Did anyone read this article - I thought it was great!
Shirley Shahans son was the Crew Chief on Louis Sweets Funny car and a couple of his brothers were on the Crew. Very nice bunch of people. I believe they live in Tulare now
The DRAGSTER Insider
Second article down

Great article. But I have a problem with this part:

"... will be astride a white horse, a Mustang in this case. That will be the day, of course, that Ashley Force makes history as the first female driver to win in the near-40-year history of NHRA Funny Car racing.”

Seems to me that Melanie Troxel might have something to say about it being a fore gone conclusion that Ashley will be the first woman to win in Funny Car.

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Greg Stanley
2007 NorCal Top Comp Champion

Good point! And I kinda got a feeling that Melanie will use that as some positive energy to really go after that first win in FC. Nothing against Ashley, but she's not the only one with a chance to be "the first". In fact, I'll probably be attacked by the legions of pro- Force fans, but I'm betting on Melanie for the first win by a female in a Funny Car....just for the sake of argument...

I don't know... Ash has got a season under her belt, the tune up has obviously come around and her confidence is running sky high. The same can't be said of Mel, although a great shoe, the time it's taking for her to gel in the flopper may run out of runway for getting that first "W" when Ms. Force seems to be on the hot path to take that honor...

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There are only two sons born to HL & Shirley Shahan, Bob & Stevie.
Bobby is currently driving his moms car with HL, Stevie owns a T-shirt graphix store in Tulare. Bobby worked on Ed McColluch's Super Shops Funny Car.

Good points, Martin--and I must admit much of the previous post falls in the "hope" category--with Melanie being a child of Div. 5, and having several opportunities to visit with her as she progressed from a valued helper on her Dad's car to a great sportsman driver in her own right, she stayed the same grounded Melanie who never forgot her roots. (Did you happen to notice that she chose a Div 5 number for her funny car?) But although I give the nod to Melanie in the driving category, I would be remiss to not acknowledge the superior effort behind Ashley. Anyhow, a win by either of these fine ambassadors to the sport would be way cool!

Well, they better hurry up and get Melanie's ride sorted out, Ashley's running full steam ahead for that title!

That would be awesome if one of them wins it in a Final against the other!

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Right Bob was the crew chief and Stevie crewed, gave us clutch glove one time. Do you know where louis is