The news of longtime Sportman racer Mark Sharrock becoming a Top Fuel owner with his driver Sydney Shaw is old news.

How Sharrock got to this point of his life being a deputy constable in Kaufman County, Texas, and an owner of Top Fuel team is far more compelling.

Sharrock spoke with CompetitionPlus.com at length recently to discuss his journey.

“Well, it's kind of a crazy story,” Sharrock said. “Me and my buddies, had the same group of buddies for 30-plus years, that we've always raced together and that kind of stuff, and basically like everybody else, even back when we were teenagers doing this stuff, someday we're going to have a (Top) Fuel or a Funny Car. What really made it happen or made me decide to be crazy and spend all the money on this deal, was Sydney had been around the track with me for a little bit and ... Dang it. She wanted to give it a try.”

Sharrock acknowledged the plan with Shaw wasn’t to be a Top Fuel driver, at least initially. But her talent made him change his mind to put her at the Top Fuel level much sooner than he anticipated.”

“I had an old Nova I was going to build into a little door car for local racing thing,” Sharrock said. “Then, I had an opportunity to buy a rear-engine dragster real cheap. I thought that may be easier to take somebody with no experience to put in, because all the dragsters I've owned you pretty much ... they just go down the track. They kind of just do their thing.

“So, we went in that direction. We started playing with that car. Then to make life a little easier on myself, I sent her to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School in 2022 to get her Super Comp license. She went to the school and passed with flying colors, no problems, everything was good. After that, she got bored with the Super Comp car, because she said it was too slow. So, I put her in one of my Top Dragsters, which was a fast car. Shortly after that, that was too slow. So, we started building an alcohol dragster to put her in.”

Then enter veteran Top Fuel/Funny Car driver/owner Terry Haddock.

“In the midst of everything we were doing, came this opportunity with Terry, to purchase his Top Fuel stuff,” Sharrock said. “That's how we got to where we are. It's kind of a weird. Most people who are going to drive a Top Fuel dragster go from junior dragsters to literally every class in the world in between there, and then they run A/Fuel for a few years, and then they move up and all that. (Sydney) comes from a background where she trains horses, and barrel races, and she's been stomped on, thrown through fences, forever. She's pretty much fearless.”

 

 

Sharrock said it isn’t just him who has seen the talent in Shaw.

“After spending some time with some fuel guys, I know ... We're friends with Kebin Kinsley, who used to drive the Gas Monkey car and all that. Pretty much everybody who knows her, has seen her drive, has seen how she learns, and how she progresses through this process, has a hundred percent faith that she can do this without a problem,” Sharrock said. “Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it. I would probably have still ended up with the car on some hand, but it wouldn't be her driving it.”

Helping Shaw in the transition as well as Sharrock will be Haddock.

“Part of our deal with Terry Haddock is, we bought the car and all the stuff, he's working with us as a consultant, so we don't tear it up too bad, or any more than normal,” Sharrock said. “He also has her more or less in a training program until we're ready for her to make her first race. Step one, starting here soon, will be getting some licensing runs and stuff done. And then from there, we plan to run the car here and there, wherever we can, just getting her some experience until we feel really good about everything. Our plan right now is probably somewhere around May or June we'll enter our first actual NHRA event and see what happens.”

The operation of Sharrock’s team has some layers.

“It's kind of a dual thing,” Sharrock said. “I live in Forney, Texas, which is 10 minutes from Dallas. My crew guys, and our shop, are in Paris, Texas, which is about a hundred miles from here. That's where I grew up, where I grew up racing, where all my buddies live, my family's from there. I just happen to live here because I work here.”

Sydney, meanwhile, resides in Terrell, Texas, which is 15 minutes from Forney.

“The expectations for 2023 is to run approximately five races,” Sharrock said. “My expectations for 2024, and this is all based on, obviously, financial stuff, is to at least run twice that many, or more. Ultimately, like every other person in the world, our goal is to do this fulltime. It's something I've wanted to do forever. That all boils down to financial stuff.”

Sharrock believes the rough road Shaw’s traveled throughout her life will inspire people to support his team.

“I mean, we're hoping, partly because of Sydney's situation, that it'll bring some interest to people who will want to help us down this road,” Sharrock said. “I’ve known Sydney for a long, long time. She grew up in foster care, had the worst kind of childhood you could think of – nothing about her life has been easy. So, for her to get an opportunity like this is kind of a big deal. For anybody to get to drive one of these cars is a big deal, but to have somebody that's only 23 years old, and a 23-year-old female who's been through what she's been through, to be able to make something of herself is going to be really cool.”

 

 

Sharrock said Shaw’s initial Top Fuel training will take place during the Funny Car Chaos event, March 16-18 at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.

“Currently, our plan is to meet up with Terry (Haddock) at Funny Car Chaos in Dallas,” Sharrock said. “We want to take some baby steps. We will probably do a burnout, and maybe a one-second squirt, once or twice, or three times. And when she's good with that, she'll let us know. It may be one time and then she's ready to go make a half-track pass or whatever. We're going at where she's comfortable and tuning the car accordingly. I mean, we're not planning on tuning the car to run 3.80 out of the gate.”

Sharrock, who started racing in 1990, and pretty much all he has done had come in the Sportsman ranks.

“The only thing I've had that kind of was a little out of the ordinary, I used to run a front motor dragster that we ... It wasn't a Top Fuel car, but it was a pretty fast front motor car, that we did the nostalgia circuit for a couple years with that,” Sharrock said.

The last seven-plus years Sharrock has worked for the Kaufman County Constable's Office.  He’s a shift supervisor for the patrol division and mans the streets.

“They definitely have some similarities, but some differences,” Sharrock about the adrenaline rush of drag racing and being a policeman. “I've been in incidences where I've been shot at and stuff like that, and it's a similar rush, but for many different reasons. On some level I guess there's similarities, but usually when I'm in an intense situation on the street, I usually don't leave work in a good mood. But when I'm at the track, even ... We just fired the car up (Feb. 5), and did a two-minute warmup, and that cost me $550 worth of nitro to do that.

“When we were done, Terry said, ‘Hey, are you okay? You got a weird look on your face.’ And I said, ‘On one hand, I'm terrified, because that literally just cost me 550 bucks. On the other hand, that's the coolest thing I've ever done.’” 

Sharrock’s career path has taken some twists and turns.

“I've only been a cop for about seven or eight years,” he said. “This is my second career. I owned an air conditioning company and did engineering work. One side of my family were all in construction, the other side were all cops. Honestly, I just got burned out, and decided to do something different, so I became a police officer, and I've never looked back. I kind of found my niche. I wish I'd have done it a long time ago. It's different every day, and I like it.

“If we're able to go run this car full-time, I'll either have to go to some kind of part-time job here, or retire, or whatever. That would be bittersweet, because I'd be racing, but at the same time I love my job, so it's kind of hard to give up.”

Ironically, the exploding ever-expensive housing market in Kaufman County was the catalyst for him to become a Top Fuel owner.

“I had money I had scrimped, saved, and put back and stuff, looking at building a house, and buying some land,” Sharrock said. “This area is the fastest growing county in the country right now, according to the last census report. Kaufman County, you're only 15 or 20 minutes from downtown Dallas, but you're ‘in the country.’

“Land values have gone up so high, it's just ... I had all this money put back, and then I had this opportunity to go fuel racing, and I said, ‘I can either have a nice house, or I can go live this dream we've had.’ So, I got with all my buddies and said, ‘What do you think?’ Of course, it wasn't their money, so they all said, ‘Get the Top Fuel car.’ So, I did it.”

 

 

Sharrock’s team has a shop in Paris, Texas, and he bought a semi-truck and trailer to haul the dragster.

“I bought the dragster from Terry, as well as all the spare parts. He basically had enough parts there to build two or three dragsters. We own the dragster, and some parts. And right now, our last little bit, we're actually gathering up some funds to buy all his spare stuff. We already put a deposit on ... He basically made a big pile and said, ‘Here's all my spares, and here's what I'll take for them.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And he goes, ‘If you want to put a deposit on them, I won't sell them to anybody else.’ And I said, ‘Let me give you a deposit, and then I'll be back in a couple weeks to pick all that stuff up.’ We'll probably have as much stuff as anybody else has. Just not as nice.”

Last weekend, Sharrock he and his team received a baptism in Top Fuel when they visited Haddock’s home.

“We went down and spent all weekend in Temple, with Terry, at his shop. We worked with some of his crew guys, and himself, to get trained on that stuff. One of my crew guys used to build Pro Stock motors, and Comp Eliminator motors for about 50 years out of another shop. He's a motor guy, but he's never built Top Fuel motors. We had to go in there pretending like nobody's ever done anything. All my guys are mechanics and stuff like that. So, we were having to basically go to preschool for building fuel motors. They spent the whole weekend working with myself and our crew. They taught Sydney how to build the racks, and put together the bottom end of the motor, and all that stuff. They worked with all of us. And so basically what we did is, we came in and started from nothing, and built the motor. And on Sunday (Feb. 5), we took it outside and cranked it up, and warmed the car up, and then took it all apart.

“We haven't named officially a crew chief yet. Our real goal is to try to make it through this year, try to get some experience for the crew and the driver, and for me as an owner. Try to get some minimal financial backing, so that we can go to about five races. Our goal is to try to use this year to do as well as we can. We'd love to qualify at a race or two if we could. We're trying to select races, accordingly, pick races that would be advantageous for us to have a shot at qualifying.”

Sharrock said following his dream does his risks, but he is excited that he swung for the fences to reach this goal.

“It might be the craziest thing in the world,” Sharrock said. “I mean, I still wake up every morning and go, ‘What am I doing?’ But at the same time, it's ... I've lost so many friends over the years, that wanted to do this kind of stuff, and we were always going to do it later when everybody got more money. And I was like, ‘You only live once. This thing will either be a wonderful success, or I'll be living under a bridge in year or two, but at least I can say I did it.’”