We posted pictures of one of the newest faces of NST, Katie Shepler, a few months ago and have been receiving a number of questions on facebook, via email, etc.  Who is she?  Where did you find her? Will she be at any upcoming events?!  Some of you may remember Katie from drift events of yesteryear… those of you who do not, or those who caught onto drifting more recently, can stop by the NST Friends & Fans Tent at the XDC Dallas event this weekend to introduce yourselves and say hello!

In the meantime, here’s some background info on the newest face of NST, aka “DrftChic” …

Katie “DrftChic” Shepler was one of the first American grassroots female drifters and competitors who now spends the majority of her time working as a professional poker player, poker coach, model (promoting such companies as NonStopTuning), and most importantly as a  single stay-at-home-mom to her now three year old daughter. With many interests ranging from a fascination with neuropsychology to entrepreneurship and simply the ecstasy of discovering her newest musical obsession, she has been referred to as being an “anomaly of diversity”, to say the least. In short, not your “average ” chick.

In Front Of The Camera... Behind The Camera!

From a very young age she desired to work in the film industry as a stunt driver and actress. From the time she could drive she integrated herself into the underground street racing world, learning everything she could about automotive mechanics and modification, but most of all driving skill.  She worked on her own cars for years before her first exposure to drifting by the once notorious Signal Auto twins. Even though America, and even the underground racing scene, knew little to nothing of drifting and even gawked at the idea back in those years, she had found the passion she was looking for. Despite the disapproval of the street racing scene at the time, she was determined and would go through many underpowered junkyard 240sx’s and late night nights in parking lots learning the dynamics of working as one with the car to hone her skills. She made it to as many Daily Drifter (Texas) events as possible and picked the brains of those with more skill, at any opportunity she got.

Katie Behind The Wheel At GGP In Houston

Eventually, Katie was actually the first female to ever compete in a Formula Drift Pro Am Competition (surprisingly already 5 months pregnant with her daughter). Unfortunately, along with some of Texas’ finest and most well known drifters, she was disqualified when a sudden and surprising “bipolar Texas weather glitch” (ie. a twenty minute monstrous downpour of rain) turned the competition course into a well greased slick track right as the competitors lined up for qualifying runs and sent most competitors spinning out of control at some point on the track.

Everything OK Here?!

Years later she is working on other projects to help overcome the financial difficulties of being a single mother and working to fund her passion once again for drifting, stunt driving, and hopefully one day even gymkhana. In the next year or so she hopes, not only to be back out on the track, but competing again on many levels.

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NST – NonStopTuning
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