As I said in my "Top Fuel Handbook," think of all the great female athletes, "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Joyner Kersee, or Annika Sorenstam, all remarkably gifted, yet all their conquests came against other women. Nothing wrong with that, but in a wacko political climate where women's liberation has been distorted to mean "chicks who want to be or beat guys", Shirley fed it back to them steaming hot on the end of a fork. Okay, we'll play it your way, I'll whip that ass and take that world crown. Because of this, to me she is one of the significant half-dozen female athletes of the last century, bar none.

As said earlier, her fame came with a cost, a price that no one else was forced to meet. Anyone who's been around drag racing knows that in the beginning the lady from New York (originally) had to take an awful lot of s***. Promoters underpaying her or jerking her around on the rules, some racers asking her if she knew why they called the drivers seat the cockpit and other moronic stunts. It toughened her hide to say the least. She was always cordial, but if she was pissed, she didn't mince words. Her "no's" didn't mean "yes." You always knew what time it was with Shirley.

There are times during my writing career where I heard that she had said this or done that, and I would wince. I would mutter to myself that if this were true, I'd have said or done it differently. But I was cognizant that I wasn't living in her controversial shoes, and because of that, I was more understanding.

And by the same token, if she was happy with something that was written or done, she'd be the first person to pull your coat and say "thanks."

Lemme give you a parallel example. I don't care what any veteran sportswriter tells you, in the beginning of his career, Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, was hated by the white press. Now I'm not trying to start something here or stoke up old embers, I'm just saying what the situation was. I'm a fight fan; I saw it myself. Save for, believe it or not, the late Howard Cosell, very few journalists wanted to have anything to do with a guy they saw as a draft-dodging "uppity n*****." Notice how that's all changed now. Everybody's lovey dovey and I think that's great, but to characterize the relationship between Ali and the sports establishment as this way for all time is, in a word, bulls***.

In certain respects, Shirley's career was a little like that. Women in race cars in the early 1970s were like "coloreds" in white restaurants, and the person that leads the way or plays a vanguard role in a scenario like that, takes some real body shots and if they survive them, they come up twice as strong and tough.

The early days of her career as a Funny Car and Top Fuel driver turned that toughness into unbelievable driving skill. When she was on her game, she could drive with anybody. And competitive? Only Garlits was or is as competitive as Shirley. She was remarkably focused, cat-like quick, and had an unreal feel for where the race was at all times. To look at her record shows this beyond the shadow of a doubt. (See below).

Well, it's all come down to this. At the World Finals, she will don her firesuit one more time and I, for one, am very sorry to see her go. Oh, I'm sure there were times that she might have been miffed at something I wrote (I've been doing this since 1975 and I don't always please everyone), but screw that. Frankly, if you don't get the stars or the athletes bent at you once or twice, you're probably not doing your job as a writer.

In closing, let me say that Shirley will always be a member of a club that embraces nearly all activity, but has only a few members. Soon to be retired and maybe one day sitting in a room full of friends, or listening to a radio play a favorite song, she with no small amount of satisfaction can truthfully say to herself or others, without fear of contradiction, that at one time she was the very best in the world at what she did.

Precious few of us can make that claim. And making Shirley's case even more rare and remarkable in this competitive arena, one also can add "regardless of sex."

Photo by Tim Marshall