Dreams rarely come to fruition overnight – and for some people, they never pan out.

Australian Shayne Stewart had almost reached the latter point as he pursued his goal of racing a Top Fuel dragster in the United States.

Then, a stroke of out-and-out luck changed his future. The dream that inspired him to uproot his family and immigrate to America is – at last – coming true.

Seven years ago, Stewart decided to move his family from Melbourne, a city of five million on Australia's southern coast, to Southern California. He had limited racing experience Down Under, having crewed on a Top Fuel dragster and the "Dark Horse" nitro Funny Car. He then built and drove a supercharged alcohol altered "only a few times" before constructing a front-engine dragster for Top Fuel competition. 

When the dream of racing in the United States was put into motion, the dragster was packed into a container and shipped across the Pacific to join Stewart, his wife Allison, and their son Dougie in Orange, California.

His dreams of driving a Top Fuel car came true last October at Famoso Dragstrip when he wheeled the Stewart & Sullivan entry at the 30th annual California Hot Rod Reunion. 

In just his second pass in competition, the Aussie laid down an impressive 5.854-second, 258-mph blast. With 15 cars on the grounds trying to make an eight-car field, Stewart qualified seventh.

Unfortunately, he could not compete in eliminations because the dragster couldn't be stopped.

"Winding up in the sand trap "was all on me," Stewart said. "It was supposed to be a planned 1,000-foot shut-off. I pulled into the beams, high side, visor down, and got the race face on. Amber comes down, and I let go of the brake, and I'm just hauling ass. It's a two-speed car, so I click it in top gear, and it felt like Doc and Marty in 'Back to the Future.' 

"I clicked it just before the stripe, and it blew the burst panel, so the car took off again. The parachutes didn't come out, so I grabbed some brake. It started bouncing, so I knew I would end up in the sand. But you know shit happens sometimes in drag racing."  

During his time in the States, Stewart has found a way to drive four types of race cars, from an A/Fuel Dragster to an A/Fuel Altered and a nitro-powered AA/Fuel Altered, before landing a Top Fuel ride.

But like with any dream, there were hardships. 

"My family dropped everything for me to pursue this," Stewart explained. "It cost me about sixty to seventy grand to move here from immigration and lawyers. I was probably only here six months, and I'm trying to rent a house and trying to get a job, and we came to within hundreds of dollars of pulling the pin and going home.

"I had buddies visit thinking, 'This is great – you're living in California.' We go to bars and strip clubs, and they're throwing hundred-dollar bills, and I want to get on stage and start taking my clothes off so they can give me money. I've got nothing left. I'm trying to build a Top Fuel car in America."

 

 

Not long after moving to the States, Stewart found a space to store his dragster in Orange County. Luckily, he would set up shop just four doors down from where the "Circuit Breaker" Top Fuel dragster, driven by 2020 NHRA Heritage Series champ Pete Wittenberg, was housed. 

Stewart began wrenching on that car, and he helped the team win the 2018 March Meet. In the finals, Wittenberg defeated front-engine Top Fuel standout Mendy Fry, who crossed the centerline in the final. 

Just days later, Stewart would get an unexpected opportunity by simply being in the right place at the right time. 

"I'm all gee'd up after the March Meet," Stewart said. "I post on Facebook, 'Does anyone have any fire bottles?'

"I'm looking at finishing some bracketry on my car, and I didn't want to buy new fire bottles before I ran and everything. Jeremy (Sullivan) just candidly reaches out on Facebook and says, 'Hey, I got some fire bottles you can borrow to do some mock-up.' Next thing you know, it's Saturday morning, and I'm over at his house, and I'm just in awe. I've aspired to be like guys like (father) Mike and (son) Jeremy Sullivan for years, and they're legends of the sport, and I got goosebumps meeting them."

"Jeremy was like, 'Have you ever sat in an Altered?' I'm like, 'No.' He says, 'How about you jump in and see how you fit?' 

"I'm thinking this is awesome. I get to sit in their car. I'm sitting there, and he pops his head over the cage, looks in, and says, 'You sort of fit better than I do – you want to drive it?' I'm like, 'What did I just hear?' I said, 'You're kidding me?' He says, 'No, I'm serious. You want to drive?' I'm like, 'Is this a trick? What's the joke here, man?'

"Then his wife walks in, and Jeremy's like, 'I'm trying to convince Shayne to drive the car.' I'm like, 'You're serious?' He says, 'Yeah.' I'm like, 'Hell, yeah! I'll drive this thing tomorrow!'

"And he goes, 'Well, OK, then, it's your job. You can drive.' I get the fire bottles in my car, and I'm driving home, and I call my wife, and all of a sudden, I start crying over the phone. I'm like, 'You wouldn't believe it. I've just gone to borrow some fire bottles from Jeremy, and he asked me to drive his car for him.'

"How did this just happen to me? I've had bad luck for 38 years, and this happened. I couldn't believe it. So then Monday morning comes, and I don't go to work, and I go straight to the medical center, and I get my medical for my license. By lunch, I got my medical done and my paper submitted to NHRA. That was just after the (2018) March Meet, and by June, we were testing." 

That set Stewart on a path to drive the Sullivans' A/Fuel Altered, and all went well until he tagged the wall at the season-ending California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California, that same year. To keep things rolling, the Sullivans opted to put their A/Fuel combination between the frame rails of Stewart's Australian-born dragster.

 

 

The switch proved to be a winning combination. One year later, Stewart would find redemption at Bakersfield after tagging the wall by winning the 2019 California Hot Rod Reunion in A/Fuel, toppling Wayne Ramay in the final round for his first victory. A few months later, Stewart helped wrench on the car that Ron Capps drove to the March Meet win in AA/Fuel Altered in 2020. 

Not long after Capps' victory, the Sullivans and Stewart made the call to move up to the kings of the sport, Top Fuel. 

"We won the (California) Hot Rod Reunion in 2019. Then we ran the May Meet – the 'Maybe Meet,' when they ran the March Meet in May (2021) – and that was a tricky situation because the track was there, and then it wasn't, and we didn't do so well. That's where the Top Fuel dream started after that," Stewart explained. 

"A/Fuel is fantastic. It's a great class," he continued. "You don't have a lot of motor, so you use a lot of gear, a lot of clutch weight, big tire. They're a handful to drive, and it teaches you a lot about driving. But after the Maybe Meet, Jeremy and I are debriefing … having a beer. I had some superchargers and fuel pumps for Nostalgia Top Fuel because that was my dream to come here and do. Jeremy candidly says, 'What do you think about running Top Fuel?' I was like, 'Hell, yeah! Let's do it.' 

"We loved A/Fuel at the time, but they were talking smaller fuel pumps on the car and making them more competitive to the blown alcohol cars. So when they started talking about putting smaller fuel pumps on the car, I'm like, 'Uh-uh, that's not going to happen for us.' I love going fast. I'll do anything I can to go faster. I don't want to go slower. So we just started talking about Top Fuel, and before you know it, the next week, we got two 6-71 (superchargers), a fuel pump, figuring out everything that we need, changing cranks, Jeremy is buying cylinder heads, and it just started from the fuel tank to the rear end gear and everything in between. We spent a year and a half preparing it to debut at the Hot Rod Reunion."

Despite that foray into the sand during qualifying at Bakersfield last October, the Stewart & Sullivan team is eager to return to Famoso March 2-5 for its official Top Fuel debut.

"For us to go out there with that test session and see that mile an hour, 258, and also see there's room for improvement, it really puts us in a good position for the March Meet," Stewart said. "That one pass taught us a lot about what we can do earlier (in the run), some we'll take away later. And for me, not being in a car for a year and a half, to drive again and get that experience, nothing can replace seat time. …  

"My happiest place in the world is when I pull that visor down, pull the high side (fuel pump) and wait for the amber and just let it rip," Stewart said. "You can't explain it until you do it. It may not be for everybody, but it's where I want to be. … You can put a blown Hemi on a broomstick, and I'll drive it."