Hot Rod Reunion names honorees

Darrell Gwynn will be Grand Marshal of the 2009 Holley National Hot Rod Reunion on June 19-21 at Beech Bend Raceway Park, Bowling Green, Ky. Others to be honored at the 7th annual event are Jerry Baltes, Bob Creitz, Amy Faulk, Vance Hunt and Chuck Nelson.

Selected as one of NHRA’s all-time Top 50 Drivers, Florida’s Darrell Gwynn won 28 national events in a short 10-year career. At age 18 he was runner-up in Pro Comp at the U.S. Nationals. He scored ten wins in Alcohol Dragster before moving up to Top Fuel at age 23. In March 1990, Gwynn made the quickest run in drag racing at the time at 4.90. Just weeks later, he crashed at England’s Santa Pod Raceway. He was paralyzed from the chest down and lost part of his left arm. Even while recovering, he changed roles to team owner where his car scored 14 victories. (Jeff Burk photo)

Jerry Baltes began driving gas coupes in 1951 and moved to Top Fuel by 1962. He was number three on the Drag News Top Ten List, set an NHRA speed record, won the 1964 World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova, and finished number two in 1964 NHRA points. After a crash ended his driving career in 1967, he fielded the Tom and Jerry Mustang Funny Car as a member of the Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Stars.

Known as an engine wizard, the inventor of the burnout and the most prominent Top Fuel racer in Oklahoma, Bob Creitz was a member of the unofficial group of hard-core fuel racers known as the “Greek Fleet”. Creitz’s cars have been runners-up at the ’67 Winternationals, made the first six-second pass in NHRA Nationals history, and at the PDA meet at Orange County in 1968 won the last 64-car Top Fuel show ever held. He won the inaugural PHR Championships in 1969 and runner-upped at the ‘72 Supernationals.

Experienced in Stock, Super Stock and Competition eliminator classes, Amy Faulk was the first woman to win a national event in Alcohol Dragster and the first woman to win an NHRA division championship. In 1979, Faulk won the Super Stock national championship, and in 1980 was elected to Car Craft Magazine’s All-Star team. In addition to her racing career, Amy has held management roles in the automotive aftermarket and currently serves as the chief administrative officer of Hypertech. She has served on the SEMA Board of Directors, was named SEMA’s Person of the Year in 1996, and is a member of the SEMA Hall of Fame.

A name synonymous with Top Fuel racing in the southwest from 1960 to 1971 is Vance Hunt. As an owner/tuner, the Arlington, Texas racer fielded a long series of dragsters driven by Ed Mabry, J.L. Payne, Ted Arnold, Jerry Ellis, and Watus Simpson. Hunt began racing in the late ‘40s at “any place we could.” Fuel racing beckoned in 1960, and with J.L. Payne driving, Hunt defeated both Don Garlits and Chris Karamesines for the Number One spot on the Drag News Mr. Eliminator list and won the ’62 AHRA Nationals.

Chuck Nelson has been NHRA’s South Central Division Tech Director since the position was created nearly a half century ago. Nelson’s career began at the NHRA Nationals in Oklahoma City in 1958. He was selected by NHRA founder Wally Parks to be one of just nine attendees at the first official NHRA rules meeting in 1959.

(Black and white photos courtesy Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum) [4/7/2009]