Dirt
Stock Eliminator’s Randi Lyn
Shipp talks about traveling
the NHRA circuit alongside
Pro Stock Fiance Bo Butner
By Sadie Floyd
A
s one of the most marketable
un-marketed faces in NHRA sportsman racing, Randi Lyn Shipp is having the time of her life racing her 1967
Pontiac Firebird in Stock Eliminator while she
helps her fiancé Bo Butner in Pro Stock.
Like any racer, Shipp was introduced to racing through her family. Shipp began racing at
the age of eight but it wasn’t
without convincing. Shipp remembers dueling her dad when
she was six behind the wheel
of a go-kart and her dad on
his lawn mower. In the heat of
the battle, Shipp hit a tree and
that was that. Understandably,
when her dad brought home
a Jr. Dragster a year later, she
wanted nothing to do with it.
“My dad used to go racing
with Bob Glidden when I was a
kid so when Jr. Dragsters came
out and Billy [Bob’s son] had
one, he wanted one for me so
badly,” laughs Shipp. “When he
first bought me one, I really had
nothing to do with it because I had just crashed
my go-kart into a tree at the house.”
Shipp eventually gave in and decided to race
her Jr. Dragster with her dad at Indy once she
turned eight.
“I went to Indianapolis for their first race and
I think there was 13 or 14 Jr. Dragsters there for
the race,” Shipp says. “Jr. Dragsters were just getting started back then. I got down to three cars
and got beat by Greg Dillman, a racer who still
races out there. When I got down to three cars,
my dad thought I might be a decent racer so we
kept doing it. I won my third race ever there and
I ended up beating Greg Dillman and after that,
we were hooked. From then on, racing was what
we did on weekends and all our family vacations
were surrounded by drag racing.”
Not only did Shipp experience success on track,
she found love in her personal life at the racetrack,
too. Pro Stock driver Bo Butner and Shipp have
been together for over 12 years. The couple lives
in their home in Floyds Knobbs, Indiana.
Their relationship has seen many stages, but
none could prepare Randi Lyn for the exciting
and fast-paced world of professional drag racing
when Bo was offered to join the Ken Black Racing
team back in 2015.
“When Bo was first talking about joining Pro
Stock, my initial thought was ‘no way’,” she says.
“Professional classes can be craziness, but on the
other hand, it was exciting he was getting the
chance to race Pro Stock. I’ve watched the class
for years with my dad and we’re
good friends with Bob Glidden so
it was always in our lives. What I
like most is if you ask any sportsman racer what class they’d race
professionally, it’d be Pro Stock. It
separates the men from the boys.”
For the last two seasons, the
Jim Butner Auto Sales Pro Stock
team has thrived within the class
while Randi Lyn and Bo continue
to race in the sportsman ranks.
The day starts out at 6:00 a.m. in
order to get to the track, get the
car warmed up and in the lanes by
8:00 a.m. After Shipp and Butner
make their runs in Stock, it’s time
to rush back to the Pro Stock pits and get ready
for pro qualifying.
“When I’m running Stock Eliminator, I make
my pass and its time to get right back to the Pro
Stock pits,” she says. “I make sure lunch for the
KB team is ready and finish my other tasks for
the day because it’ll be time for Pro Stock before
I know it. We leave so early and on the nights the
pros don’t qualify till 7:30 at night, we’re here
really late. It’s exhausting, but cool.”
Many memories have been created while Shipp
has been traveling the NHRA divisional and national circuit. She has taken home the win at four
national events in her career but her second win
in Norwalk in 2013 holds the most value to her.
“My favorite win was when I won in Norwalk,”
she says, beaming. “It’s my home division [Division 3] and I believe it’s the hardest division out
there. We bring in a ton of cars at the divisional
and national events. I won my first divisional
there in Super Street and I’ve always liked that
track. You can be a super street racer and the
Bader family think you’re just as awesome as a
pro driver at that track.
“The year I won at Norwalk was the first year
they were doing the ice cream scoopers so of
course, I needed get one of those!” she continues,
grinning ear-to-ear. “That was the first Wally I
won with my whole family there. Norwalk is by
far is my favorite win ever.”
Traveling to each event on the NHRA Mello
Yello Drag Racing Series tour can be time-consuming and tiresome but Shipp couldn’t imagine
herself anywhere else.
“In five years, if I’m right in Stock Eliminator
and I’m still winning a few national events, I’d be
happy as can be,” she admits. “I guess when I was
young and I didn’t know the whole perspective,
I thought I wanted to race Top Fuel. Now that
we’re in the middle of it with the Pro Stocker, I
know it’s just not for me. I love racing and I love
everything that is Stock Eliminator. If they came
up with a factor showdown class one day, I’d like
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to do something like that too.”
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32 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 110
PHOTOS: PRO SPORTSMAN ASSOCIATION, AUTO IMAGERY, SADIE FLOYD
Rocket Shipp