It was quite the homecoming for Travis Shumake. The gay drag racer made his Top Fuel debut over the weekend in his hometown of Phoenix, where he learned to love the sport from his father, Tripp, a drag-racing legend himself.
Up until four years ago, Shumake stayed away from racing. His father’s sudden passing, which coincided with his journey of self-discovery, propelled him to think about exploring other paths in life. Shumake packed his bags, and headed east to New York City.
Then he found himself locked down, with nothing but free time on his hands. That’s when he had an epiphany: he was going to return to the family sport, but not just as a driver.
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He was going to own his own team.
“It was a quarantine dream,” Shumake told FOX 10 Phoenix. “I was sitting at home in New York City, I decided to put pen to paper and figure out a path to not only driving in the sport but owning a race team. Three years later, it’s my debut race here at Firebird.”
Shumake competed in the National Hot Rod Association Arizona Nationals, which were held at Firebird Motorsports Park in Chandler, about 18 miles southwest of Phoenix. Top Fuel is the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing in the world, with dragsters sitting behind the wheels of the quickest accelerating racing cars produced.
For Shumake, the need for speed comes naturally. He raced in front of sold-out crowds all weekend long.
“This is a childhood dream come true,” he told Drag Illustrated. “You wonder as a kid, what it would be like to drive down the return road in your firesuit and have people yelling your name. Those are those cool, cheesy moments that choke you up.”
Heading into the weekend, Shumake felt the love from his home city. Most of his sponsors for the race were Arizona institutions, including the Lerner and Rowe Law Group, which put up more than 100 “Good Luck Travis” billboards across the state.
A couple of weeks back, Shumake also threw out the first pitch at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ first home game of the season. It was a special moment, especially considering the Diamondbacks are coming off their first World Series appearance since 2001.
“That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “My goal is to bring new eyes and new dollars to our sport. So when someone says they saw my face on a Lerner and Rowe billboard on the highway and decided to come check out the races, it’s mission accomplished baby!”
Shumake has been looking to broaden drag race’s appeal since he decided to get back behind the wheel in 2020. Though Shumake is far from the only out auto racer–there are many others, including Devin Rouse and Zach Herron–he’s the first out gay driver to compete in a national event on the NHRA circuit.
And he has the sponsors to match. When he made his NHRA debut in 2022 at the Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas, his ride featured a sweet rainbow buffalo.
The three-day event coincided with Kansas’ first statewide LGBTQ+ festival, which was perfect for Shumake. Pride Kansas sponsored his foray into the drag racing world, as well as Grindr.
That’s right… Grindr!
“I’m bringing in new people,” he told me in an interview at the time. “That’s great for revenue, getting new sponsors in the sport. Every sponsor I have has never been in drag racing, I think that’s important.”
As expected, Shumake’s efforts aren’t universally appreciated. At the aforementioned race in Kansas, he was protested by the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members held up signs that said “Travis is going to hell.”
If that’s the case, at least he’s heading there in his own way.
“Those are the people I want to bring to the sport. I’m not apologizing for this,” he said. “I’m trying to only partner with folks who can be unapologetically rainbow parachuted. But I get a lot of eye rolls.”
If anything, he says the incident only made him and his teammates closer
“I think it brought the team closer together and gave my competitors an opportunity to reach out and let me know that they’re on ‘Team Travis,'” Shumake said. “So sometimes those negatives become a positive because you realize who your friends are.”
Since his debut in Kansas, Shumake has become an ambassador for the sport. He’s been invited to the White House, appeared at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner, met Bill Clinton and visited with Arizona governor Katie Hobbs.
Never content, Shumake is still breaking barriers. His crew chief, Gerda Joon, is the only female chief in Top Fuel.
“NHRA has been a leader in diversity and motorsports for decades,” he said. “If anything, I’m just the icing on diversity cake here in motorsports.”
As far as the race itself, Shumake improved each day, and wound up facing four-time Top Fuel world champion and No. 1 qualifier Steve Torrence in the first round of eliminations Sunday morning.
While Shumake lost the contest, the moment was still sweet.
“Having my friends, family and community here to see what I’ve been building over the past three years was really special,” he said. “You think no one notices how much it takes to build a race team and the time you’ve put into making this happen. The years of work and attention to detail paid off this weekend.”
We’re officially on Team Travis, and ready for wherever his ride may take us next!
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dbmcvey
Very cool! Seems like a really good person.
In addition to being very handsome!
Openminded
The Grindr race suit just makes me giggle a bit.
abfab
Another waste of petrol.
DeeAnnCA
It appears that some education is in order.
The cars burn nitromethane. The limit is 90% and the rest is alcohol.
Major League Baseball has 30 teams, so a round would be 15 games. It is a 162 game regular season. That means that in a regular season, there would be 2,430 games. At 10,000 spectators per game (low, but for the sake of argument) that means 24,300,000 spectators per season.
Do you think they all walked to the stadiums? No, they drove cars, took public transportation or took taxis. In order to say “waste of petrol” you would also have to consider transportation.
ridgelineranger
Thank you DeeAnnCA, this is why I like replies from intelligent people!
abfab
Breath it in, kids. Inhale those fumes and celebrate! Smells good while teaching responsible/safe driving skills. Tme for more research, Dee.
Racing and Global Warming. Think about that.
The emissions from NASCAR races quickly pile up.
When you see a car doing dozens of laps at close to 200 mph (322 kph), it becomes pretty obvious that aside from the internal-combustion thing going on under the hood, a race car has little in common with the cars we drive to work. But there are more differences than meet the eye.
abfab
In a single typical NASCAR race weekend, with more than 40 cars at high speeds for 500 miles (804 kilometers) — plus practice laps — at 5 mpg of gas, you’re looking at, conservatively, about 6,000 gallons (22,712 liters) of fuel [source: Finney]. Each gallon burned emits about 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of carbon dioxide, so that’s about 120,000 pounds (54,431 kilograms) of CO2 for a race weekend [source: FuelEconomy]. Multiply that by roughly 35 races per year, and NASCAR’s annual carbon footprint is in the area of 4 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms).
abfab
First, all that power means the gas in the tank doesn’t go far. While many commuters grumble if their car gets less than 20 miles per gallon fuel efficiency, and some cars out there get 50 mpg, 5 miles per gallon is standard for a NASCAR car. Also, the devices that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated on normal cars to keep emissions to a safe level, like catalytic converters, are not built into race cars. NASCAR race cars are only regulated by NASCAR
And now we can discuss monster truck shows for the great unwashed and republican white trash.