Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson Nearing Completion of ‘Shadow 3.0’ Camaro, Plans to Debut at Lights Out 15
In the world of small tire and big tire door-car drag racing, it’s a solid chance that Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson has seen it, tuned it or driven it. After nearly a year away from the driver’s seat after time to heal from a neck injury, Stevie is ready to get back into racing in the unique way only he can.
News on Stevie’s racing efforts for 2024 were released just minutes ago on the popular ‘Shake and Bake Show’ that hits the Steve Jackson Racing YouTube channel twice a month on Tuesday nights.
Stevie is set to debut a brand-new race car, the ‘Shadow 3.0’, a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro that started as a Tommy Mauney chassis that has been finished and constructed by Ryan at RK Racecraft. With support from Motion Raceworks, Rife Sensors and TBM Brakes, Shadow 3.0 is scheduled to compete in the popular Radial Versus the World class at Duck X Productions’ Lights Out 15 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP) next month.
Sick the Mag is giving away a ‘71 Chevy dually pick-up, and we’re bringing it on Sick Week to be a part of Sick Ward! Click here to get all the details and check out bundles that maximize your chances to win!
The Shadow 3.0 looks to have all the ingredients to add even more noteworthy items to Stevie’s already detailed resume in the 2024 racing season. He’s already accomplished a lot, including 2 times as a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Mod World champion, a multi-time winner of the Duck X Productions ‘Lights Out’ and ‘No Mercy’ events held annually at SGMP, and has even scored a high-stakes grudge match victory for $140,000 at the ‘Stampede of Speed’ at Texas Motorplex in October 2021.
The story of the ‘Shadow’ for Stevie began when he was hired to drive the original Shadow, a Fox Mustang before the car even held the name. “When I started driving for Phil Shuler (a championship-winning NHRA Top Fuel crew chief), he owned what would become ‘Shadow 1.0’ when we started our partnership,” Stevie said. “At that time, I was brought in as a driver. We liked to name cars, and we had a team pow-wow about what to name it.”
“The car was really fast for the time, and one of our crew members Spider suggested Shadow, because it sneaks up on you. It fit the grudge racing scene perfectly, which is where I cut my teeth racing.”
When Stevie began his stint behind the wheel, the Shadow 1.0 Mustang was packing a nitrous combination. But the driver role gave way to a partnership with Phil, and the Mustang changed from a nitrous combo to a blower setup.
The Mustang scored many wins, both on the grudge scene and in class racing. But by the time it rolled into No Mercy 7 at SGMP in 2016, Shadow 1.0 had been sold and was due to be replaced by a new car. “We had started construction on ‘Shadow 2.0’ about a year earlier, and No Mercy 7 was to be the last race (for the original Shadow),” said Stevie.
What should’ve been a proper sendoff for the Shadow instead became the crash seen around the world. During a pass, the car became airborne, leading to a crash that totaled the storied ride. Although Stevie came out of the accident in relatively good condition, the effects of it were a big part of why Stevie stepped away from the driver seat in 2023. But more on that later.
The ‘Shadow 2.0’ debuted less than four months later, and it represented not only a joint effort ride between Stevie and Phil, but also “the flagship of KTR,” said Stevie. “We grudge raced the car a lot, we ran it on big tires, we ran it on radial tires, we ran it in NHRA (Pro Mod), pretty much anywhere there was money to chase that was that car’s mission was to go get money.”
The fifth-generation Camaro chassis participated in many racing avenues, even making the Pro Modified class qualified field for the prestigious NHRA US Nationals event (in the final number sixteen spot), then proceeded to upset four higher qualified cars and win a coveted US Nationals ‘Wally’ (the NHRA trophy).
“That was one of the biggest wins of my career,” said Stevie. “We were struggling, we barely qualified, and ended up not only winning the US Nationals, but then the St. Louis event right afterwards.” That vaulted Stevie to the fourth spot in the NHRA standings at the end of 2018, which “springboarded us to our 2019 national championship.”
Stevie would make it back-to-back NHRA championships as he repeated the title feat in 2020, and added a pair of top three finishes in 2021 and 2022 before making some big changes.
Even though Stevie has started to experience success on the national level, he’s adamant that the grudge racing and small tire racing is equally as important. “They wash each other hands,” Stevie admitted. “I could not have success in professional racing if it wasn’t for the grudge racing I’ve done, and I don’t think I would be as good of a grudge racer as I am without the professional side of it. What made us and keeps us dominant in grudge racing is the preparation in takes to prepare in a professional style setting that we brought to the grudge racing side.”
Stevie also attributes it to Phil Shuler and his approach. “When you professionally race in the Top Fuel category, your attention to detail has to be so great,” Stevie said. “Phil taught me that attention, and I applied it to my racing program. When we put it into racing, we had more spares in the trailer, and we tested more. So when we paired up with you in a grudge race, we were pretty sure we had you. There were times we lost, but we won a lot more than we lost.”
One of the biggest wins was a grudge race at the ‘Stampede of Speed’ at Texas Motorplex in October 2021, one of the final runs for Shadow 2.0.
Despite the hefty $140,000 on the line between all the betting, Stevie admits he was focused on the task at hand. “It’s easy to say this, but unless you really live your life this way, you’re just saying it and it doesn’t mean anything: I never given two shits about money in my life,” he said. “I’ve never been motivated by money, and I’ve never let money sway any passion-based decision in my life.”
“When you talk about this race for all that money, I don’t give a shit about it in the moment. I’ve always approached driving that if I just beat whoever is in the other lane, I’ll get some money; the money will come, the wins will come, and opportunities will come. That why I focus on winning. The car doesn’t know if it’s on a test pass on a Thursday night or the US Nationals final round in Indy.”
With the Shadow 2.0 sold at the end of 2021, Stevie started to reflect and make plans going forward, even though he was committed to running a full season of Pro Modified on the NHRA circuit. “Once we sold Shadow 2.0, I felt like there was a hole not only in me but in the company; we didn’t have a flagship,” said Stevie.
That in turn triggered the third version of the Shadow, and Stevie wanted the reins. “I decided I wanted to own a race car again; I hadn’t owned one since 2011.” Shadow 3.0 began as a project in March of 2022. “It’s taken a long time to bring this to fruition because I cut no corners on this car. When you approach it like that, when you’re not rushed to make a race, it can take more time.”
While Shadow 3.0 started to take shape, Stevie competed in his final season of Pro Mod in 2022, then decided to address some overdue medical issues, including neck surgery. “Crashing Shadow 1.0 ended up being a big part of why I took most of 2023 off with my neck,” he said.
So Stevie focused on tuning cars, something he has been doing with great success for nearly as long as he’s been driving. “Two years ago, I might have told you I was tired of driving and wanted to tune cars,” said Stevie. “But when you have the kind of neck injury I had, and you have to take a year off from driving and you just tune, and we just got our ass kicked in 2023. Then you’re like ‘tuning sucks’; I don’t want to tune anymore, and I want to get back in the seat.”
Now with the choice of tuning and driving available once again, you’ll continue to see Stevie doing both. “I’ll always love standing on the starting line and watching the product of my experience go out and do work on the race track. But at the same time, I was put on this earth to race cars.”
Stevie was given medical clearance to get back behind the wheel in August of 2023, and he was back in the seat nearly as soon as he got his doctor’s note. “I was nervous I wasn’t going to be able to do it,” he admitted. “But I climbed in that thing, did that first burnout and I ripped it off. I burned tires all the way to the eighth-mile just to prove I could still do it.”
He might not have gotten the results he wanted in the second half of 2023, but that first step was what Stevie needed. “We just went right back into the pond.”
With a renewed desire to be back behind the wheel, the new Shadow 3.0 is Stevie’s vision of a “pretty special race car,” he said. “I’ve said that race cars built properly is your perfect version of yourself. It’s built as if you could fix every flaw that you have.”
Why did Stevie pick the ’68 model versus the more popular ’69 model Camaro? “My second car was a ’67 Camaro that my dad used to own,” Stevie admitted. “As a kid I always thought the 1967-68 Camaro was the most beautiful thing. So when we decided to build this one, there was no other option.”
When it came to choosing what would power the new Camaro, a trademark ‘Stevie Fast’ statement was issued. “Shadow 3.0 will only ever have the man’s power adder, the only power adder in the world that should be allowed in race cars: a screw or a roots-blown supercharger,” he said. “We will switch between the two depending on who needs to get crushed, but the car is built to only have a supercharger.”
However, that’s where Stevie stopped on the engine details. “There are no details I will release on the engine other than it’s a custom KTR-built billet HEMI racing engine. I didn’t build this car to adhere to any sanctioning body’s idea of what a race car should be. All I can tell you is you don’t want to be in the other lane when I crank this up.”
As mentioned earlier, Shadow 3.0 will carry the colors of Motion Raceworks, Rife Sensors and TBM Brakes, and Doug Cook classifies this as a ‘win-win’ for both parties. “Stevie is one of the main reasons I love watching small tire and outlaw racing, because I grew up watching him race,” Doug said. “Motion Raceworks has more products now that are applicable all the way up to a car like Stevie’s, and we’ve even built a few unique products for his new car.
“He is incorporating a lot of Motion Raceworks parts, a bunch of Rife Sensors, and even a set of TBM Brakes carbon fiber brakes on this Camaro. Working with Stevie is more than just a name on the side of his car. He’s helping us bring new products to the market, and if the parts survive his usage, we know they are tested tough for our customers.”
“My goal is to have Shadow 3.0 on the race track the first or second week of February for preliminary testing to enter my hat into competition at Lights Out 15,” Stevie continued. “I have missed radial tire racing since I left it. Radial Versus the World class has gotten soft, and we’re going to come back and whip that class back into shape. It is my intention to compete for a Radial Versus the World class championship, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than that.”
Stevie also plans to have the new Shadow in attendance at the World Street Nationals at Orlando Speed World Dragway, the Snowbird Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park, and Stevie hasn’t ruled out even making an appearance at a Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) event as well.
“The biggest thing I want fans to know is I’ve taken time to get KTR expanded,” said Stevie. “Fans have asked ‘where has Stevie Fast been’ and they’re going to see a lot more of me in that form this year. I miss hanging with the fans, I love the fans, and they keep me motivated.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Media courtesy of Steve Jackson Racing, 1320 Video and Drag Illustrated.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com