Travis Shumake was at a wedding in The Hamptons this past weekend.

In this tony setting on Long Island, the development officer for a New York City-based global non-profit organization stole some time from the festivities to find a quiet spot to talk about the 330-mph, 11,000-horsepower world he’s preparing to enter.

“I’m a secret race-car driver on the side,” he said, laughing.

The 36-year-old son of the late Funny Car fan favorite Tripp Shumake truly has had a secret – but no longer. He’s planning to make his NHRA debut at the Finals this fall – as the Camping World Drag Racing Series’ first openly gay driver.

“All the interactions I’m having with people within the sport are very positive. And I have to believe that it’s not just because people knew my dad. I’m sure there will be some hiccups along the way and people who are challenged by my sexuality. And I certainly don’t want to impose anything upon them,” he said.

“But I also do think it’s a really good thing for the sport. It brings a new conversation to the table and more eyes on the sport when the sport certainly could use some additional eyes,” Shumake said. He said he’s hoping to leverage his situation “to elevate the sport” in terms of ratings, attendance, the FOX-TV package, new fans, and additional corporate involvement.

“I’ve been planning this for a very long time. I was waiting to pull the trigger,” Shumake said. “As everyone would say, going through COVID helped me kind of realign my priorities, just allowed me to take this chance. For me, it’s always been Funny Car. That’s where I belong. I want this for my dad, and I want this for our sport. And I’m only getting older, so let’s try it.”

He said, “I do think it’s going to open additional doors for me but not just for me – for the sport. And that’s kind of the conversations I’m having with the NHRA,” Shumake said. “I’m not just going to take [another racer’s] sponsorship. Ideally, I’m going to be bringing in new money to the sport and new eyes that are interested in being a part of this first test of the waters in this area. Maybe it’ll hinder me within the sport, with existing sponsors, but as far as getting new dollars in, I think it’s going to be a great tool.

“Corporate support of the LGBTQ+ community should be represented on the racetrack, as well,” he said. “Bringing new fans and sponsors to the fastest growing motorsport in the world is a win-win for everyone involved. Someone will be the first. It’s only a matter of time. I certainly don’t want to exploit it, but it’s certainly something that will bring, I think, some new eyes and new dollars to the table,” he said. “I do think it’s a really good thing for the sport.”

He said “the assumed demographics” of NHRA drag racing “would be the challenging part.” The NHRA community skews conservative. But Shumake said, “I’m very confident about the percentage of the drag racing world that will accept me. And that will encourage me, if and when I have those challenges, kind of hopefully bringing people together. One of my bigger goals is to show people that this happened in drag racing and it’s the first sport to make it happen, at least in the modern era. I don’t want to just prove a point to the people in NHRA. I want an NHRA to be proving a point to other sports, like we have for decades.”

The NHRA is the runaway leader in diversity. Hispanics, African-Americans, and women have won not only races but multiple championships. NHRA women racers (in pro and sportsman levels combined) passed the 300-victory mark last year. Southeast Asians and Middle Easterners have raced and won.

Just knowing that so far as I’m going through this more and more, people are like, ‘This is great,’ you build you that confidence so that when I hit a negative crossroad or I’m net with resilience or someone says something to me in the starting line or in the pits, I’ll have that confidence. That’s kind of been built by that inner circle of folks who believe in me,” he said.

Still, he said, “It is absolutely terrifying. I lose so much sleep. I lose a lot of sleep right now. My sister calls me to calm me down often. She [says], ‘I feel like you might be stressing.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve just put myself out there real far. I’m a little out over my skis, and I can’t fall. Now. I’ve just got to lean into this and make this happen.’ But it’s that internal stress and pressure by this sort of becoming a thing pretty quickly. I’m just trying to stay on top of it and not back down,” Shumake said. “Oh my God, it’s terrifying. Like, wow, what have I gotten myself into? Oh my gosh. There’s so much pressure I’m putting on myself because now this is out there.”

Securing sponsorship always has been a challenge – for the experienced racer or newcomer to the sport, for the garden-variety racer or one with a marketing-niche edge, pre- or post-pandemic. But Shumake said, “I’m always shaking hands and asking for large checks” in his job. So he’s less fearful than most about the funding aspect of starting a racing career.

If he had to say his sponsorship-procurement chances will be harder or easier, he said, “I definitely think it’s the latter. None of this is going to be easy, so I’m certainly not trying to paint a rosy picture. But I do think that the sponsors that would engage with me are going to have a strong stance on this topic.

“I’ve always known this was going to happen,” Shumake said of his entry into drag racing. So he has considered the move from just about every angle.

“My mom says, ‘Usually every three to four years, Travis says he’s going to quit his job and become a race-car driver,” he said. “But the thing that really triggered it this year was I needed to get out of New York City and I had planned to go to a couple of different races, had booked my whole family a trip to Arizona for the Arizona race, which got canceled.”

The Thursday before the Gatornationals, he bought a plane ticket to Florida. “I’ve always been on the outside of the sport, watching, going to two or three events a year in person and just being Tripp Shumake’s son,” he said. But he has become friends with Amanda Busick through their New York connection and had known Todd Veney, the second-generation racer-turned FOX Sports producer. So he went to dinner with them and announcer Brian Lohnes, a new acquaintance.

“We were talking about my dad, and we started talking about diversity in the sport and how to bring more diversity. And I just said, ‘You know, I think with my relationships, I could get five drivers to put a small rainbow flag on the side of their car, like on the back spoiler during one race for Pride Month – or I could just become the first gay race-car driver.”

Still, Shumake was concerned. He remembered all the lovely things people told him about his father and mother (2018 Arizona Drag Racing Hall of Fame inductee Susie).

“One thing I’ve always heard from most people about my dad is that he and my mom were just the nicest people on the circuit, that my dad was always just so nice. And I just want to continue that, as well. That jovial spirit in the pits would be something I really want to continue and [have people say,] ‘You remind me of Tripp’ – and not just my big nose, but the way I act. But they’re not giving me a mulligan for being gay because my dad was great or whatever.”

Besides, he said, “There’s that fear of ‘What are people in this sport going to say?’ and ‘Am I going to ruin my father’s legacy?’ If this is what people remember of the Shumakes, are we going to muddy that water by me trying to do this and it being some sort of terrible pushback?

“And then these conversations were like, what are you talking about?” he said, reassured that he was heading in the right direction.

“There might be some pushback,” Shumake said, “but we’re not like we’re not as unwoke as people think. And if anything, this would be a great way to show that. It’s not like ‘We’re going to break down the barriers of getting into the sport.’ It’s that the sport is breaking down these barriers because ‘We accept Travis.’ And having that tone really helped me say, ‘All right – let’s do this. So by the time Tuesday after the Gatornationals had rolled around, I had already put my deposit on my super Comp license. Lana and Frank [Hawley] were helping me navigate the next step. So it was just this March that it was like, let’s just finally do this.”

Shumake earned his Nostalgia Funny Car license June 15 and is meeting with a prominent NHRA dealmaker this Friday to firm up some testing plans in pursuit of his Nitro Funny Car license. He hopes to have that in hand by the U.S. Nationals that takes place at Indianapolis Labor Day weekend. If not, he said he’ll test the Tuesday after the race, taking aim at his debut in November at the Finals.

“My dad won the race 40 years ago, and that would be kind of a cool experience to compete in my first start at the race that he won four decades ago. So that’s kind of my next steps, but ideally, these next three to four weeks are going to be pretty aggressive,” he said. “The month of July and even the last week of June are going to be pedal to the metal. After Friday, he said, “it’s really super-duper go-time.”

Shumake said he and his father “never had that conversation.”

At the time of Tripp Shumake’s passing, he was divorced and in a relationship with former Funny Car driver Paula Martin. Travis Shumake said, “She has told me that they had several conversations in my teen years about the topic. And he was very much aware, but we had never had that conversation. So I know he knows that but not from my mouth.”

Tripp Shumake was a man of faith, and so is Travis Shumake.

“My dad was very much kind of a pillar of the community at our church, along with my mother,” he said. “We were a very strong Southern Baptist family, and I stayed very much involved with my church until I was about 19. In fact, I was teaching eighth-grade Bible study in the summers between college years. Then I kind of distanced myself a little bit from the church as I became more openly gay. And by the time I went to college, I was openly gay. It was just not a big topic that we discussed with in our church crowd. But I was in Advocate Magazine. I’m on the cover of this gay magazine as ‘the future of gay America.’ So I had to say,’ Hey guys, I’m going to step away from Bible study.’ I chose to step away. I think it was just like ‘Let’s not make things uncomfortable. I’m sure this isn’t going to go over well. I don’t want to face that rejection. So I’m going to step away on my own terms’ – which is something I certainly regret. I mean, I miss having that. I feel like the last Shumake to leave North Phoenix Baptist Church was a tough thing to do, but it felt like the right choice at the time.”

Tripp Shumake didn’t live to see his son become a foster parent and an advocate for homeless gay teens through his work in Arizona with one•n•ten, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ youth ages 14-24.

“I used to run am LGBTQ homeless shelters. I was the director of fundraising for three years in Arizona, about it, a hundred bed, gay homeless shelter, just because there’s so many, so many teens that are disenfranchised from their families when they come out, especially in conservative Arizona,” Shumake said.

“I know my dad would be proud of me for breaking that barrier. Now is the time to show the world there is a place for gay competitors and fans in motorsports.

“It’s Pride Month, and I’m sure there are plenty of drivers out there who feel restrained to pursue their passion for motorsports because these waters haven’t been tested,” he said.

“There are current drivers, even in the sportsman ranks. I know a few. I affectionately call us the Gay Mafia. There’s about 10 people I know in the sport that are gay that haven’t taken the steps like I am taking, just because of that fear,” he said. “I think there are beyond more people that would be interested in getting into the sport, those being more comfortable being themselves within the sport – not trying to out anyone by saying that.

“There’ve been so many more gay people, but we don’t talk. I mean, they just don’t – no one talks about it. I think there’s a lot more, but there’s not a comfort level. I’m putting it out there, if anything, to make people more comfortable and kind of break down that wall for a second,” he said. “Maybe if, for some reason, someone is able to come out of the closet or enter the sport – gay, lesbian, transgender – because of my attempts at this, that would certainly be rewarding enough to me.

“The sportsman drivers I’m referencing have husbands,” he said. “I’m like, how do people not know you’re gay? ‘Like, we just don’t talk about it’. I’m like, ‘Wait, what? So I’m going to get all the credit, but you’ve been out here forever?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but do it, Bro, do it.’ I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll do it for you.’”

His buddy Devon Rouse, 22, a dirt-track sprint-car veteran from West Burlington, Iowa, is embarking on a similar journey. With a boost from Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis, Rouse is set to become the first openly gay Camping World Truck Series driver. Rouse tested in an ARCA Menards Series car and in a NASCAR truck entry, but his plans went on hold during the pandemic. Lemonis, who stepped up last year to sponsor the NHRA pro series, is sponsoring Rouse for the July 9 Truck Series event at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.

“My primary goal in this sport is to help teams, drivers, and sponsors knock down the doors that are in front of them,” Lemonis said when he made the announcement. “Devon has displayed a relentless pursuit of that.”

Rouse and Shumake encourage each other.

And Shumake said he his hoping that the positive feedback he has received from NHRA representatives so far “continues to be the narrative.”