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Wife in the fast lane Photo by Steve Johnson Carol and Lyle Hood sit atop Carol's 1977 Monza that she drove to the sportsman division points title last summer. Carol Hood rivals husband at dragstrip By DON HUNT Carol Hood knew what she was getting into when she first started going out with Lyle in the early 1970s. Lyle liked cars and everything that went with them. Motors. Transmissions. Suspensions. Disc brakes. What's more, Lyle was fascinated how each part worked and fit together with a neighboring part. And he admired the way certain cars went fast. Yes, young Lyle was a gearhead, just like his father and brother. There were far worse things Lyle could be tending to, and so Carol dutifully supported his passion. They graduated from Phoenix High School and got married. Lyle went to work as a truck mechanic and Carol got a job with a bank. Twenty-five years later, they are two of the top drivers at the Southern Oregon Dragway. They? Yep. While Lyle has been racing his 1968 Camero for the past 10 years, Carol finally joined him in 1997 when she got behind the wheel of a 1977 Chevrolet Monza. "A lot of people in my profession find it really odd that I get out and race," says Carol, who is the regional service officer in Southern Oregon for Western Bank. "It blows them away." The dragway makes its season debut in bracket racing today. Gates open at 9 a.m. and time trials kick off at 1 p.m. Carol, 47, had her best season at the drag strip a year ago when she won the points title in the sportsman class. Lyle, 47, finished third in the super pro class -- the highest division of bracket racing at the track. Lyle has taken some good-natured ribbing from his racing cohorts about how Carol was the one who came home with the first-place plaque last summer. But Lyle takes the joshing in stride. "I'm really proud of her," says Lyle, who does virtually all of the work on both cars. "She's far more competitive than I ever thought she'd be. "This was really my idea that she give racing a shot but she's proved she can handle it, and then some." And while barreling down a quarter-mile drag strip may seem burdensome to some, Carol finds racing a nice change of pace following her day on the job. "I do a lot of office-type work, a lot of administrative work where I facilitate others to do their jobs," she says. "At the races, it's just me and the car. "Both are stressful in their own ways, but racing is also a release. "Plus, the people at the track are so friendly and supportive. It's like we're all one big family out there. We usually go to pizza afterwards to congratulate the winners, console the losers and tell our stories." Carol's biggest moment on the track came during Top Fuel Tuesday last summer. In front of a crowd numbering about 3,000, which had come mostly to watch National Hot Rod Association funny car and top fuel dragsters, she won the sportsman division that night. She won all five rounds and didn't get home until 3 a.m. the next day. "I called my boss and told him I had good news and bad news," she says. "And he said, 'Don't tell me, you got in a wreck!' "I said no, I won my division but I might be a little late getting to work in the morning." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA