John William Bradley [1] (29 October 1925, San Bernardino, California-29 November 2012, Dolan Springs, Arizona), nicknamed "Mr. Flathead", [2] was a pioneering American drag racer and land speed racer. [3] He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. [4]
Bradley was a veteran of the United States Navy during World War II. He was a member of National Hot Rod Association for sixty years. [3]
Bradley started racing in Southern California in 1946, competing on dirt tracks and in illegal street races, with a Deuce roadster. [5] His first dragster used Ford Model T frame rails and a Ford flathead V8; built in 1952, it hit a speed of 147 mph (237 km/h). [5]
He set records beginning in 1956 and was still doing so until a few years ago. [2] He recorded twenty-eight wins in Top Eliminator in 1956 alone. [2]
He drove the tube-chassised [5] Gene's Brake Shop Special digger in 1961. [2] Running on gasoline, Bradley would cheat, hiding nitro in the fuel line to pass scrutineering; nitro had been banned as unsafe for racing by NHRA in 1957. [2] Track officials routinely tore down the carburetors and intake manifold, and tested the front-mounted fuel tank, without finding anything amiss. [2] This car would take Bradley to 50 Top Eliminator titles and a number of track records during 1957 and 1958. [5]
At the Colton Dragster Invitational (Bradley's home track) in 1957, Bradley defeated Emory Cook (in the hemi-powered Cook and Bedwell digger). [2] He lost in the semi-final at the NHRA Fuel and Gass Championship in Bakersfield, California, in 1959, but won that year's Southern California Championship, hosted by the Pomona Valley Timing Association. [2]
Bradley also drove a twin-engined car which used a pair of flattys, in a chassis welded up in Bradley's garage, built with the assistance of long-time partner Max Romero. [2] This car ran 100% nitro, and turned in a pass of 8.98 seconds at 172 mph (277 km/h). [2] He campaigned this car from 1958 to 1962. [5]
Bradley used a high-gear-only transmission in all his dragsters, which resulted in bogging off the starting line when combined with the flathead's poor low-rpm torque. It was because of this he used the nitro. [2]
Unlike other racers, Bradley continued to campaign a flatty-powered digger, earning him the nickname "Mr. Flathead". [5] Bradley retired from professional racing, but continued to run a 9-second flathead-powered exhibition car on California's nostalgia drag racing circuit into his late 70s. This car uses eight-plug billet aluminum cylinder heads Bradley designed himself. [5]
He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. [4]
Bradley's wife, Jeanne, died in 1998. He had two children, Frank and Lori, and five grandchildren, Mona and Travis (from his son's marriage), and Nichole, Holly, Tige from his daughter's. [3]
Bradley is buried at Riverside National VA Cemetery, Riverside, California. [3]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1⁄4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1⁄8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.
Donald Glenn Garlits is an American race car driver and automotive engineer. Considered the father of drag racing, he is known as "Big Daddy" to drag racing fans around the world. A pioneer in the field of drag racing, he perfected the rear-engine Top Fuel dragster, an innovation motivated by the loss of part of his foot in a dragster accident. This design was notably safer since it put most of the fuel processing and rotating parts of the dragster behind the driver. The driver was placed in front of nearly all the mechanical components, thus protecting him and allowing him to activate a variety of safety equipment in the event of catastrophic mechanical failure or a fire. Garlits was an early promoter of the full-body, fire-resistant Nomex driving suit, complete with socks, gloves, and balaclava.
Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.
Top Fuel is a type of drag racing whose dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of 338 miles per hour (544.0 km/h) and finishing the 1,000 foot (304.8 m) runs in 3.62 seconds.
Shirley Muldowney, also known professionally as "Cha Cha" and the "First Lady of Drag Racing", is an American auto racer. She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. She won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She won a total of 18 NHRA national events.
Michael Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American auto racing builder and promoter.
Kenneth Dale Bernstein is an American drag racer and former NASCAR and IndyCar team owner. He is nicknamed the "Bud King" for his success in the Budweiser King funny car and dragster. He has also been nicknamed the "King of Speed," because he was the first driver to break 300 miles per hour in the standing-start quarter mile. Bernstein owned King Racing, which he drove for in the NHRA and fielded various cars in other racing series such as IndyCar and NASCAR. Bernstein retired from full-time competition in 2002 and moved his son Brandon into the Bud King Top Fuel dragster, but returned to finish the season in place of his son after Brandon suffered a severe injury. With the exception of a brief return to Funny Car in 2007, Bernstein did not return to the car and instead continued to run his team until the end of the 2011 season when he left drag racing altogether.
Don Prudhomme, nicknamed "the Snake", is an American drag racer.
Conrad "Connie" Kalitta is an American businessman and former drag racing driver, nicknamed "The Bounty Hunter." Kalitta is the CEO of Kalitta Air and the owner of Kalitta Motorsports.
Nostalgia drag racing is a form of drag racing that uses cars from earlier eras of drag racing, as well as cars built to fit the guidelines of earlier eras using parts that would have been available in that era.
Eddie Hill is an American retired drag racer who won numerous drag racing championships on land and water. Hill had the first run in the four second range (4.990 seconds), which earned him the nickname "Four Father of Drag Racing." His other nicknames include "The Thrill", "Holeshot Hill", and "Fast Eddie". In 1960, he set the NHRA record for the largest improvement in the elapsed time (e.t.) when he drove the quarter mile in 8.84 seconds to break the previous 9.40-second record.
Jack Chrisman was an American drag racer. He was a drag racing pioneer and 1961 champion. He was influential in the formation of the Funny Car class, as he introduced the first blown injected nitro-burning Funny Car. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) ranked Chrisman 23rd on their Top 50 drivers in 2001.
Don Nicholson was an American drag racer from Missouri. He raced in the 1960s and 1970s when there were few national events. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) estimates he won 90 percent of his match races. As of 2002, he held the record for the most number of categories in which he reached a final round : Funny Car, Pro Stock, Super Stock, Competition Eliminator, Stock, and Street. He was nicknamed "Dyno Don" after he was one of the first drivers to use a chassis dynamometer on his cars in the late 1950s, a skill that he learned while working as a line mechanic at a Chevrolet car dealer.
Mendy Fry is an American dragster and funny car driver competing in the NHRA. Under the tutelage of her father, Ron, she began driving quarter-midget sprint cars at age 4. As a teenager, she campaigned in the NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster class. She is the only female drag racer to record a 5-second 1/4 mile elapsed time in a front-engined Top Fuel dragster, as well as the only female member of the exclusive "Nostalgia Top Fuel 250 mph Club". In 2019 she recorded the first 5.4 second quarter-mile elapsed time in a AA/Fuel Dragster.
Tom McEwen was an American drag racer who was a winner of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) U.S. Nationals. His racing career spanned 45 years. He is ranked at number 16 on a list of the 50 most significant drivers of NHRA’s first 50 years.
Roland Leong was an American drag racer from Honolulu, whose "Hawaiian" brand cars achieved many victories. He later went on to act as crew chief in Funny Car races.
Jerry Ruth is a former professional drag racer who raced in the "golden age of drag racing" in the 1960s and 1970s. He was known as drag racing's "King of the Northwest".
Shirley Shahan is a pioneering American woman drag racer.
Altered is a former National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing class and a current drag racing chassis configuration that forms the basis of many classes of NHRA Competition Eliminator.
Gaspar Ronda, better known as Gas Ronda, was an American drag racer. He was also a restaurateur. In 2016, Ronda was made a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.
