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The highly successful West Covina, California engine manufacturer was also one of the most successful NHRA Alcohol Funny Car competitors, scoring 24 National event wins. On that list were five wins at the NHRA World Finals, three at the U.S. Nationals and two Winternationals titles. In addition, Anderson, a many-time NHRA TAFC record holder, also won the NHRA Alcohol Funny Car world championship three times. He also had success in nitro Funny Cars, Top Fuel and the Pro Modified class.

3. ART ARFONS

Out of all the performers in the early to late 1950s, no one stood out in the crowd more than Akron, Ohio’s Art Arfons. That’s because Arfons ran an Allison aircraft engine in his rear-engined “Green Monster” dragster. Arfons won two of the three first Automobile Timing Association of America/World Series of Drag Racing events in Lawrenceville, Ill., in ’54-‘56, and set Top Speed of the Meet at the ‘57, ‘58, and ‘59 NHRA Nationals. On Sept. 24, 1958, Arfons became the first gas dragster driver to record a speed over 160 mph when he punched out a 168.89 at McBrides, Michigan. A good deal of Arfons’ fame came when he set the World Land Speed Record on two occasions at Bonneville, and also survived a 600-mph rollover at the Salt Flats.

4. JOAQUIN ARNETT

Arnett was in the famed “Bean Bandits” Car Club out of San Diego, California, a group that fielded three winning race cars in the period of roughly 1950 through 1955. Arnett drove the team’s first noticeable car, a class C Roadster that began the 1953 season with a 135.13-mph win at Santa Ana. Later that year, Arnett drove the team’s D/Competition roadster to the Top Eliminator win at NHRA’s very first big sanctioned event, the Pomona Valley Timing Association Southern California Championships. Arnett and the “Bandits” won literally dozens of Southern California track Top Eliminator titles in their five-year run, and also earned fame by runner-upping at the 1955 Arizona State Championships to Emory Cook. This was the race that the rained-out NHRA Nationals inaugural was completed.

5. JERRY BALTES

Baltes, another San Diego racer, most likely will be remembered for his 1964 season where he cleaned up big time on a Midwestern Top Fuel tour with the Croshier-Baltes-Lovato dragster. He set numerous track records, including 204.54 marks at Rockford Dragway and Cordova Dragway. The Cordova 204 was registered while he was winning the World Series of Drag Racing show, a race where he set low E.T. at a 7.82. Late in the summer of 1964, Baltes made an unsuccessful bid for Don Garlits’ Drag News No. 1 Top Fuel spot and he went home to SoCal, never to make much of a ripple afterward.

6. RAYMOND BEADLE

The driver/owner, who made the “Blue Max” Funny Car name a household term, thanks in large to three consecutive NHRA World Championships (1979-1981). He also did well on the IHRA circuit, capturing that association’s 1981 World Championship (a dual world title year) and becoming the first IHRA driver to run a 5-second time with a 5.99 charge at Rockingham, N.C. in 1982. He scored a total of 13 NHRA national event wins and 19 IHRA wins.