PART 2

By Chris Martin & Jeff Burk
DRO File Photos
1/13/06

26. FISHER & GRETH (Speed Sport Roadster)

One of the most unique sounding and great looking drag race cars of all-time. The Speed Sport roadster was the project of Lords Car Club (Tucson, Arizona) members Lyle Fisher and Bill Gundy, and later developed by Fisher, “Red” Greth and Don Maynard (who tuned Chris Karamesines to the first 200-mph pass in history). Fisher drove the rear-motored roadster to record times all over the country from 1956 through 1963, actually receiving a time slip of 8.03/175.78 in 1960. Ironically, Fisher’s biggest win of note did not come at the wheel of the roadster, but the Fisher & Greth Top Fueler where he won the 1960 World Series of Drag Racing Top Eliminator title. Fisher actually drove up through the 1984 season.

27. ROGER GUSTIN

Ohio’s Roger Gustin’s work with NHRA to legitimize the jet car class alone is enough to put him in the HOF. As a driver/racer he originally was a competitor in the popular '60s A/FX class. He raced throughout the Midwest, but only with modest success. He eventually switched to jet dragsters. When he debuted the Smith Bros. Cough Drops Monza in 1976 he became the first licensed jet Funny Car driver in history.

28. DARRELL GWYNN

In his tragically short career, Darrell Gwynn appeared on his way to being one of the greatest dragster drivers ever until he was rendered quadriplegic in a Top Fuel crash in 1990 at Santa Pod Raceway in England. To that time, he had won 18 NHRA National event Top Fuel titles and 10 Alcohol Dragster titles, including the 1983 NHRA Alcohol Dragster World Championship. At the time of his crippling crash, Gwynn was just 28.

29. EDDIE “THE THRILL” HILL

DRO File Photo

At the 1959 AHRA Nationals, Chris Karamesines beat first-time finalist Eddie Hill in the Top Fuel final. Both would go on to have long productive careers. In Hill’s case, he ran two very unique twin side-by-side-mounted Pontiac dragsters in the 1960s, the first featuring dual-back slicks. That dual-slick car also retained a very unique position (as well as controversial) because of a 202.70-mph run in 1962. That was the best speed ever for a gasser and the best that year for anything with a piston-drive engine. Hill quit asphalt for water in 1966 where he was a world champ and ran the best speed ever for drag boats at 229 mph. Upon his return in 1985, Hill went Top Fuel, winning the 1993 NHRA World Championship and becoming the first driver in the four-second zone with a 4.99 on April 1988 at the Texas Motorplex.

30. “TV” TOMMY IVO

Drag racing’s original “Mr. Show Business" because of his show business background (he was a child actor), and its first touring pro. Enclosed trailers, two- and four-engined Buick dragsters, elaborate and ornate paint jobs; all of these were part of his mobile act. Ivo ran the first gas dragster 8-second time in January 1960 and 12 years later ran the first Top Fuel five with a 5.97 at New Alexandria, Pa. He was a Top Gas winner at Bakersfield, and he also was a record-holder and IHRA national event winner. He never did win on the NHRA circuit, although he took Top Fuel runner-ups at the 1964 Winternationals and 1965 Indy Nationals, and Funny Car runner-up at the 1978 Winternationals.