Meet AIRAID Driver Nikki Frost and Her 'Gotta Have It Green' 2013 Mustang GT

Oct 11, 2017

“I race heads up, because I don't know how to dial it back. It's all or nothing.“ - Nikki Frost

Like many car enthusiasts, Nikki Frost grew up playing with Matchbox cars and going to car shows with her dad. She grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, so racing was very much a part of her childhood. As Nikki got older, street racing captured her attention, and she would often compete for bragging rights with her 1995 Ford Taurus SHO. “I love those SHOs because they're such underdogs. And street racing back then wasn't like what you see on these crazy TV shows nowadays.” College and a career soon took center stage in Nikki’s life, but her love of racing returned in 2010 after she met her future husband Keith Fidura. It turns out that Keith was into drag racing, and he took Nikki to her very first professional drag race at the local track. She was immediately hooked on the sport, and eventually became one of the most popular drivers on the NMRA circuit.

It all started in 2012 when the transmission blew on Nikki‘s daily driver. She had become the legal administrator for a successful law firm in Philadelphia, so she decided that it was time to treat herself to a brand new car. Initially, she wanted a Dodge Challenger, but found that it was just too heavy and cumbersome. She looked at the Chevrolet Camaro, but decided against it due to the poor visibility. Then she went for a drive in a Ford Mustang GT, and like Goldilocks, Nikki found the new blue-oval pony car to be “just right“. As luck would have it, Ford had just announced a new color for the 2013 model year called Gotta Have It Green. And Nikki (wait for it) just had to have it! She recalled “As soon as we drove it off the lot, we took it to the local drag strip to see what it could do. Totally stock, it ran 13's. It wasn't anything crazy. So we talked to Brian Ellis over at Vortech and he said they needed an R&D car for their 2013 blower kit, and since the Gotta Have It Green color just came out, it would be the perfect booth car for SEMA. And by me having that opportunity, my husband had to buy one of the other cars that were on the lot, which was the 2013 Ford Mustang GT that I'm racing now.”

Nikki Frost’s Gotta Have It Green 2013 Ford Mustang GT at the 2013 SEMA Show

Less than a month after buying their Mustangs, Nikki and Keith road tripped them to California to be used as the R&D cars for Vortech’s Coyote 5.0L supercharger kits. Nikki’s Gotta Have It Green 2013 Ford Mustang GT then appeared at the 2013 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. After the car’s publicity duties were complete, she decided to use her new 10-second car to compete in the NMRA (National Mustang Racing Association) drag racing series. Her first race happened in 2014 at the NMRA All-Female Shoot Out in Norwalk, Ohio. She recalled “I placed runner-up in the Shoot Out. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride right?” Nikki then placed runner-up in the 2015 NMRA All-Female Shoot Out at Summit Motorsports Park in Ohio, and at the 2016 All-Female Shoot Out at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania.

Nikki quipped: “Me and my husband raced one time in the NMRA True Street class, and he won. But I’d thrown my clutch out. But I have been faster in both cars then he has.” Earlier this year, she “commandeered” her husband’s Mustang GT 5.0L, so she could start racing heads up in the Coyote Modified class. “I wanted to build a race car, but I really like my heated seats and stick shift. So I convinced him to let me take his base model GT, rip everything out, and turn it into a race car. I would pay for all of the mods, and he would get a race car out of it. So that's what I'm racing now. It worked out well for both of us.” And indeed it has, because Nikki now sits in 7th place in her class.

All of Nikki’s impressive victory‘s were achieved with a manual transmission. And if you know much about drag racing, then you understand how tricky managing a clutch can be as you’re blasting down that straightaway. So to make her new drag car more competitive, it’s been fitted with a modified Turbo 400 automatic from Transmission Specialties. The Ford 5.0L Coyote V8 has received numerous upgrades, including a Vortech V7 JTB supercharger, capped by a high-flow AIRAID performance air filter. Nikki said, “AIRAID has proven performance in my opinion. And since I've been running AIRAID, I've had no regrets."

AIRAID driver Nikki Frost went from playing with toy cars to racing the real ones

“One of the reasons that we started racing in the heads-up class is to show that anyone can do it. You know, regular people can do it," Nikki explained. "You don't have to be part of a shop or a professional team. Any John or Sue Smith can do it, provided they have the vision to.” She continued, “I race heads up because I don't know how to dial it back. It's all or nothing. And I have so much support. From my husband, my sponsors, friends, the shop Revolution Automotive that works on my cars. Without them, it wouldn't be possible.”

AIRAID is proud to sponsor Nikki Frost, and we can’t wait to watch her dominate the 2018 NMRA season

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