4:00pm Thursday 15th July 2010
THE hamlet of Gozzards Ford shook last week as mourners fired up a vintage dragster in tribute to a man who loved drag racing.
Dragster enthusiast Bob Shayler, 63, from Abingdon, worked as a mechanic and was “well known and much loved” in drag racing.
His funeral was at St Helen’s Church, Abingdon, on Friday, and his wake was held at the Black Horse pub in the village.
Family and friends cheered as the 1969 ground-breaking dragster Backdraft roared its engine in tribute to him.
His racing partner John Parkinson, 61, said: “Bob loved that noise. He loved to get everything spot-on, and then hear that noise.”
Mr Shayler, a builder, worked as the crew chief and was responsible for the car’s engine. In 2006 the team came third in the British Championship.
Mr Parkinson said: “He loved the mechanics of the racing. You only get one chance. Everything has to be perfect. But he also loved the social side of it. It is a family, a community.
“He was a man who loved his racing, his women, his boat, and his family. He lived life to the full.”
Mr Shayler’s ex-wife Janie Shayler, 52, said: “He had a lot of friends and he will be really missed by everybody, not just his family.”
The father-of-three and grandfather-of-four, of And- ersey Way, died of a suspected heart attack on June 28.
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