 sponsorship was barren and, in February of last year, \u201cWe decided as a team that it was best for us to move on and secure positions for the upcoming season. I received a call from Doug Stringer. He was looking for a clutch specialist for the first race in Gainesville.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter an in-depth conversation with [crew chief] Mike Kloeber and [driver] Clay Millican, a full-time offer was on the table,\u201d Simmons explained. She has been with Stringer Performance since the start of the 2021 campaign, through their eighth-place result in the Countdown to the Championship and continues in 2022 as their clutch specialist. She\u2019s also the\u00a0 track specialist and back-up girl who positions Millican after his burnout for each pass down the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in charge of everything, from the motor plate back,\u201d she said, explaining her duties as a clutch specialist. \u201cStarting at the motor plate, I\u2019m in charge of the flywheel. I install the facing materials, grind the facing materials, ensure that everything is within half a thou in flatness.\u201d She then moves to the clutch discs and has an assistant who helps grind all the discs. \u201cBetween the two of us, we build the pack based on hardness level, date code. We track a lot of how the discs react, because they all have personalities,\u201d Simmons explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the covers, the centrifugal clutch, maintenance of all the levers, I add all the weight to the clutch – based on what Mike wants in the car.\u201d Kloeber will base his decisions on track conditions before asking Simmons to change weight \u201cdown to the weight of your fingernail, so I have to know how much weight is on all 19 levers at all times. And then I install it in the car. I\u2019m also in charge of the reversers and the rear end, and the [rear] wing. So anything from the motor plate back, it\u2019s all me,\u201d Kaylynn Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Although she initially wanted to be part of the NASCAR community, her years in NHRA have made Simmons a believer in the sport. She wants to stay in the nitro scene and expand her knowledge base, so that one day she might become a crew chief. For now, the primary goal is \u201cto make the crew chief happy. That\u2019s my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons tends to stay out of the way until it\u2019s time to work. \u201cI listen to a lot of audio cues,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI can tell when the guys are putting the car together. It sounds crazy, but I can hear certain torque wrenches going and I know what they\u2019re doing, so I know where I need to be. I just kind of listen and observe around me kind of silently, then I make sure I\u2019m where I need to be when I need to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the car is being warmed up, usually about an hour before the run, Simmons stands at the rear, checking for any leaks from the down lines on the cylinder heads, making sure no oil is coming out of the rear main seal, watching the tires. \u201cClay and Terry are a little different. With Terry I made sure he got the car in forward and reverse, and I also checked neutral for him from behind. Clay has a mirror, he checks that himself. I watch him and make sure he\u2019s getting forward and reverse and I\u2019m listening to the rpm tone in the motor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Clay feeds the clutch, I can hear the tone change in the motor and can tell if I have my stall setting correctly, which helps him stage when he gets up on the track. I\u2019ve got a bunch of different things going on, but mainly I\u2019m looking for leaks and trying to help the team see something they can\u2019t necessarily see from my stance behind the car,\u201d Simmons explained. When it\u2019s time to stage, her job changes to being a track specialist, checking track temperature and rubber condition on the surface. She\u2019ll report to Kloeber as to whether the track is greasy or tacky. And then she\u2019ll help place the car in position to run. It\u2019s a lot of work but she loves it: \u201cI don\u2019t want to say I love stress, but having a high pace and a very detail-oriented situation is where I thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaylynn Simmons\u2019 five-year plan has her continuing in the role of clutch specialist, learning ever more about the car she\u2019s servicing and, eventually, turning her knowledge to being a car chief. \u201cEveryone says once you get in the clutch department, you don\u2019t ever leave, but I\u2019m really hoping to expand and go into the cylinder head department, the blowers, and learn the whole car. Learn ignition, learn the wiring and everything.\u201d Right now she doesn\u2019t have the experience in other departments, but her natural inquisitiveness has her wanting to know how the entire car operates.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe 10 or 15 years down the road we could talk about being crew chief. I think right now, I don\u2019t even want to look that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kaylynn first came on the scene with Terry McMillen\u2019s Top Fuel team, she hid her femininity, something she had done since childhood. Growing up, she thought she really needed to be a tomboy to be part of racing, she thought she had to be \u2018one of the guys\u2019. That\u2019s changed, thanks to women racers like Erica Enders who pronounced, \u201cThe race car doesn\u2019t know whether you\u2019re male or female. It doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she ramps up the confidence, you\u2019ll find Kaylynn Simmons wearing \u201ca full face of makeup\u201d and indulging her femininity. She lives outside Indianapolis with her fianc\u00e9 Blake, who has been working on Leah Pruett\u2019s Top Fuel dragster. In the off-season she fosters dogs, hoping to help them find their forever homes, enjoys DIY home remodeling and owns two Triumph motorcycles. She and a group of friends are building a bracket dragster to race.<\/p>\n

But her femininity is turning out to be a big part of her life. \u201cI really love the fashion industry, I love dressing up, I do love being a girl. I\u201dm always trying to switch it up and I realize I can come to the track and be who I am and not have to solely be one of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The clutch specialist for Clay Millican\u2019s Stringer Performance Top Fuel dragster, this 28-year-old fashionista is everything you don\u2019t expect from a clutch specialist.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":84547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,3470,5029,3399,22],"tags":[5614,1943,2,8959,41,7,1632,2321,6315],"class_list":["post-84545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-column","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-anne-proffit","tag-clay-millican","tag-drag-racing","tag-kaylynn-simmons","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-racing","tag-women","tag-women-in-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Kaylynn-backs-up-Clay-Millican-min-e1648172594199.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-lZD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84549,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84545\/revisions\/84549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}