Nancy Matter, Funny Car Pilot

At the beginning of 2014, Nancy Matter had a surprise in store as she was contacted by a mutual acquaintance that led her to being introduced to Wayne and Debi Kyle, Parents of American Sniper, SCO Chris Kyle. After a few days of meetings withing the Kyle Family, including Jeff (Chris's Brother) and Sister-in-law Amy, the family chose a Foundation that Kyle started six months prior to being shot with fellow Brother, Chad Littlefield.

Nancy's Team was then Chosen to represent "Guardian For Heroes - The Chris Kyle Legacy". This has taken the team to many learning experiences, displays and track representations for Our United States Military, an Honor That Nancy Still carries on today bringing constant awareness to the foundation on and off the track. This is Not a Sponsorship endeavor for the Team, it is an awareness endeavor to help our Veterans, First Responders and Their Families.

This is Nancy's story.

Nancy attended her first race at San Fernando Raceway at the age of three. While growing up in Southern California she spent countless weekends bracket racing with her mother, and traveled to numerous NHRA national and divisional events with her step father.

Her strong desire to further her involvement in Drag Racing landed Nancy a summer job with the NHRA , where she met and knew many of the West Coast racers. Her first hands on Funny Car experience came when she met Lou & Vicki Gasparrelli. She crewed with their Alcohol Funny Car team throughout her teenage years.

Nancy stepped away from racing in the mid 80's to raise two children. And also developed a career in the music industry. In 1998 she founded Moonlight Mastering, a successful music studio. She earned over 70 gold & platinum records through her tenure. Nancy put the final touches on albums from independent artists and bands including mega superstars such as Peter Gabriel, The Who, Genesis, Ray Charles, and Run DMC. Nancy also worked on soundtracks such as Once upon a time in Mexico, March of the Penguins, and The Lion King, she has done more than 4,000 total albums.

Nancy still had the bug to go racing and in 2000 she went to the Frank Hawley school of Drag Racing where she got her competition license, and in 2001 she began racing a Super Comp Dragster.

She knew from the beginning that she was destined to race a Funny Car, during two full seasons of Super Comp racing, Nancy also crewed for a few Alcohol Funny Car teams absorbing as much knowledge as she could.

In 2005 Nancy bought a turnkey 2002 Camaro Funny Car built by Bob Massey, the car only had thirty passes on it, and all the parts were virtually still new. She earned her Top Alcohol Funny Car license and has had several years of Lucas Oil Division 4 top 10 finishes.