77. ELMER TRETT
One of the first fuel bike drivers over 200 mph, Trett was one of the top drivers in the world during the 1980s and until his untimely death at the 1996 NHRA U.S. Nationals due to a 200+ mph encounter with the guard wall.
78. JIM WALTHER
Pretty much a one-shot wonder. Walther and partner “Slim” Carter were the first NHRA Top Fuel champs in a rear-engined Top Fuel Dragster. By virtue of winning the 1972 NHRA World Finals in Amarillo, Texas, Walther claimed the world championship and his only NHRA win. In IHRA competition, he also won just one Top Fuel Eliminator title.
79. WARREN & COBURN
No doubt about it, James Warren ruled the West Coast Top Fuel scene from the late 1960s through the '70s. He and partner Roger Coburn of Bakersfield, Calif., won two NHRA national events, the 1968 Winternationals and 1976 Gatornationals, but that only begins to tell the story. Among other things, Warren won three straight Bakersfield March Meet Titles (1975-1977), beating Don Garlits in two of the three. He was the Division 7 Top Fuel champ from 1972 through 1976, and won match shows as diverse as the Orange County PDA Meet and the Nitro Championships. He was the first driver to get a five-second time slip at Orange County and Irwindale, and, according to Don Garlits in an LA Times interview, was the toughest driver he faced when he toured the West Coast.
80. WATERS & SHUGRUE
The Waters & Shugrue roadster, a DeSoto-powered blown nitro-burner, probably turned in the first great historical performance by this breed. On Feb. 1, 1959, Waters & Shugrue won a warm-up fuel show prior to the March Meet when they defeated Gary Cagle’s Torco/Herbert Cams dragster. (That is the Torco Oil company not the Torco Racing Fuels of current fame.) What’s remarkable is that Waters ran an aggregate best of 8.99 (the first roadster in the 8's) at a speed of 173.41 mph. A month later, Waters was runner-up at the Bakersfield March Meet. He also earned fame at the wheel of Ernie Hashim’s dragster taking runner-up to fellow Bakersfieldian Jack Williams at the 1964 Hot Rod Magazine Championships Top Fuel show.
81. JOHN WIEBE
"Kansas John" was the last, great, front-motored Top Fuel jockey not from the modern era. His accomplishments are numerous. He was a three-time AHRA Top Fuel World Champ although only a one-time NHRA national event winner. Probably his greatest fame came in two losses. At the 1971 NHRA Supernationals his striped dragster debuted with an Ed Donovan 417-cid aluminum block and it immediately spelled the end for the iron blocks when it put two-tenths between it and the rest of the field. He went up-in-smoke in the final against Hank Johnson, the second best last front-motor pilot. The other loss came in a 6.17 to 6.17 loss to Don Prudhomme, the first and only time that two competitors ran the quickest Top Fuel time in history at the same time on the same pass.
82. JACK WILLIAMS
Williams’ greatest fame came behind the wheel of the Crossley-Williams-Swan fuel dragster and mostly during the 1964 season. He won the 1964 NHRA Winternationals Top Fuel title, the inaugural Hot Rod Magazine Championships, and finished the year as NHRA’s first Top Fuel World Champion. In the middle of that season, Williams was runner-up to Garlits at the 1964 NHRA Nationals. After the 1964 season, Williams’ successes were sporadic, his last big win being at the 1965 Riverside Raceway opener where he won a 16-car Top Fuel show.
