Shirley Shahan
Shirley Shahan | |
---|---|
Retired | 1972 |
Super Stock | |
Years active | 1950s to 1972 |
Awards | |
1997 | International Motorsports Hall of Fame |
Shirley Shahan (nicknamed the "Drag-On Lady") is a pioneering American woman drag racer.[1]
Shahan in 1965 became the first woman to win an NHRA pro event.[2] Her husband, H. L., prepared the cars she drove.[2]
She became a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1997.
Background
Shahan was born and raised in Visalia, California, daughter of a racing driver.[3] The eldest of four children, she learned to drive at 10, and served as mechanic for her father when he went racing.
Before she began racing, she was a passionate player of fastpitch softball, with an ability to throw to home plate from center field.[3]
Like many early racers, including Shirley Muldowney, Shahan got started by street racing, beating local boys in her father's Studebaker pickup.[3]
At 17, she married H. L. Shahan.[3]
Racing career
Shahan first became involved in drag racing in high school, when she assisted her father in working on his racer.[4]
Her ability to beat the men frequently created friction.[2] She, like Carol Cox, drew several protests after her victories; at the time, it cost just US$50 to file one.[3]
Her husband, H. L., prepared the cars she drove.[2] (H. L. Shahan worked for Ronnie Broadhead in Junior Stock and Butch Leal in Top Fuel .[2])
Shahan began racing in the 1950s. She and her husband (who served as flagman {starter} for the Visalia drag strip on weekends[3]) owned and raced two Chevrolets, one a 1955, later a daily-driven 1956 with a (then-new) 265 cu in (4,340 cc) small-block V8.[3] Both raced, at first; Shahan (like Muldowney) proved the better driver.[3]
She entered events at all the local tracks, including those in Bakersfield, Fremont, Madera, Santa Maria, and Half Moon Bay.[3]
In 1959, Shahan won the first March Meet (at Bakersfield) in her Super Stock 1958 Chevrolet, beating forty men,[2] among them professionals "Dyno Don" Nicholson, Hayden Proffitt, Tom Sturm, and Arlen Vanke.[3]
The couple purchased a Chevrolet Impala with the RPO Z11 427 cu in (7,000 cc) big-block in 1963.[3] At the time, H.L. tuned for Butch Leal and Ronnie Broadhead.[3]
In 1964, Shahan was approached by Chrysler, and switched to a hemi Plymouth, as part of a team with Leal, working out of the Shahan shop in Tulare, California.[5] The Chrysler deal forced her to learn to drive an automatic transmission for the 1965 season, over her objections;[3] previously, she had always driven a stick shift.[4] Nor did Chrysler pay her a salary, providing only the car and parts.[4] At the time, she was working for SoCal Gas, and already had three children.[4]
Shahan quickly learned to use the tachometer and the automatic transmission, and soon began winning at Division 7 events from Oregon and Washington to Utah and Nevada.[3] She reached the Top Stock final at the 1965 Hot Rod Championship in Riverside.[3]
It was while with the Chrysler factory team she followed her Hot Rod Championship win in 1966 with a final round finish at the
She raced full-time until 1968.[3] In that time, she also entered Mobil Economy Runs for Chrysler in that period, placing second, fourth, and (in 1968) first, even defeating Chrysler factory driver Scott Harvey.[3]
Shahan went to
She qualified #8 at the
The AMX gave her a class win at the 1970 NHRA Winternationals, and allowed her to set low e.t. and top speed records for the class over the course of the season.[3] While Shahan did qualify for the 1970 U.S. Nationals, she was disallowed due to a technical infraction.[3]
Shahan qualified #22 for the 1971 Supernationals, being eliminated in round one by the 1971 Plymouth Barracuda of #6 qualifier (& ultimate event winner) Ronnie Sox.[11]
She reached the semi-final at the 1971 AHRA Gateway Nationals, being eliminated by the 1970 Dodge Charger of event winner Tom Haller.[12]
At the 1971 U.S. Nationals, Shahan and husband H.L. got two AMCs into the Pro Stock field, hers in the thirty-first slot; both were eliminated in Round One, Shahan losing to "Fast Eddie" Schartman's Mercury Comet.[13] It would be twenty-one more years before another woman would win a round in Pro Stock.[14] AMC quit drag racing in 1972, and when her husband got an opportunity to build racing engines full-time, his attention was diverted, so Shahan quit racing.[2]
Shahan usually drove a Super Stock car, but also had the opportunity to drive an A/FX fuel funny car.[2]
Personal life
She worked for SoCal Gas Company for over thirty years before retiring.[2]
In 1966, while match racing around the U.S., Shahan was a contestant on
She divorced H. L., and has been married to her second husband, Ken Bridges, for over forty years.[15]
Shahan has three children.
In her spare time, she plays softball and golf.[4] She still lives in Tulare, California.[3]
In 1997, Shahan was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame.[2]
As of 2008, at 70, Shahan still competed in some nostalgia drag racing events.[3]
Notes
- ^ Taylor, Thom. "Roddin' @Random: Take 5 [sic] with Shirley Shahan" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp.16-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Taylor, p.16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom", written 30 April 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 25 September 2018)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Taylor, p.17.
- ^ Taylor, pp.16-17; NHRA.com (retrieved 24 May 2017).
- ^ NHRA.com (retrieved 24 May 2017); Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom", written 30 April 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 25 September 2018); Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 October 2018)
- ^ Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "Carol Cox: NHRA's first class winner", written 4 May 2018, at NHRA.com (retrieved 16 September 2018)
- ^ Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "Carol Cox: NHRA's first class winner", written 4 May 2018, at NHRA.com (retrieved 16 September 2018)
- ^ Taylor, p.16; NHRA.com (retrieved 24 May 2017).
- ^ Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 October 2018)
- ^ Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 October 2018)
- ^ Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 October 2018)
- ^ NHRA.com (retrieved 24 May 2017); Burgess ("The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom", written 30 April 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 25 September 2018) says the couple switched to an uncompetitive AMC Hornet for 1971, & Ultimateracinghistory (retrieved 2 October 2018) makes no mention of either.
- ^ That was Linda McFarlin at Memphis in 1992. NHRA.com (retrieved 24 May 2017).
- ^ Taylor, p.16; Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom", written 30 April 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 25 September 2018)
- ^ Taylor, p.17; Burgess, Phil, National Dragster editor. "The Drag-on Lady: Racer, pioneer, mom", written 30 April 2008, at NHRA.com (retrieved 25 September 2018)
Sources
- Taylor, Thom. "Roddin' @Random: Take 5 [sic] with Shirley Shahan" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 16–17.