Aug. 5, 2013

14-year-old Shelby Nelson Scooby-Does it at Bristol Dragway

By SCOTT WRIGHT

Share |

LLICKSKILLET — At last month's NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League Eastern Conference Finals, no one in Division II in her age group covered the eighth-mile faster than Lickskillet community resident Shelby Nelson.

Nelson, soon to be a sophomore at Sand Rock High School, won the title in the 14-year-old age group at the event, held July 25-27, 2013 at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee. The achievement was the culmination of over eight years of long weekends spent at drag strips around the Southeast.

Shelby's career in racing began one hot summer night with her dad at Sand Mountain Dragway. A flatbed truck hauling a Junior dragster idled by within view of Shelby, who was 5 years old at the time.

“She said, 'Oh, daddy, I've got to have one of those',” says David Nelson, Shelby's father and a former drag racer himself. “And that's when it started.”

David says his transition from driver to crew chief for his young daughter was almost instantaneous. Shelby says it was the realization that she could become a driver, like her dad, that most appealed to her.

“I was like, oh my gosh, I can drive one of those,” she says. “I was really excited from the beginning. I didn't do well at the start because it was all new to me, but I kept getting better and better.”

“That first dragster was a scrap heap, compared to what she has now,” David adds. “She's won quite a few rounds, but she didn't win her first event until she was 7 years old.”

Early on, Shelby's top speeds were limited to around 30 mph because of age restrictions. But as a driver grows up, so does their permissible speed limit. Last month at Bristol, Shelby's event-winning time was an 8.003 ET with a top speed of nearly 85 mph.

According to her crew chief, Shelby's skill at the starting line, known as the “Christmas tree” in drag racing parlance, has also been fine-tuned over time.

“She started out with reaction times of .120, but nowadays her reaction times are great,” says David. “She's cutting double-oh-twos, double-oh-fours, and she even had a perfect light—a triple zero—about a month ago. That's a perfect reaction time. As good as it gets.”

Shelby's dragster, the “Mystery Machine 2” is funded by David and Shelby's mom, Roxane Nelson. Shelby is thankful to her grandparents, David and Lee Shank, for their support. The shiny blue dragster is powered by a “Briggs and Stratton-style, four-stroke engine,” David says.

“It's the biggest, most powerful engine you can put on a Junior dragster,” he adds. “It generates about 80 horsepower.”

The “Mystery Machine 2” is cleverly decorated with images from various episodes of the Hanna-Barbera show “Scooby-Doo.” As Shelby describes the scenes depicted on the nose of the car—which she helped design—the cartoon-loving kid in her comes out for a moment.

“That's from 'What a Night for a Knight',” Shelby says. “I know my Scooby-Doo episodes.”

At Bristol, Shelby says she was nervous early on, but began to feel more confident about possibly winning after she made it into the third round. Two more wins had her in the fifth round.

“That's the round before the money round, which is called the quarterfinals,” David adds.

“When I got past the fifth round, I really started to get excited because I had beaten what I was usually able to do,” Shelby says. “For the final, I was in the car, staged up at the tree, and I was super nervous. I could feel my hands shaking.”

When her opponent red-lighting at the start—an automatic disqualification—Shelby knew she was about to win it all.

“I was, like, 'Oh my gosh!',” she says.

David, a life-long drag racing enthusiast, says he has always dreamed of holding aloft a Wally Parks trophy. The 12-pound statue, a likeness of the late founder of the NHRA, has been the most coveted award in drag racing since 1969. Winners traditionally hoist their “Wally” over their heads in celebration upon being presented with the trophy.

“A friend of mine won a Wally recently and I told him I just wanted to touch it,” says David. “I told Shelby that one day, we're going to have one of those. And now it has happened.”