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Although the NHRA POWERade Series boasts the most diverse motorsports community in the racing world -- whether measured by gender or race -- there are a number of firsts that have yet to be recorded. One of the most persistent gaps is the failure of a woman to win an NHRA national event in the Funny Car category.

And that's not to say women haven't had opportunities to break that hex. Paula Murphy, Paula Martin, Cristen Powell and Vicky Fanning are just a few of the women who have raced Funny Cars in the NHRA's 57-year history. But now, for the first time, not one but two talented drag racers stand on the threshold of breaking through as the sport's first female Funny Car event winner, thus creating a fascinating rivalry unique in professional racing.

Ashley Force and Melanie Troxel almost assuredly will find their way to an NHRA national event winner's circle in the foreseeable future, but the question is, which one will be first? That victory, whenever it comes, will end the gender exclusivity men have commanded in the F/C class since the category was born during the legendary "factory wars" of the 1960s.

Force, 25, and Troxel, 35, share several elements of their lives and careers. Ashley is the daughter of 14-time POWERade Funny Car champion John Force. Melanie is the daughter of the late Mike Troxel, a former Top Alcohol Dragster world champion. Both women not only graduated from the Top Alcohol Dragster class but drove for the same team at different times, the operation owned by Jerry Darien and Ken Meadows. Both have won national awards from prestigious women's groups for their racing achievements, and both have -- at one time or another -- been declared the quickest and fastest women in history in the classes in which they competed.

Force, who is embarking on her second full season in a fuel coupe after her NHRA Road to the Future award-winning rookie campaign in '07. "I think it will be quite an accomplishment for any woman to win in Funny Car since the men have quite an advantage in sheer numbers, so if it were to be Melanie and not me, it would still be a big step."

For Troxel, her first year at the wheel of a Funny Car has been a struggle, so any talk of being the first woman to win the Funny Car honors at a national event has to be tempered by the need for her Mike Ashley-owned team to sort out her race car and give it race-winning consistency. In the season's first four races, Troxel failed to qualify three times, and after a much better showing at the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, where she qualified 14th, she was hopeful that her first victory might have moved a step or two closer.

"I'm feeling much better in the car," said Troxel, the wife of fellow Funny Car racer Tommy Johnson Jr. "Each pass we make provides a huge difference for me, and now I have a good confidence level going into race day.

"Ashley [Force] is with a great team, and it's only a matter of time before she wins an event. But everybody's tough out there and, at the same time, everybody is struggling a little bit this year. It's anybody's game out there on race day … and after such a rough start, it is a good feeling to be playing on Sunday."

And so, the watch has begun. There have been female event champions in Top Fuel (including Troxel, who has four T/F victories), and Erica Enders nearly gave Pro Stock its first woman race winner with her two runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2006. Pro Stock Motorcycle boasts the overall winningest female drag racer in history -- three-time champion Angelle Sampey. Force has three final-round appearances in Funny Car to her credit but hasn't been able to convert for the historic milestone. When it finally happens, neither woman will earn any extra points, cash a big bonus check or make the cover of Time magazine for her efforts.

But she will make history, and how often does an opportunity like that come along?

Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com.