"Yes, at home I always wear my pajamas. For one thing, I have two male roommates."
Do they ever try to hit on you? (This was a question stemming from my experiences with having a female roommate. I tried flirting with her from the day she moved in until the day she asked the judge to put a restraining order against me.)
"No, they are older and both are my friends."
What do you look for in guys? (I was hoping she would say, "I love a strong Filipino man with dark eyes who has a passion for pink soup ladles and mariachi bands. Uh, kinda like me.)
"I like honest guys. I hate it when guys try to impress me. I just want them to be honest. I like guys who are taller than me, but that's not hard to find because I'm short. I want him to be only a non-smoker. If he's a drinker, that's okay. But if all he wants to do is drink, I'm not really into that. He has to have dark brown hair and blue or brown eyes. I also like it when guys know more about cars than I do."
Do you know how to change your own oil? (Yes, it's an indirectly misogynistic question; I sure as hell wouldn't ask this to a male drag racer.)
"Nope. My dad is a mechanic, so I never had to worry about any of that. I do have an idea of how it works, but I've never done it myself."Why do you like drag racing so much? (To be honest, I didn't know drag racing still existed.)
"I love drag racing! It is all I want to do and all that I think about. I am the happiest person alive when I'm in my drag car."
When you stage, waiting for the tree to turn green, what goes through your mind? (Personally, I would be making sure I was in first gear and not in neutral.)
"I don't really think about much when I race. I have been down the quarter-mile, hundreds, even thousands of times. To me, the more I think, the more I make mistakes. Racing is very natural to me."
Real or fake? (This was actually the first question on my list, but I needed a little bit of warming up to ask it. Take note of that, future journalists!)"Real!" Wow! (Yes, I was really surprised!)
Do you even know what I'm talking about? I could've been asking about your hair color."My hair color is real, too, but I assumed you were talking about my boobs."
I stopped my line of questioning simply because that's really all I wanted to know. Leading up to that last question though, I found out a lot about Julie Stepan: her devotion to drag racing, natural talent as a race car driver, and accomplishments that transcend those of most 21-year-olds, male or female. All of which made me a big fan of Julie and a born-again fan of drag racing.
By Roel F. Concepcion
Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!