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The speeding "Texas Weasel" soon wound up in the barn and Bernstein on the road. In mid-July, Bernstein fireballed a motor and nearly crashed the "Weasel" at Dallas Motor Speedway and this parked the team for a few weeks. In mid-August, expensive losses at Lakeland Int'l Dragway in Memphis, Tennessee and Dallas, exhausted Cunnigham's wallet and this effectively consigned the short-lived team to history. Cunningham did come back and in 1971, enjoyed a great year with Raymond Beadle as driver.

Bernstein, however, was as busy, but not necessarily in the confines of Texas nor in drag racing. Bernstein had made the acquaintance of California engine builder and racer Ray Alley and in 1970 relocated to Southern California to drive Alley's Engine Masters Mercury Cougar Funny Car. After a few inactive years, Bernstein showed again at the wheel of an Alley car, this being the Engine Masters Dodge Charger where Bernstein put in his finest effort yet with a runner-up to Don Schumacher in Funny Car at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals.

And you all know the rest.

He left Alley, bought out Randy Pumphrey's "Chelsea King" restaurant chain, made him self some grand theft money, had a Pat Foster "Chelsea King" Plymouth Arrow Funny Car built and went racing in mid-1978. In 1980, Bernstein secured a Budweiser sponsorship for his Funny Cars and that's why to this day, in some taverns of this country, you can order a 16-oz. Budweiser and there'll be the inscription "Kenny Bernstein's Budweiser King" tattooed on the bottle.

Not bad for a "Texas Weasel" ... good God, what am I saying? Well you get the picture.

Radical. This is the car that changed the face of Funny Car racing. Kenny went to the Arivett Brothers, who designed and built streamliners for racing on the salt flats, and had them make this body. It was designed with the help of Kenny's long-time crew chief and a pretty good fuel flopper driver on his own, Dale Armstrong. (Jeff Burk photo)

Kenny always took very good care of his friends at Anheuser-Busch. Here he is holding the two things he liked the best - a Wally in one hand and a giant bottle of icy cold Budweiser in the other. Here's to you, Kenny, for many years of a job well done. (Jeff Burk photo)

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