Shirley Muldowney is a champion hot rod racing legend and a pioneer, who paved the way for women in a sport dominated by men. 

And it was in the Capital Region where Muldowney grew up and learned to drive.

"In between Albany and Schenectady ... that was the local drag strip," Muldowney said.

As a teenager in the late 1950s, Muldowney found the local hot rod circuit. Drag racing was illegal, dangerous — and for Muldowney, addicting.

"I would race up and down State Street and up Central Avenue into Albany with this cute little 44 with ... red paint on it. It was really the cat’s meow," she said.

And it wasn’t long before Muldowney went from the streets of the Capital Region to upstate New York race tracks, where the asphalt was prime and her record speeds got her noticed.

She went from Fonda to South Glens Falls and Lebanon Valley, and then left the region to pursue bigger drag racing events — and never looked back.

She was dubbed the “first lady of drag racing,” her bright pink hot rod a symbol of changing times for women. But race car sponsors weren’t lining up.

"The fact that I was a woman was a terrible challenge. They beat me up a lot," Muldowney said. "I would climb the ladder, fall, and would climb the ladder again. I won races. I delivered the goods, and that was the most important thing to me.”

Muldowney says the highlight of her career was winning the U.S. nationals in Indianapolis, which is proudly displayed on her license plate.

Many called her win “a gender-barrier-breaking victory.”

“It’s much easier for women now ... the doors are wide open," Muldowney said.

And she says she’ll never forget where it all began.

"All of my dreams were fulfilled with what I wanted to do," she said, "and it all came from this against the law racing in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy.”