It was the highest of highs and some interesting lows for Stevie Fast, Phil Shuler, and the rest of the Shadow 2.0 team during Lights Out 8 last weekend. They were running a car that was virtually brand new and made killer progress making it faster and faster through the weekend. They reset the world record for an elapsed time on a drag radial tire on the 11th pass the car ever made. They also had a minor crash that boiled into some controversy after the fact and that’s what the video and statement are about below.
So what you are going to see is the incident that Jackson had in the 3rd round of eliminations at Lights Out 8. Basically the short story is that somehow the parachute release cable was bent in the staging lanes by some means. When Stevie went to throw the parachutes he had nothing. He gave it a little brake but the carbon fiber stoppers on these things locked up the front tires and it nerfed the wall. From the tower we could not tell what the deal was but then word came back that they were going to get the car off the track and scale it which was important because it meant that they would try for the next round.
At the scales there was some yelling and shouting between people who thought that he should quit and those that disagreed. With $50,000 on the line, guys are willing to thrash like mad to get the job done. The car was looked over by the track owner at SGMP and it was determined by him that it would be OK to run it in the next round. The mad thrash took place and the car showed up where it ultimately smoked the tires and was eliminated.
It all starts right here.
Watch the video and then check out the statement from Stevie Fast below –
I want to thank everyone for coming out to support us at Lights Out 8. The debut of the Shadow was a success. We went to the semis, and set the world record. I truly appreciate and love all of you fans. Getting to talk to all of you and hang out with y’all at the racetrack is the most fun I have , doing what I do.
As for the crash, someone bent my chute cable at the back of the car before the 3rd round run and I the couldn’t deploy the chutes. The damage to the car is minor, and it will repaired in the coming days.
As for all of you haters and low life pieces of garbage that caused such a spectacle because I scaled my car after I won the round.
I never quit until it’s over. NEVER! I never have one time. And I’m not going to start now. If I didn’t think I could fix that car and be back in the lanes, I never would have scaled it. We were the first Radial vs The World car back in the lanes the next round. Chances are, that if question my competitive drive and ambition in Drag Racing, you probably either just got born. Or are just plain stupid. You find out people’s true character in times like that. I want all y’all ass clowns to get together and form a team so that I can smash y’all into the ground.
Thanks to everyone that poured themselves into fixing our car between rounds. I owe you all and I never forget. This is going to be a hell of a year. And I’m just getting started.
Me and the boys are leaving for Bahrain in two hours to do a little International Crab Gapping.
Stay Tuned.
It is sad that someone would be so petty as to do something that would endanger someone elses life over a drag race. I understand being fans of people and not liking others, but to do something like tamper with safety equipment that could lead to a possible fatality is going WAY over the line. I wish they could find the culprit and take care of him (in whatever way Shuler sees fit.)
Otherwise, it was a great weekend for Stevie Jackson up to the crash and smoking the tires the next round. Expect larger things from them over the next year. The guy is just a great driver and the kind of character that drag racing needs.
If I ever saw someone doing that, I’d do something to them that I probably can’t write in here. Ive always been scared of exactly this with our Top Sportsman car. Im always watching to make sure nobody walks behind it and gets caught on one of the chutes, or even reaches out to touch one.
Apparently there was enough of the chute cable poking out that the vibe I picked up there was that the damage was accidental – somebody bumping into it, rather than anything malicious. If it had been intentional and somebody specific got blamed for it, I doubt he’d be alive long enough for the cops to rescue him (and yes, I mean the off duty cops who were right there).
My first reaction is, “I can’t believe this is the second time in a row I’ve watched Stevie Fast crash his Shadow, at a Duck X event, while I’m watching from a scissor lift.”
Recommendation….Stop going up in the scissor lift when Stevie is about to run….LOL
I know what your talking about. Sometime around 1990, I saw force burn his car to ground at brainerd and then saw him on fire multiple times at indy a few weeks later. This may have been his first championship year or the year Larson won it all. To bring it full circle, Stevie said force was his drag racing hero in a pdra interview. Hopefully, nhra won’t suspended his competition license like they did payne. I can think of 3 accidents in the last year or so.
NHRA competition license may be suspended or revoked if it was determined that reckless driver error was the definitive cause of an on track incident.
50k or not, a true competitor would scale and fight to come back. When helping my friend race there were complete thrash between rounds, at times knowing we would not win the next one. But he wanted to race and I wanted to work on stuff, so we got shit done. Racers do not give up, hobbyists give up.
just became a big fan of Stevie Jackson. great racer and cant wait to see him in nhra pro mod, i be rooting for him.
I really believe he is the modern day equivalent of the ‘run what you brung’ era