Page 30 - Jan 2019 IWMA Nation News interactive magazine

Being a Mom Comes First for Michelle Shepherd-Heath
Michelle Shepherd-Heath has always had four wheelers, even three wheelers, when they had a 350hp engine in it. She started racing years ago, but did not get her first drag car until three years ago and she hasn’t looked back since.
Her father had a beautiful 1956 cherry red pickup, that as a child, she would “help” him work on. Through- out the years she had always dabbled in working on anything she could get her hands on.
Her most memorable racing experience was definitely breaking into the 10 second category on Drag Week 2018. Luckily Street Machine captured it on video for her...Pure joy!
Her marketing partner is Pinna- cle Performance. Her father, who used to street race in OKC in the 1960’s in his 1956 Ford truck, inspired Michelle to start racing.
Her best finish is 10.73 at Mo- pars at the Park Tulsa, OK. She races at Tulsa Raceway Park for the most part but her car has been driven and raced at over 13 tracks all over the United States.
Michelle drives a 1971 Plym- outh Duster in the ProStreet NA class. At her track there are not many women
racers; they are few and far be- tween.
She is hoping to be one second faster every year until she runs out of money to go any faster! Her favorite part of racing are the people and the pure adrenaline you get from do- ing a burnout and shifting gears.
She lets drag week choose her number each year and is cur-
rently #62D. Being a
mom comes first
and foremost for
Michelle. She is
the mother to the
most wonderful blessing, Grace, who is a heart surgery survivor at just 10 days old. She is married to a man that sup- ports her racing in all aspects. He is her biggest fan. They live on a small tract
of land in Collinsville, OK, where they have a two bay shop but they do most of their work on the gravel in the driveway for some reason. Tulsa Raceway is their home track where they do the bulk of their racing.
They are die hard Drag Week at- tendees and have survived two years on her current set up.
She works for an amazing and very understanding company that is al- ways cheering her on. “I have been in the construction business my whole life and growing up my father was a contrac- tor. When I am not racing I am spend- ing time with my husband and daughter dreaming up new ways to go faster!” she said.
As a little girl she played with dumptrucks, always trying to help her dad outside. “My dad was a contractor so I played with nails and boards which now doesn’t sound cool, but I was al- ways building things.” she shared.
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