As he prepares for his debut in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Top Fuel pilot and team owner Travis Shumake announced today that Gerda Joon is coming on board to serve as the crew chief of his 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster. Joon will have the distinction of being the only active female crew chief in the Top Fuel category.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joon brings almost 20 years of drag racing experience to the Shumake Racing team. Previously, she served as an integral crew member for her husband, Lex, in Europe and the U.S. In 2019, after receiving guidance from renowned crew chiefs including Rob Flynn and Lance Larson, Joon became the crew chief on her husband\u2019s Top Fuel dragster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI bet you didn\u2019t see this one coming,\u201d Shumake laughed. \u201cWhen Rob Flynn made the suggestion last fall I was immediately intrigued. I\u2019m a stone-cold weirdo, and adding Gerda and Lex to the pack makes sense on so many levels. Gerda and Lex know how to run on a tight budget. Running under the Scrapper\u2019s umbrella, we built this car to mirror Mike and Jasmine\u2019s but on a drastically different budget. Gerda and Lex remind me daily that my champagne taste doesn\u2019t fit in our beer budget.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Netherlands native, Joon moved to the U.S. with her husband after experiencing great success in Europe competing in the FIA Top Fuel class. Since then, Gerda has quickly begun blazing trails and making a name for herself in the male-dominated Top Fuel pits. Her husband will serve as car chief and driving mentor for Shumake.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis\u2019s enthusiasm is infectious,\u201d said Joon. \u201cHe is one of the best new characters in our sport. With Lex running the crew and Scrappers sharing data and resources, our on-track performance should put Travis in the hunt for this year\u2019s Rookie of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The son of late NHRA Funny Car champion and Arizona Drag Racing Hall Of Fame members Tripp and Susie Shumake, Travis will make his Top Fuel debut at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler, Ariz., just outside of Phoenix, April 5-7 at Firebird Motorsports Park. An Arizona native, he\u2019ll be announcing a standout group of sponsors and multiple appearances in his hometown leading up to the race.<\/p>\n
The post An Unexpected Winning Formula: Travis Shumake Taps Gerda Joon As Crew Chief For NHRA Top Fuel Team<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As he prepares for his debut in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Top Fuel pilot and team owner Travis Shumake announced today that Gerda Joon is coming on board to serve as the crew chief of his 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster. Joon will have the distinction of being the only active female crew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}