Drag Illustrated Issue 118, February 2017 | Page 30

Dirt
Shelby Miles plans 2017 Top
Dragster campaign with
Pro Mod goals ahead
By Lisa Collier
S
he got settled into a Junior Drag-
ster at the ripe age of six, so it’s no
surprise that Shelby Miles has an un-
quenchable love of racing. She won two
IHRA Junior Dragster Bracket Finals champion-
ships before stepping into a full-sized car at 15.
Her father, co-owner of Carolina Dragway, eased
her into full-size cars in a Nova that he wisely set
up in the same structure as the dragster Shelby
hoped to move into before long. As she progressed,
it was clear that “slow” bracket racing
wasn’t going to be enough for Shelby.
Before she even aged completely out
of Juniors, she knew she was ready for
the fast bracket racing of Top Dragster.
“For my very last race in a Junior,
Dad promised me he would take me
to a PDRA race,” Shelby storied. “So we
planned to go to Virginia in 2015. Just
before that was the Rockingham race
where the bump in Top Dragster was
like a five-flat. So we decided to take
the Top Dragster to Virginia just to see
if we could get in. The bump ended up
being much faster and we didn’t make
the show, but we had a little 565 in
there and had Stevie Jackson and Phil
Shuler helping us and we got that thing
to go 4.30 that weekend. I had never
been anywhere near that fast before. That was
the start of it all, I guess you could say.”
“Stevie Fast” Jackson and Phil Shuler, both
friends of the Miles family, have been helping
on Shelby’s dragster ever since.
“After that we pretty much decided we wanted
to focus on competing in Top Dragster. So we
got a 632 and decided to run PDRA in 2016. We
took it as a learning year.
We got that motor to go
4.12. Racing with the best
of the best, we knew a 4.12
wasn’t really going to get
us in the show at every
race, and there’s no point
in traveling to all of them
if we’re not going to get in.
So we bought a 768 before
GALOT. That’s where we
locked in the grudge race
with Cody Moore.”
Despite the stress that accompanied the grudge
match hype and the continual problems they
encountered throughout the weekend, Shelby
told that, in the end “it all worked out. I still just
don’t know what to say. It went 4.06 in that run
[against Cody]. In first round Saturday it went
4.04, which is my quickest run so far.”
She’s been bitten by the bug, so to speak, and
there’s no turning back
for Shelby, who’s cur-
rently pursuing a Busi-
ness Administration
degree from the College
of Charleston, with fur-
ther plans to attend law
school. She’s looking to
purchase a blower motor
that will take her in the
three-second zone for TD
competition this year, but
ultimately, Shelby hopes
to get in a door car.
“My dragster is for sale.
We’re trying to get out of
dragsters and move into
Top Sportsman and get
my feet wet there before hopefully
moving into Pro Mod. My ultimate
dream is to race NHRA Pro Stock, but
I really wouldn’t complain about rac-
ing any class.”
Shelby and her younger sister, Mor-
gan, formed Miles Twins Racing to
help further their racing pursuits. They
are often mistaken for twins, despite
being three years apart. They’ve raced
together at Carolina Dragway and
across the nation for most of their
lives. Shelby confesses that her sister
is one of her biggest motivators, not
only in racing, but in life. “Morgan is my best
friend. We’re really close. Her looking up to me
is what pushes me. I know she’s watching me and
following in my footsteps. I don’t want to let her
down. She motivates me to be better.”
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30 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 118
Natural Evolution