{"id":91420,"date":"2023-06-26T06:50:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T13:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=91420"},"modified":"2023-06-26T06:50:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T13:50:42","slug":"nhra-team-owner-cathi-maynard-has-passed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nhra-team-owner-cathi-maynard-has-passed\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA Team Owner Cathi Maynard has Passed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cathi and Joe Maynard’s love of NHRA drag racing has been evident – Maynard Family Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NHRA multi-nitro team co-owner Cathi Maynard, 65, has succumbed to multiple sclerosis, a disease that has been her scourge for many years.<\/p>\n

Cathi and Joe Maynard were first spotted in the company of Mike Lewis of Don Schumacher Racing: a gentle man with a white beard, accompanying his wheelchair-bound wife as they watched NHRA eight-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher race his rail on 1,000-foot drag strips around the country. Content to bide their time at first, Joe and Cathi Maynard soon became hidebound members of the drag racing community.<\/p>\n

First they took on sponsorship of Schumacher\u2019s ride and were rewarded as the dragster star re-found his footing in the class he once dominated before losing his U.S. Army sponsorship that kept the team afloat in the Top Fuel category. They became Schumacher\u2019s sponsors in 2021.<\/p>\n

Then last year, in 2022 Cathi and Joe Maynard took over Schumacher\u2019s ride, separating from the Don Schumacher Racing group and starting Maynard Family Racing. They brought SCAG power equipment into the sport as Tony Schumacher\u2019s primary financial backer. Their reward? A win by Schumacher at Pacific Coast Raceways near Seattle in their first race as team owners.<\/p>\n

After the 2022 season was over, Tim Wilkerson joined the Maynard Family Racing group when Cathi and Joe decided he was the right Funny Car racer for their increasing presence in NHRA Camping World drag racing. He rewarded them with a win in Chicago this past May, bringing victory to Maynard Wilkerson Racing.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t enough: they affiliated with rising star Justin Ashley to form Maynard Ashley Racing during the same Chicago weekend. Ashley then won three races in a two-weekend period, earning the Epping and Bristol race victories, together with the Bristol edition of Mission Foods\u2019 #2Fast2Tasty Challenge.<\/p>\n

All of this team building didn\u2019t happen in a vacuum. Cathi and Joe Maynard, both of them veterans (that\u2019s how they met) have been methodical in letting their passion guide their racing business decisions. The duo – and their children – have never let Cathi\u2019s multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis which has been omnipresent in their lives for more than 35 years, guide them. Even when she\u2019s not been able to be at the track with her husband and children, Cathi Maynard\u2019s presence could always be felt.<\/p>\n

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The Maynards have conjoined her passions for fast cars and philanthropy – Maynard Family Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, Cathi Maynard\u2019s multiple sclerosis defeated the 65-year-old on Friday of this past week, June 23rd, just as the family\u2019s three teams alighted to Norwalk, Ohio for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at the Bader family\u2019s track. Try as they might, neither Tony Schumacher, Tim Wilkerson nor Justin Ashley could bring Cathi\u2019s memory a win this weekend, although Ashley came close, going to the Top Fuel finals. “Today, and for the rest of the season we will have our guardian angel, Cathi Maynard, riding with us,” Ashley said.<\/p>\n

Learning of her passing, Tony Schumacher acknowledged, \u201cShe was such a fighter, such an amazing person, and she\u2019s in a better place,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to have known her and, I would say by far, I\u2019m a better man for knowing her. She was so kind and so good to people. No one that met her left a lesser person.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her involvement in drag racing over these past few years, Cathi Maynard married two of her favorite passions: fast cars and philanthropy. The Maynard family has supported A Soldier\u2019s Child since 2008 and are among the original supporters of the nonprofit that serves the children of fallen military personnel. Since joining NHRA in 2021, the Maynard family have hosted Gold Star families at drag strips around the country. To raise awareness, for the final two races of the 2022 NHRA season, at Las Vegas and Pomona, the Maynard family capped their first full season in the sport by fielding \u2018giving cars\u2019 for A Soldier\u2019s Child and American Mobility Project.<\/p>\n

Cathi Maynard is survived by her husband Joe, sons Joe C. and Lucas Maynard, together with three grandchildren: Joe, Shelby and Haylee. As a military veteran, Mrs. Maynard will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. A memorial service will be held in the family\u2019s hometown, Clarksville, Tennessee at a time yet to be determined.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NHRA multi-nitro team co-owner Cathi Maynard, 65, has succumbed to multiple sclerosis. Our thoughts are with her friends and family.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":91421,"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":[3465,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[38,9716,9282,9526,7,8055,73],"class_list":["post-91420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-funny-car","tag-maynard-ashley-racing","tag-maynard-family-racing","tag-maynard-wilkerson-racing","tag-nhra","tag-nhra-camping-world-drag-racing-series","tag-top-fuel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Joe-and-Cathi2-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-nMw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420","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=91420"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91427,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420\/revisions\/91427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}