26 Hustler 1 also holds the honor of winning A/Dragster class at the first Bakersfield U.S. Fuel and Gas Championship on March 1, 1959. Chrisman, in the 454-inch blown Hemi-powered rail, faced Tony Waters’ equally impressive blown Hemi A/Modified Roadster in the anticipated final. With night falling, Chrisman blasted out an easy 9.36 at 140.50-mph victory. Tony was left in the weeds, literally, as he was forced to backpedal after becoming crossed up.
27 In what has to be a first and probably a last in a drag racing final eliminator, Jack Chrisman had to race himself during a meet at Bakersfield in July 1959. You see, Jack wore two hats that day, I mean helmets. He won AOG class in Sidewinder and also grabbed A/D in the Howard, Hawkins & Gireth blown dragster. It was an obvious win-win situation for Jack, who chose to pull Sidewinder out of the Top Eliminator final handing the win to . . . himself.
28 In 1960, no Chevy rail was quicker than the one campaigned by Northern Californians Ted “Curly” Cyr and Bill Hopper. With Cyr behind the wheel, the 338-ci B/Dragster clocked 162 mph on gas and 175.43 mph on fuel. The pair grabbed Top Eliminator victory at the NHRA Nationals in 1958 and in 1960 and won Top Fuel at the Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championship. The same year, they were recognized as having the second most popular rail behind Garlits’ Swamp Rat. Unlike Garlits’ Swamp Rat 1B, which survives today, the Cyr-Hopper rail was lost in a late-1960 accident.
29 In May 1960, Cyr clocked what was reported to be the first 7-second pass, a controversial 7.962 at Fremont Raceway. The controversy is that it was recorded a year before Garlits’ universally accepted 7.88 time.
30 In 1960, a tall Texan, Eddie Hill, set his first NHRA record when his twin 422-inch Pontiac-powered A/Gas dragster, Texas Tornado, clipped off an 8.84.
Good ol’ Eddie Hill was never afraid to step outside the box. How about a twin Pontiac short-wheelbase slingshot with four slicks, which literally tore up tracks. Eddie’s a proven winner, be it drag racing, boats, or bikes.
31 On April 9, 1988, Eddie became the first to break into the 4s when he propelled his Dave Uyehara–chassis Super Shops–sponsored T/Fueler to a 4.99 at 288.55 mph during a IHRA event at the Texas Motorplex. At the time, it made Eddie the fastest on land and on water (229 mph).
32 Who was in the other lane when Eddie Hill clocked his record-setting 4.99? None other than Gene “the Snowman” Snow. And when Snow ran NHRA’s first 4-second pass (4.99) at the Supernationals in Houston on October 6, 1988, who do you think was in the opposing lane? Yup, Eddie Hill.
33 In 1962, Hill became the first to break 200 mph on gas when he hit 202.70 mph at Hobbs, New Mexico. Eddie was driving his twin-blown Pontiac rail, which also featured twin drivelines and four 8-inch-wide slicks on the rear. The car was later stretched to a 160-inch wheelbase in a failed attempt to improve handling and keeping the front wheels on the ground.
Eddie Hill lays a whooping on the competition at the 1988 IHRA Fall Nationals. Eddie and his wife, Ercie, led the way into the magical 4s. (Photo Courtesy Allen Tracy)
34 Eddie drag raced through 1966 before parting with his dragster. He went motorcycle racing through 1974 to promote Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles. He raced speedboats through 1984, becoming the first in the 5-second bracket before returning to drag racing in 1985. Surprisingly, Eddie’s first national event win didn’t come until the 1988 NHRA Gatornationals, where (at age 52) he defeated Joe Amato with a 5.066.
35 Chet Herbert (Herbert Cams) and Zane Shubert started 1961 right by winning the AHRA winter meet with their twin Chevy-powered AA/FD dragster. Chet assembled the twin small-block Chevys, supplied to him by Chevrolet’s own Zora Arkus-Duntov. The bore and stroke of each was 4.25 x 4.125, giving 454 inches. Herbert and Shubert met up with Ed Garlits at the AHRA Championship at Green Valley, Texas, where Zane won Top Eliminator even though one of his precious small-blocks self-destructed in the process.
36 When it came to the unorthodox in dragster design, Chet came up with one of the best. How about a pair of rear-mounted sidewinder Chevys? In 1961, this ill-handling AA/F dragster clocked a best of 168 mph. The two 450-inch Chevys were connected via 3 flywheels, 52 clutch disks, and a pair of spider gears with the rear engine running the wheels.
37 Tommy Ivo was the first traveling professional racer, hitting the road in 1960 with his twin Buick rail and a young Don Prudhomme. With Ivo jokingly referring to Don as his tire wiper, the pair headed east and made ten stops in three short months. The car was a huge hit, which sparked the idea for the four-engine Showboat. And the thought behind building a four-engine rail? Says Tommy, “I figured that if they liked two engines, they’d like four better.”
Tommy Ivo proved that if two were good then four were better. Tommy toured the country with a young Don Prudhomme, referring to the Snake as his “tire wiper.” Four nailhead Buicks and four-wheel drive got the job done.
38 Ivo debuted Showboat at the 1961 NHRA Nationals. Describing the build, Tommy says, “I built a twin-bank in-tandem four-wheel-drive car with the front and rear engines chained together. The two left-side engines drove the front wheels, and the two right-side engines drove the rear wheels. This arrangement, pairing what were essentially two V-16 engines, allowed both banks to torque inward and counteract each other. Unfortunately, what I feared would happen did. Weight transfer from the initial launch unloaded the front wheels, and they broke loose excessively. The second problem was that the car weighed almost 4,000 pounds, so it wouldn’t ET. And although it ran upstairs, it was no winner. But the NHRA didn’t know that before it was done. They were getting nervous. Their thinking was simple: If my four-engine car ran proportionally as well as my twin, other guys were going to build them. And if that happened, they might not be as well built as my cars were, and they could start crashing through that era’s flimsy guardrails. So the NHRA said I could only run it as an exhibition car, the first to be so designated, but it broke my heart. In retrospect, it has become my signature car.” It had a Kent Fuller chassis, Bob Sorrell body, Dodge 1 truck front end, and a 1,856-ci engine gulping 2.5 gallons per run. Don Prudhomme, who shared driving chores initially, complained that the car drove too nicely.
39 TV Tommy was a bit actor who never had a contract with one single Hollywood studio. This worked out great for Tommy as it allowed him more time to enjoy his first love, drag racing. His movie career ended in 1965, and one of his last roles was in the 1964 flick Bikini Beach, starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The movie featured Showboat and Tommy (in an ape costume) in an unaccredited role.
40 Ed Garlits, lost in the shadows of his older brother Don, had an impressive, although brief, driving career of his own. Ed started racing 1952 with a Buick-powered 1932 Ford roadster. By the following year, the Buick found its way into a C/Dragster that he and Don had built and christened Banana. The car earned the Florida state championship on its debut outing. Ed won Top Gas at the AHRA Championship in 1961 driving