Dale Armstrong. Image courtesy NHRA.
If you really know your drag racing history, we’re confident you’ll agree that few people have succeeded on so many of the sport’s levels as Dale Armstrong. A multiple winner as a driver and one of the most dominating crew chiefs in the annals of drag racing, Armstrong died last week at his Temecula, California, home at the age of 73.
He is best known for his remarkable run as the crew chief for now-retired Kenny Bernstein, an alliance that produced five of Bernstein’s six world titles, four in Funny Car and one in Top Fuel. Several came aboard the Budweiser-sponsored Funny Car that Armstrong had shaped in a wind tunnel, one of the first times that aerodynamic technology was so successfully exploited by a drag racing team. It was the sort of technical excellence that Armstrong exhibited repeatedly in his career, which began with him building hot rods in his native Canadian province of Alberta.
He moved to Southern California for more racing opportunities and became a star in an eliminator category then known as Pro Comp, which pitted Funny Cars, Altereds and dragsters against each other on a heads-up basis. Armstrong won races in every combination of car and powertrain that was legal under the Pro Comp format. After his driving career, Pro Comp was essentially broken into today’s Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes.
It was Bernstein that gave him free rein to innovate. Armstrong co-invented the modern multi-stage clutch for fuel racing. Under his tutelage, Bernstein became the first drag racer to break the 300 MPH barrier in the quarter-mile. Later, Armstrong went to work for Don Prudhomme, where he tuned Larry Dixon to the sport’s first sub-4.50 second ET. For his Pro Comp exploits, Armstrong earned a slot of the NHRA’s all-time list of its 50 greatest drivers.
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