​Shawn Reed was destined to drive a Top Fuel dragster at the highest level. He grew up in the great northwest neighboring the famed Pacific Raceways. The successful contractor started Reed Trucking & Excavating in 1998 with a $100 bill. After driving a dump truck for three years near Seattle, Reed bought his own truck and trailer to haul dirt and gravel and he has grown that business into a small fleet of trucks. Even before his career took off, he was attracted to speed and horsepower at a young age and as soon as he could balance work and racing, he began competitively racing drag boats.

 

“I like to compete, and I like to go up against the people I can’t beat,” said Reed. “I was a five-foot three-inch 90-pound running back in ninth grade and I used to get leveled. As soon I got hit, I would get back up and get after it again. That is my attitude with racing I am going to keeping working and coming after you until I win.”

 

“I was about 40 when I started racing boats and I had a little jet boat that had had for a long time and I went with some buddies to Dexter, Oregon,” said Reed. “I strapped a helmet on and raced a couple races and I was hooked. I ended up buying a Pro Mod boat and it was cool with a capsule and I ran that the rest of my boat racing career.”

 

In 2005 he started his professional drag boat career, and the championships began rolling with back-to-back titles 2007-08 and again in 2010, 2012-13 and 2017-18. He also dominated the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series winning championships from 2010-2018, never finishing lower than second place. 

 

Reed made the jump from water to land in 2014 when he earned his NHRA Top Fuel license at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. He made his Top Fuel debut at the famed NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville in 2015 and three years later advanced to the final round of the 2018 Gainesville event.

 

“The way the drag racing thing started was wild. I had never seen a Christmas Tree on a drag strip before I went to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. I was a student in December of 2014 and two and a half months later I am racing the Gatornationals in Barry Paton’s Top Fuel dragster,” added Reed.

 

Since 2015 Reed has raced in nearly 40 NHRA national events with his most recent efforts coming at the first two races of the 2020 season. He has been a constant threat to win races posting career best numbers during the 2019 season, a 3.709-second pass at the Nevada Nationals and career fastest speed, 329.50 mph at his home track Pacific Raceways during the Northwest Nationals.

 

In 2024 with veteran crew chief Rob Wendland calling the tuning shots along with assistant crew chief Ryan Elliott, Reed expects to be even quicker and faster.