Les Shockley's career began in 1960 at the age of 16 driving stock cars at the San Gabriel drag strip in California. The Shockleys are originally from California, but moved to Galena, Kansas in 1979 to be more centrally located for racing and exhibitions. By 1963 Les had landed a job driving the Milne Bros. sponsored Plymouth super stocker. Imagine a fully sponsored racing outfit at the age of 19! He went on to drive other stocks for such notables as
Hayden Proffitt, the era's super star of stock classes. While with Proffitt they won the biggest funny car race ever staged. 8.14 elapsed time (et) and 167 mph was more than any of the 84 competitors could handle. In 1968 Les built the funniest of funnys - a Rambler Rebel with an honest to goodness Rambler engine. This car debuted at the Nationals in Indianapolis that year, and to the surprise of everyone, set top speed during qualifications on
its maiden run. The year this Rebel ran, combined with a strong advertising campaign, saw American Motors in the black for the first time in 7 years. After setting other funny car records, Les drove street roadsters as a family project, and after only two years he persuaded his wife, Donna, to let him sell all of their assets to build his lifetime dream, a jet-powered dragster. Les spent five years researching the project, inquiring with several engineers in the aircraft and race car fields, including Gil Peers, an engineer for Steward-Davis Aircraft who was
involved in designing the J-34 jet engine. The knowledge that Peers shared with Les helped him to produce the most powerful jet engine of its type in racing without sacrificing durability and safety. This 6,000 horsepower engine has propelled SHOCKWAVE jet dragsters to speeds in excess of 350 mph in exhibitions across North America, with runs of over 290 mph with 5-second elapsed times for the standing quarter mile. In the first year of jet competition, Les kept his winning ways by winning the National Jet Car Championship title at the world famous Orange County International Raceway in 1978. The 1979 season brought Les track records enroute to winning the National Championship for the second year in a row. In 1980 Les drove his second jet dragster to set still another world record at 5.91 et. and a speed of 278 mph, and he became the first person ever to run a 5-second et. with a jet-powered racing machine under the auspices of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The 1980
season wasn't complete until Les won 135 races with only 6 losses, and set 72 track records. In 1981 he hit the 100 mark in setting jet dragster records with his all-time best time and speed of 5.61 et. at 294 mph in a quarter mile. In 1982 Les' attention went from jet-powered dragsters to jet-powered funny cars. By the end of the '83 season, the Shockwave Mustang Funny Car had run at more than 120 exhibitions and was featured in more magazines
and television promotions than any of its predecessors. Not lost for challenges, Les and his son Kent built SHOCKWAVE - a triple engine Peterbilt truck capable of producing 36,000 horsepower at the speed of sound. They spent 4,000 man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars building what has now become one of the most sought after acts on the circuit today.