RIP

Take it easy, dude. Thanks for recognizing your talent, harnessing it, and helping us speed freaks go faster.

On the morning of October 4, the world lost an innovator in sport compact racing, Shaun Carlson. The NuFormz owner and fabricator extraordinaire had a genetic heart condition – however, it is unknown if the defect contributed to his death.

In more recent years, Carlson, 35, had been known for his lead on the Team MOPAR drift team, but his roots go all the way back to Truckin' and Turbo Magazine. Although he could shoot cars with the best of them, his talent in building them won out in the end. Carlson knocked the socks off the sport compact industry with the Honda CRX he created in collaboration with Jason Whitfield, but he really blew everyone away when he unveiled the world's first tube frame front-wheel drive Honda Civic. Driven by Stephan Papadakis, the car made the industry stand up and take notice that sport compact drag racing was a force to be reckoned with.