He is an amazing man
I've talk to him more than once at the tracks and in resteraunts close to the tracks back in the early 1970 to the late 1980s when I quit racing at NHRA national events. He was not snobbish at all, unlike some of the other drag racing "stars"
He was an excellent racer and great representative for the sport :: up:
I was racing at the old Ontario, CA race track the year (1974 I think, maybe it was 1975) Don Garlits had his issues with NHRA and Gary Beck from Canada getting special treatment from NHRA
Gary Beck and hm had a schedule match race down south after the Indy Nationals (only two NHRA races were held after the Indy nationals back then, Division 7 last race of the season and the world finals in at Ontario Motor Speedway. in Ontario, CA ) NHRA had one more divisional race in Las Vegas the same weekend, Beck needed to win another divisional race to keep up with Garlits on NHRA national races nation wide. He went to that race, set low ET, Top Speed and won that race.
Thee only way Garlits could win the NHRA world championship after Becks won that divisional race win was for him, Don Garlits, was to be #1 qualifier and be the fastest and quickest top fuel car to get the extra points to be #1 in the nation. Garlits went to court and won on Beck not racing with him and show NHRA the copies of it and they said, sorry, it does not apply to us.
They let Beck race which ended making the only way Garlits could win the world championship was to qualify #1 in top fuel, set low ET and Top Speed and win the races and Beck needed to be beat before the third round on race day.
Karma beat Beck
Garlits boycotted NHRA races for several years after that race, maybe 5 to 8 years and then he only came back to NHRA races was because a friend and fellow racer ask to enter Indy and he would, his friend Marvin I think, pay for everything including the costs to get there and back. I'm not sure what the deal was, if there was one, on splitting the winnings.
NHRA and Politics should not even know each other, let alone to allow politics to enter into any of the dealings, ,rule making or any other decisions on racing at a NHRA race.
I've seen way to much of that, I got screw by the division 7 director, Bernie Partridge at a race at LACR when I beat his sister a Stock and Super Stock combination race twice and the track said she didn't get a time slip so I had to race her over even though I beat her by over 15 car lengths and didn't come close (good by .520) to my dial in on the first rerun, second race they the(track manager) said I broke out by .0030 when I let off at the 1000 ft. .lights and coasted through beating her by over 10 car lengths, she was not good on the starting line that day in both of our races.
I didn't know she was his sister until many years later.
NHRA
Enough crying and complaining about the past for now
