Import racer, drift team owner and all-around racing innovator Shaun Carlson died on Oct. 4 of Brugada Syndrome, a genetic heart disorder. He was 35.
Carlson began his career as a journalist, writing and shooting pictures for
Mini Truckin' and
Turbo magazines. From there, he began building his own front-wheel-drive drag cars. One of his most innovative and influential designs was the yellow tube-frame Honda Civic that launched drag racer Steph Papadakis into the first of his many championships, including the first nine-second run for a front-wheel-drive car. His dark red Meguiar's Ford Focus drag car was as beautiful as it was fast.
The Focus was later rebodied as a Dodge SRT-4 and it started Carlson's long association with Mopar. Carlson even spent a season piloting a rear-wheel-drive Pro Stock Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing in NHRA's pro ranks. His latest role was owner of Team Mopar Formula Drift star Samuel Hubinette's Dodge Challenger.
Carlson was featured many times in
AutoWeek (“The Kids Are (Still) All Right,”
AW, June 18, 2001) as one of the leading proponents of a new form of motorsports often referred to as simply “the import scene.” We even speculated that the blonde Carlson and his friend and sometime rival, the shaved-headed Papadakis, were the models for the Paul Walker and Vin Diesel characters in the wildly successful
Fast and Furious movies. If you search YouTube, you can find a video of the nine-second run, with the ever-polite Papadakis, a full head of hair and mustache and goatee, being backed up into the bleach box by the then-pony-tailed Carlson. They look so young. They are still young.
A memorial will be held on Monday, Oct. 12 at Calvary Chapel Chino Valley, 12205 N. Pipeline Ave., Chino, CA 91710. Services begin at 1 p.m.
Racing Innovator Shaun Carlson (RIP)
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