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Paula Murphy, who played a pivotal role in drag racing's formative years as the first woman licensed to drive a Funny Car, passed away Dec. 21. She was 95.

In 1964, she got her first taste of drag racing when she was offered an Olds 442 by the LA and Orange County Dealers Association. The car was prepared by Mopar legend Dick Landy, and she raced it for two years in Stock eliminator.

After one race at Southern California’s Irwindale Raceway, she met Jack Bynum, who would become her mentor, crew chief, and dear friend. Bynum built the chassis and the 392 engine that sat beneath a Mustang Funny Car body. 

STP’s Andy Granatelli, who has brought Murphy to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1963, where she set a 161-mph women's land-speed record in a Studebaker Avanti, provided sponsorship for the new Funny Car effort of Murphy, who quickly became known as Miss STP.

Bynum built the chassis and the 392 engine that sat beneath a Mustang body. The Mustang ran low-eight-second passes through 1967, and Murphy found herself a popular draw with track operators all eager to see the “lady racer.”

“I was a real oddity, and I think a lot of strip operators thought it was pretty good to sell tickets,” she said. “I didn’t have problems getting booking dates. I was very well accepted not only by the tracks but by my fellow racers. Back then, there was a lot of camaraderie between the teams helping one another out. We were a big family.”

Murphy broke into the sevens and cracked the 200-mph barrier in 1968, but the crude Mustang — which didn’t even have a windshield when she first started racing it — was on its last legs. For 1969, Murphy bought a Don Hardy-built Barracuda, originally constructed for Larry Reyes before he signed with Leong for the 1969 season.

In 1971, Murphy was invited to Talladega Superspeedway to drive the STP Dodge stock car of Freddie Lorenzen, with which she broke the NASCAR women’s closed-course record at 171.499 mph. The team got a new Duster-bodied Funny Car that not only toured the country but also went to England in 1973, along with Don Schumacher, as part of a three-weekend trip organized by Tony Nancy. 

Murphy next wheeled Tony Fox’s hydrogen peroxide-powered Pollution Packer rocket dragster to a 258-mph pass at the Winternationals and was slated to drive Ky Michaelson’s rocket dragster in 1974.

In early 1974 at Northern California’s Sears Point Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway), Murphy rocketed down the strip, and after crossing the finish line at 258 mph, the hydrogen-peroxide-fueled rocket engine would not shut down, and when she deployed both parachutes, they ripped right off of the car. She went off the end of the track at approximately 300 mph and went end over end several times on landing. She suffered a broken neck but was lucky to escape with her life.

She continued competing — setting a record for an around-the-world drive — and returned to drag racing in 1976 with a B/Modified Compact Datsun and later a front-wheel-drive Z/Stock Honda Civic touring around the country before retiring from racing. She was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1992 and to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2017.

“I got really, really lucky,” she recalled modestly. “I don’t think many people have gotten the opportunity to do some of the things that I did. I don’t look at myself as anything special; it was just the time for a woman to try to drive a Funny Car, and I felt rather proud that I was the one.”

Earlier this year, Murphy was feted by the Women in Motorsports North America at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles on May 24. NHRA executives were on hand to help honor her with a special-edition NHRA National Dragster cover.

FS1 will re-air the award-winning documentary, Paula Murphy: Undaunted , tonight at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern..