Thu, 25 Oct 2007, 07:52 PM Who Is The Best?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2007 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Rick Santos

As I was writing my story last week about the drivers who still had a shot at the Lucas Oil World Championships this year, I began thinking about some of the great sportsman drivers over the years. Since the very beginning of National Hot Rod Association sportsman racers have been the ones who have raced at the local tracks and then at the national venues long before the term "professional drag racer" was ever thought about. From the time Bruce Morgan won the first Stock championship in 1961 through the 2006 season when the most recent champions were crowned, there have been thousands of great sportsman drivers who have competed on the quarter-mile. The Jegs All Star program, which began back in 1985, is a great showcase for the sportsman racers and it's about the best way we have of determining who the best racer in the country is in his or her particular class. It's always fun, exciting and it gives the racers something to brag about for a year. Still, just like you'll never be able to figure out if Bret Farve is a better quarterback than Bart Starr, or if Mickey Mantle was a better center fielder than Willie Mays, you'll never be able to determine who are the best sportsman racers of all time. Undaunted, as I was putting together last week's story, I figured I would at least acknowledge some of the best in the sport, especially those who may not be talked about as much now as some of their contemporary counterparts. So, in no particular order, here goes.

Chuck Baird

Any discussion of the best drivers in the Top Alcohol Dragster class has to begin with Rick Santos. For years, Rick and his dad, George, campaigned one of the most feared cars in the history of the sport. Their little, small block Chevy dragster out of S & S Automotive, put up a won-loss record that would be the envy of any driver who has ever competed. Even today, five years after his last win, Rick still holds the mark for the most wins in the class with thirty-six. To show you just how good Rick's team was, the next best mark in the class belongs to a guy who also had a pretty dominant car, Blaine Johnson, who won twenty-six races in the alky class. Along with his brother, Alan, they were, simply put, the most dominant car of their day. Their record is especially impressive when you consider that they were running at a time when the TAD class had, perhaps, its greatest collection of stars. Chuck Baird, Tom Conway, Bill Barney, Jay Payne and others were regular participants, and it wasn't uncommon for all of those drivers to be at the same race. To win more than two dozen races over that type of competition is truly impressive. Bill Barney, for those of you who may be new to the sport, has the third most wins in the class with twenty-three while Tom Conway, who is still active as an owner and tuner, recorded eighteen wins during his career as a driver. Tom was never afraid to experiment with different engine combinations in an effort to get what ever edge he could on the competition, and in one year he used a hemi, a Mopar wedge engine and a GM power plant all in the same car.

Tony Bartone

Another driver who had a remarkable career was Bobby Taylor. Driving for Gary Turner, Bobby once won eleven consecutive final rounds over a two year span. Bobby and Gary were tough and they could run with anyone. Tony Bartone, Jay Payne and a few others have put up some impressive numbers and would have to be included in any discussion about the best alky dragster drivers in history, as would Chuck Baird and Bill Walsh. Bill was so dominant one year that he basically had the championship wrapped up before Labor Day and he won the world championship in three consecutive years. Chuck, meanwhile, was, well, Chuck, and along with his wife they had one of the great cars in the class. The "Wild Side" car not only ran well it was fun to watch and he was a threat to win every time he came to the track. Bill Reichert is the reigning champ and he is about to repeat and that puts him in a very select group, that is, multiple-time national champions or drivers who have gone back-to-back with their championships. When he is crowned in two weeks Bill will become the first guy to repeat in the dragster class since Rick Santos in 2001. That was, by the way, the last of Rick's five consecutive titles. Like I said, he was good. Who's the best? Good question, and all I can tell you is that if I'm starting my all star team I'll take any one of them. And your pick would be.....?

Bob Newberry

The Top Alcohol Funny Car class would seem to have two parts, the Frank Manzo and Pat Austin part and the "everyone else" part. And while that may be an over simplification, it's also hard to argue with. Both Pat and Frank won an amazing seventy national races in their specialty, with Pat getting five more wins in Top Fuel and Frank having another win in the old Pro Comp class. When you throw in a staggering ninety-three divisional wins for Frank and an equally impressive fifty-four for Pat, it's easy to see why they are in a class by themselves. I would pay to see a best three-out-of-five match race between those two. Frank has clinched his eleventh national championship this year which puts him alone in second place on the all-time list behind only John Force and his fourteen titles. Pat won the TAFC crown four times and when he was running, along with his dad, Walt, there was none better. Just for the record, and in case you were wondering, when they did race together Frank and Pat faced each other twenty times and they each won ten of them. So who's the best? The rest of the alky funny car class isn't exactly anything to scoff at, it's just that when two guys dominate the way Frank and Pat did, almost any other accomplishment pales by comparison. It's kind of like the numbers that Bob Glidden and Warren Johnson have assembled in Pro Stock, and by that I mean that they hold most of the records but that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other great drivers in the class. That said, Bob Newberry has forty-four wins, six more in Competition Eliminator and a couple of national championships and that's a great resume by anybody's standards, isn't it? Bob is fourth in the class in number of top qualifying spots and third in both low elapsed time and top speed, behind only Frank and Pat. Like I said, the "Newb" is pretty good. Make that very good. Tony Bartone, who really condensed his racing in the Top Alcohol Funny Car class to about eight years, brief by comparison to the other top drivers, still put twenty-five wins on the board at national events and he added another twenty-nine divisional wins to that list. A 1996 national championship completes his list of accomplishments and that's only in the funny car class.

Brad Anderson

Any mention of the best in TAFC wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of Brad Anderson. Brad won two dozen national events in an era when there were only a handful of races each year. Three dozen world championship trophies are also on display somewhere in the Anderson house and that's more than most people in any class in the history of the sport. One other driver who is among the best in both the dragster and the funny car class is Jay Payne. Jay has won sixteen races in both alky classes and is ranked among the top five in almost every statistical category in both the dragster and funny car class. In the dragster class he is among the leaders in top qualifying spots, low elapsed time and he is the best in the top speed department. The same is true in the funny car class where his name is at the top of almost every performance list. Anytime you can be mentioned with Frank and Pat and Bob you're doing well. Of course being on the same list as Rick and Blaine isn't bad, either. Since he has split his career between the two alky classes Jay may not get the recognition that he should but believe me, his is and continues to be one of the best racers in the sport, especially in the top two classes of sportsman racing.

Ken Veney

Since the two alky classes got their own eliminators in 1981, and since they replaced the old Pro Comp class, I really should mention two of the greats in that eliminator, Ken Veney and Dale Armstrong. Ken was absolutely devastating when he rolled into the track and he put nine national events wins in the books in just five years in Pro Comp before adding four more in the alky funny car class. Dale, meanwhile, won in dragsters, funny cars, altereds and anything with wheels and that's why he was picked as one of the top ten drivers in the history of the sport. Those two could run with anyone in either class and have to be included in any discussion of "the best."

As I mentioned, Bill Reichert and Frank Manzo have successfully defended their championships and they'll be crowned in two weeks. Frank will be adding to his legacy as one of the all-time greats and Bill will go in the record books as one of the few to repeat in his class. Any discussion of the best drivers in the history of Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car has to include both of them and some others, including, undoubtedly, some others whom I haven't mentioned.