Shirley was a highly successful, fiercely competitive stock car drag racer who went by the name of Drag-On-Lady. She even had a dragon painted on her crash helmet, albeit a rather cute one. She is now 84 years old and it’s been 50 years since she hung up her helmet. I couldn’t believe that she was a dragon as, in all the photos I had seen of her, she looked lovely − a smiling, stylishly dressed, petite blonde. You certainly wouldn’t have thought of her as someone capable of racing brutish, powerful muscle cars. Well, I was pleased to discover when I spoke with her that she was friendly, sharp, informative, extremely modest and had a good sense of humour. After a life in the fast lane she said: “I am now slowing down a bit.”
Shirley was born in the small town of Visalia, California, in June 1938, and was the eldest of four children. Her father, Jack Epperson, was a roofer and builder and her mum, Beatrice, looked after them all. The family later moved to nearby Tulare. In his spare time Jack was into jalopy racing, which was racing modified old stock cars on dirt ovals. Shirley told me: “We lived in an old, old house and out the back there was a garage with a dirt floor where Dad worked on his cars. I was six years older than my brother so I was the one that always helped him out. If he needed a wrench or a certain part, I was
