Drag racing has, throughout history, been inarguably the most inclusive motorsport in the world; nevermind that it’s welcomed drivers of every color and ethnic background, but women in particular have been an integral part of the fabric of our sport since the earliest of years. It crowned its first female professional female world champion in 1977, and since that time, there are few things that females haven’t accomplished in the straight-line world — be it as team owners, as drivers, or as crew chiefs.

Despite remaining a male-dominated sport, these days you’re nearly as likely to find a woman in the other lane as you are a man, no matter the category. That, however, isn’t the case when it comes to the promotion side of drag racing, where few women have ever ventured. While some might see this as a last bastion of sexism in racing, we’d say it’s more a case of women being smart enough not to willingly subject themselves to playing zookeeper over a pit area full of typically very vocal and opinionated drag racers.

But Shannon Morgan, who has played a pivotal role in the development of the fledgling genre of no prep racing, insists that she simply isn’t like most women.

“I’m not a typical female. I can’t tell you the last time I went to a mall or went shopping. I’m not a girls girl. I race, I put on races, I’m an engine builders’ wife,” she says. “I honestly think it works to my advantage, because the guys respect me. I’m not just some woman, though … I know what I’m talking about when I talk, and I’m able to see things from several different perspectives, because I’ve been a racer, and a business owner, and a fan.

“I think I sometimes I get away with things with the guys that a guy wouldn’t, because I’m a woman,” Shannon adds.

Morgan, born in Arkansas “in a town with no stop lights,” shares that she was a certifiable tomboy growing up — she had little choice, though, as she didn’t gain a male sibling until the age of 11, thus playing the dual role of a pageant girl with her mother while doing more macho-type activities with her father. “I honestly preferred the tomboy side, and all of my friends at the time were guys — I had a couple of girlfriends, but most of my friends were guys. I liked to do guy things — go hunting, ride dirt bikes and three-wheelers (“we didn’t have four-wheelers back then … now I’m showing my age,” she quips). I was just kind of a guys’ girl, the same person that I am today, really,” she explains.

For Shannon, in a small town with no red lights and an affection for fast cars, it was simply natural progression that led her to street racing, despite no racing background existing in her family. During the summer months, she would stay with her grandparents in Dallas, where “the street racing scene was huge.” That involvement in street racing eventually led her to the track and ultimately, to a chance meeting with Bud Morgan, who would later become her husband.

Shannon and Bud have been together for 13 years, and their wedded union meant that cars and engines and getting her hands dirty were no longer just a lifestyle, but a living. The Morgan’s own and operate Morgan & Sons Racing Engines in Grand Prairie — a business that Bud’s father founded more than 30 years ago and where Bud has spent virtually every day since the age of seven honing his craft. Shannon, who can and has built engines, handles the business side of the operation, while Bud — with the help of only an occasional part-time parts washer — does all of the hands-on mechanical chores. “He was building complete engines at 12 years old,” Shannon says of Bud’s early years of working alongside his father.

For the Morgan’s, business is prosperous, and that’s certainly a good thing. It doesn’t come without sacrifice, though, as the pair work long hours late into the night — Shannon sat down to speak with us at well after 10 p.m., shortly after closing up the shop — and says she usually gets “about three or four hours of sleep a night, if I’m lucky.”

She admits that she and her husband are in fact polar opposite people — “I’m loud and outgoing and make decisions, solve the problems, and he’s quiet and reserved and never wants to be the center of attention or in the spotlight.” Working together 12-plus hours a day, can make for some butting-of-heads, so to speak, but also figures into Shannon’s extraverted prominence in racing, while Bud has “not an ounce” of involvement in her race promoting.

Years ago, Shannon became involved in overseeing what was known as the Texas King of the Hill series, which toured to places like Redline Raceway, Navasoto, Kennedale, and other tracks in the Lonestar State. Through that involvement, and to some extent via Morgan & Sons, she became good friends with the owners at Kennedale, who she would go on to produce a number of regular grudge and heads-up events for, including a number of 10.5W races (during the height of 10.5-inch tire racing in Texas). But it was a trip to Chicago with Chris “BoostedGT” Hamilton of Street Outlaws fame for a King of the Streets race — considered the original home of no prep racing — that provided her the inspiration to make this then-unheard-of form of drag racing her focus.

“I told Chris ‘this is the deal right here … this is the next big thing’. I came back and said ‘okay, we’re going to do this’ and I named it — we named it Redemption — and I said that within three years, I hope that we can move it to a big venue. I thought it would take three years to build a big following with it. I called Cindy [McMillan, President of Texas Raceway] — I’d already been to her track and it’s always worked and she lets me do anything crazy that I want to do and always supported it — and made it happen.”

Now, three years in and with the sixth edition of Redemption in preparation, Shannon says her event, one of the marquee no prep races in the nation, has outgrown Kennedale, just as she envisioned it would.

For Shannon, her unique position as a female director and promoter thrusts her into a role that’s not all that unlike being a mother (she and Bud have a 10-year old son, Cade), in that, while she rules her household — her races — with an iron fist, at the end of the day, she watches over her flock and cares about each and every one of her racers unconditionally. She can usually be heard wrapping up her pre-race drivers meetings with the saying “I don’t want to see any hero shit” … her call to action for drivers to use their heads and be safe, because more than anything, she doesn’t want to see the racers she knows on such a personal level, hurt. This motherly approach has earned her the nickname “the track mom” over the years, and it’s a title she wears proudly.

“My racers and I are family, and I treat them as such. I have racers that we don’t build motors for, they just come to my races and they support me and I support them, and they might post something controversial online and I’ll call and get onto them about the consequences of what they said, but I’ll also be the one calling to congratulate them for having a baby or something.

“We’re a family and that’s how I treat them. I say ‘my guys’ all the time, but it’s because I believe that. For example, I won’t race at tracks with guardrails, because I don’t want to see these guys get hurt.”

Because of her respect-first attitude, Shannon says she’s never been treated wrongly by a racer for no reason other than being female.

“There’s guys that don’t particularly care for me — it’s not that you hate each other, but people in the racing world just sometimes hold grudges or beefs for years just because you’re you and they’re them, but even those who don’t like me respect me, and I think a big part of that is because in all of these years, I’ve never, ever, once not done what I said I’d do or paid what I said I’d pay. And so, as long as the racers respect you and know that you’ll do what you say, they’ll race with you. I just try to treat everyone like family.”

“I truly love my guys. I know that sounds crazy, but I do, but I’m not afraid to smack them around if they get out of line. I take my races serious, and I don’t take any shit off of them, but that’s why they respect me, because they know I’m going to do what’s right.”

In addition to being a hard-working businesswoman, a compassionate but scrupulous race promoter, and a mother, Shannon is also highly knowledgeable about race cars and the business of racing and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. And as such, we’re proud to have her outspoken but invaluable voice a part of a No Prep racing Q&A roundtable coming in the next few weeks here on Dragzine, so stay tuned.