Magnum Racer: Alex “The Car Girl” Rogeo

Drag racing, for everything it is and isn’t, has always been one of the few motorsports that has been inviting to women since its inception. It’s probably because of its roots in the progressive southwest, but many successful women drivers campaign in drag racing. As such, Alex Rogeo is looking to follow in the footsteps of Shirley Muldowney, Bunny Burkett, and many others before her. And her car of choice is a fast Dodge Magnum SRT8.

Her story doesn’t start like most drivers though. While Rogeo grew up around cars and RVs, thanks to her dad and his auto repair shop, she decided to move to Southern California and attend school. While extending her education, Rogeo tried her hand at acting and found that life wasn’t what she wanted. Unlike most who give up on Hollywood, she didn’t let the experience taint her. She came in contact with a neighbor named Richard, who used to be an aircraft mechanic, and raced in many types of vehicles, from road racing G-chasers to landspeed motorcycles. However, it was his Dodge Magnum SRT8 that caught Alex’s interest.

At a time when the fastest quarter-mile time was 13.50-seconds (by most magazines), Rogeo was able to get the stock Magnum down to a 13.06 time. Both she and Richard knew that this Magnum couldn’t stay stock for long, so they finally started its evolution into the 9-second car it is now. That’s right, this big-body, modern Mopar turned in a time of 9.85 at 136 MPH during the NMCA West at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, California on April 5th of this year.

However, driving her Magnum down the quarter-mile isn’t the only thing Rogeo does. She’s also the Senior Editor of MoparMax Magazine, appears on SpeedSceneLive.com to talk about sportsman drag racing once a month, and is part owner of Liquid Glow Performance Car Care Products (along with Richard). Outside of the car world, Rogeo still works in the entertainment industry, where she sings, acts, and does some modeling from time to time. You can even hear her voice during the Street Car Super Nationals when she sings the National Anthem before the racing on Sunday morning. However, that does keep her pretty busy on that day because as soon as she’s done singing, she has to run back to the pits and get her own car ready for eliminations.

While Rogeo’s early life didn’t initially take her down the road of auto racing, she eventually found her way there and has begun to make her mark and embarrass some of the boys. She also shows that you should start taking the Dodge Magnum more seriously, as she and her team continue to drop its quarter-mile time. Perhaps one day we’ll see her name shared in the same vein as Muldowney, Burkett, and the Forces, but for now we’ll just continue to watch her blaze her own trail.

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gallery images via [AlexTheCarGirl.com]