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Thoughts and prayers for the remaining family members. Love the drags almost as much as stock cars.

It's only been one week, and must be so hard for her family and friends. Her husband went to a memorial at Houston Racetrack Friday. Must've been tough to even hear the sound of cars.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be given to Racers for Christ, or for her son Brian to Special Olympics.

Here's an article I wrote on another site. Maybe some of you will enjoy it. I think I just needed to do it for catharsis:

[From forums.insidetopfuel.com]

I'd been planning to meet Shelly Howard for a long time. Our mutual friend Lisa had told me about her, and I remember my incredulous initial reaction: "She does WHAT?!?!" I wondered why on earth someone would race, and what could I possibly have to say to her, "Be careful?" Shelly proved too fast for me, though, as a good dragster: while I was pondering which course to travel to, which race, when to visit. She has been here and gone.

In preparing to meet her I'd spent time thinking about why she would race. She must be incredibly skilled, to be so consistently a winner and highly respected. Or could anyone go 5.34 seconds if theirs was such an expensive? Or was it a little of both? What made Shelly so special? Was she just outrageously competitive? Or outrageously supported? Or was she courageous at expanding the limits of preconceived notions of women's abilities? Was it a female issue at all? Was she just some stupid risk-taker? With all her safety precautions, her driving was less risk-taking than me driving around my familial hometown! She'd been in one wreck, and yet was going back. Why?

I got unexpected answers to my questions this week when Saturday night April 7, 2005 she and her 35-year old son Brian were killed at the Tulsa Race Park. Her car nose lifted out-of-control, flipped the other direction, going almost 250 mph, accidentally zooming into the car in which her son Brian --who hardly ever came to the races--was sitting. Shelly had to have been unconscious way prior to that impact, as this ending is something a mother could never conceive of doing in her worst nightmare. In fact, it's so tragic a tale that I was surprised to see God's fingerprints when 'dusting' to make sense of this tangled wreckage. I know Him, Shelly, and Brian even better now.

I found that Shelly knew that God allows natural consequences to happen to Christians and non-Christians alike in this fallen world. Otherwise people would just convert for the accident benefits. "Become a Christian, and get to walk away from all car wrecks!" What a thought for racers! Go as fast as you want, it doesn't matter, because skill really isn't involved. Would life even be exciting if no skills were involved, if no wrecks were truly an option and allowed? She'd already come to grips with their possible losses of her profession. She knew her heart of love for them was not changed by her racing. Whatever we do in life, we do all for His glory, or out of our love for Him or gratitude to Him. As Christians, Shelly and Brian would have known this.

Brian was mentally-challenged (resulting from a birth accident, as best as I have researched), a 12-year old in a 35-year old man's body. His mom Shelly was always worried about her racing, especially for his sake if something were to happen to her. "What about Brian? Who will take care of Brian?" He didn't get out of her careening car's way.

What if, at that split, nano-second of microspeed where Shelly's spirit was leaving the physical realm to spiritually enter heaven and worship her Lord Jesus in person, she asked Him, "But what about Brian? Who will take care of Brian if I die?" That's a mom talking. A mom with 35 years of love given Brian, and 27 years of love to one daughter, 40 to another, 6 to her grandson, and decades to her husband. That is a lot of love! Over a centurie's worth all added up, which is even more substantial for someone who travels in thousandth-second intervals!

God allowed her to grab Brian in her arms with her as she left this mortal coil.

God can and does miracles. But they're out of the normal. He doesn't always explain why He allows the evils He does, but we do know He's perfect in all He does. We know that there is a warfare for our souls, but what Satan intends for evil, God can turn around or use, and get good results. Could God be at all involved in such a horrific racetrack accident? Could He NOT be involved, is my question.

Shelly could have ended up with years of required burn therapy, tons of pain and disfigurement. She still would have been alive. Sure, if she'd had time to weigh all the options and alternatives she would've wanted to be here for her husband, her kids, her grandkids, her friends, her fans, et al. I don't think we have asked that of her just so that we could say that 'God always will protect Christians from problems'?

But Saturday night was the actual moment when the Lord had decided to take her home. She knew the Lord and was not afraid of Him. Shelly's heart full of love instead of thinking of her excitement, first thought of her always needing son: "But Lord, who's going to take care of Brian?" The Lord allowed her to grab him and bring him with her.

We see the supranatural, that which is above the ordinary, happen in that no one else at the racetrack got hurt in what was one of the worst accidents of racing history. And we see it discovering something surprising about Brian. Jesus answered Shelly's concern over Brian by saying, "He's quite a man, Shelly... We just had a nice talk, and he's already volunteered to come escort you, so that you can worship Me together."

God could have miraculously had him not be in that particular car at that particular time. God knew his Dad would be a fine, even with a double loss. Jesus continued, "But if you come with your mom, your family will have the comfort that neither of you had to go through death alone, that you both got to be with Me, that there is a purpose and design." Brian was already there, grabbing Shelly's arms on the way out, before the sentence was even out of Jesus' mouth. He wasn't slow.

This is the Shelly Howard I now know. They finished their race here the way the Lord wanted: still believers. Accidents happen in all our jobs and hobbies. But Shelly knew that trusting Christ was no risk, whatever she did, or she would not have turned to Him in the middle of such devastation. That car would've ended up somewhere else. Brian would be here, but sad and missing his mom.

NOT trusting Jesus would have been the risk! They knew Christ had passed the finished line as Victor. She knew experientially as He had cared for her and Brian their whole lives, and gotten them through. And so she scooped up her son on the way.

Nothing God does is ever stupid or unwise or questionable. We need to look for God in our lives. And those chequered flags showing us that our time does have a limit, and a goal to reach. It's a normal consequence of our fallen lives to feel the agony we do this season at Shelly and Brian Howard's death. For now we don't understand much. All we know is that God wanted Shelly and Brian now.

We need to look for God's fingerprints in the black box of a sad event. God loves Paul and Jennifer and Tracy, all Shelly and Brian's friends, and will continue being with them through this all. We all need to ready at any split-second to let Jesus swoop us up to present us spotless before the Father. Cling to His arms, just as Brian and Shelly clung to each other on their way to the Pearl-y starting gates!(c)