Gary Beck - the “Quiet Canadian”
The man who helped shape today’s highly competitive Top Fuel class
By Brian Wood
Photos by/courtesy of Gary Beck, Bruce Biegler, Rob Potter, Brian Wood and Goodguys

It was recently announced that former NHRA Top Fuel Champion Gary Beck, of Laguna Niguel, California, will be honored at the Goodguys 46^th March Meet, March 11, 12 & 13, 2005, at Famoso Raceway, just outside Bakersfield, California. Beck will be interviewed on the Famoso Raceway starting line and presented with a trophy prior to final eliminations on Sunday, March 13^th. As a tribute to Beck and his outstanding career, we bring you this story of one of drag racing’s most interesting individuals.

If you were lucky enough to attend big time drag racing events in the 1970’s, the highlight of any weekend at the track was almost certainly the fast and ferocious Top Fuel competition. Snapping and cackling as they eased into the staging beams, the stinging clouds of nitro fumes took your breath away until, after what seemed an eternity, the lights came down and the cars exploded into the night.

Trailing orange header flames as they plummeted into the darkness, it was over as quickly as it had begun. For a split-second, there was an unearthly silence, and then, reacting as one, the crowd erupted in wild applause. Over and over this surreal ritual was performed, and the nitro junkies in the stands loved every minute of it.

And in those days, one, if not all, of the following three names were likely to be listed somewhere near the top when the smoke cleared: Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and Gary Beck. There were others, including Richard Tharp and Kelly Brown, for example, that made some noise once in a while, but it was the aforementioned “big three” that dominated the sport for most of the decade.

Beck, who was labeled “The Quiet Canadian” in press reports of the day, was actually an American, born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He worked his way up through the hobby ranks until, by the late 1960’s, he and Gaines Markley were running the successful Markley & Beck BB/Gas Dragster in NHRA Division Six competition.

After meeting future wife Penny, Gary moved to her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, in 1969, with every intention of settling down and leaving drag racing behind, which he actually succeeded in doing for about a year. But eventually, he gave in to the urge to be close to things loud and fast, and joined the Capitol City Hot Rod Club.

Little did Gary, or anyone else for that matter, realize that this innocuous little club was destined to become the launching pad for some of the most famous names in fuel drag racing history. Among its members were some guys named Dale Armstrong, Bernie Fedderly and Graham Light, among others.

Not able to stay away from racing any longer, Beck listened enthusiastically as another club member, Ken Mclean, laid out his plans to form a Top Fuel team. In 1970, the pair bought the front-engined Kalivoda & Hamlin “Joker” from Seattle’s Dick Kalivoda, which McLean would drive.  After two mostly forgettable seasons, however, the team re-sold the car to Light, who put it over the guardrail at Mission Raceway in British Columbia on his first run. But that’s another story completely.    

By the summer of 1972, in spite of running a new rear-engine car, the Canadian team’s fortunes faired no better, and changes were in the wind. When sponsor Bob Lawrence expressed interest in joining Gary as a team owner, Beck bought out McLean, got his own Top Fuel ticket and took over behind the wheel.

He remembers the circumstances leading up to the first of his many national event victories: “After I got my license, we went to Seattle in September and lost in the first round. The next race was the U.S. Nationals, and by the time we got there I was really comfortable in the car. It took about a dozen runs to get back into it, but I was ready for Indy, where we were lucky enough to take our first win.” Just for the record, Beck ran an elapsed time of 6.11 at 229 miles per hour to clinch the historic victory.

In 1973 Beck won the U.S. Nationals again, running 5.96 to set a new national ET record. By this time, Edmonton engine builder Ray Peets had bought out Lawrence, and the Beck & Peets Reliable Engine Service dragster had been unleashed on the world.

From there, there was no stopping the hard-charging West Coast racers. In 1974, now well on their way to becoming one of the most successful teams in Canadian motorsport history, Beck and Peets captured their first NHRA Top Fuel World Championship. That year, they won an amazing 79% of the NHRA and AHRA events they entered; 59 wins in 74 runs.

Just as important, perhaps, was the fact that in ‘74 their racing effort was underwritten by Canada’s MacDonald’s Tobacco Company, and their Export “A” cigarette brand. They were one of the first teams in professional racing to fly a corporate banner, something which is the lifeblood of the sport today.

As a condition of their Export “A” sponsorship, however, the team’s activities weren’t restricted to the quarter-mile. A show car was built, and Beck and Peets were required to attend numerous car shows and corporate extravaganzas where they, and the car, were put on display.  And thanks to some innovative marketing, the team found themselves running their rail job at some places a straight-line machine was never intended to go.

A great example was the time that Gary ran a lap around the famous road course at Mosport, near Toronto. He swears this is true, so it’s best told in his own words:

“Export was sponsoring a road race at Mosport in 1974, and some marketing genius decided that it would be great if we went out and made a lap around the track before the race. Our main concern was getting enough fuel in the car, but we loaded her up and went for it. Right off the starting line I did a huge burnout, and just kept going, down past all the fans along the front straightaway. Let me tell you, you can really move down through there with a dragster, and I was really liking it.

“Of course, I had to slow down some to get around the corners, but I eased it through, and was having a great time until I got to the hairpin turn. For that one I had to stop and work myself around, but I made it. Coming out of the hairpin, I loaded the engine up, dropped the clutch, and carried the front wheels two feet off the track all the way down the back stretch. Now it’s making a hard move as I fly up and down some hills and around some more corners.

“Finally, about three-quarters of the way around, I pull the chutes and just drag them around to put on a show, crossing the finish line just as the fuel ran out. Later I found out that we had run just a few seconds over the Mosport track record! If I had known how close we were to breaking the record, I’d have hustled a little more through that hairpin. Just think - we nearly set the track record with a Top Fuel dragster!” Now that’s something you don’t see every day.

And the MacDonald’s people weren’t through. A little later that year, they were sponsoring a stock car race at Delaware Speedway near London, Ontario. Again they brought Beck and Peets in for a show. The plan this time was to have the car do a fire burnout off the starting line, then roar around the paved, banked oval short track. Who came up with these ideas? Anyway, things were going pretty well as Gary dumped the clutch, lit the gas with his header flames, and carrying the wheels, made a fast move into turn one - just as someone turned all the lights out to make the show more impressive for the fans!

The most un-impressed person in the place was Beck, who, suddenly blinded, somehow managed to negotiate the tight turn, all the while keeping his foot in the throttle to keep the header flames burning for the spectators. Coming out of turn two, the lights came back on, so Beck, ever the showman, nailed it again and carried the wheels all the way down the backstretch. With apologies to Bob Frey, the crowd most certainly went wild.

Back on the competition trail the following season, Beck and Peets kept the heat on the rest of the pack, their bid for a second straight NHRA title falling just short, as they finished runner-up to Garlits by a narrow margin. They did, however, win at Seattle in September, and at the 1975 Supernationals World Finals in Ontario, California, Beck ran a 5.69 to earn the distinction of being the first Top Fuel racer in the 5.6’s. In addition, they added two IHRA event wins to their tally for the year.

In 1976, the team suffered a financial blow as Canadian government regulations banned most tobacco advertising, and their Export “A” days were suddenly over. Eventually, Thrush Mufflers stepped in to provide a major sponsorship package, but over the next four seasons, as more and more money was required to keep playing in the big leagues, Beck and Peets found it increasingly difficult to maintain their winning consistency. Through 1979, they won just once, finishing third in points in ‘76 and fourth in ‘78, being shut out of the top ten in ‘77 and ‘79.

By 1980, Gary realized that if he wanted to continue as a top contender in Top Fuel, he’d have to make some major changes and he eventually teamed up with multi-millionaire potato farmer and racer Larry Minor of San Jacinto, California. Hired drivers were pretty rare in those days, but Beck, after long deliberation, decided to make the move in order to avail himself of the state-of-the-art cars and technology the Minor team had to offer. Beck was outstanding throughout his career as a record-setting driver, his first run in the 5.6s in 1975 being just one example. After joining with Minor, he went on to become the first Top Fuel racer to run in the 5.5’s (1981), 5.4’s (1982), and 5.3’s (1983).

Victory-wise, however, the new team started out slowly, winning just once in 1980, but finishing consistently enough to end up second to the tough Muldowney. The team’s confidence skyrocketed the following year, as Beck won three times, good enough for another runner-up finish. In 1982, while going winless, Gary had one of the best running cars on the tour, shaking up the competition with a 5.48 first-round win over Jack Ostrander at the U.S. Nationals. It was only a sign of things to come.

1983 would turn out to be Beck’s greatest performance year by far. That was the year that his old Capital City Hot Rod Club crony Bernie Fedderly came on board as crew chief.  At the time, Fedderly was working for the highly rated Canadian "Wheeler Dealer" team, and Minor took notice of the Albertan’s efforts, leading him to invite Fedderly to join his well-funded operation. During that memorable season, Minor and Beck's dark blue Al Swindahl-chassied dragster, with Fedderly turning the wrenches, won four times, and amazingly, was low qualifier at ten of twelve events that year.

At the Gatornationals, in mid-march, Beck set a new national mark of 5.44. In October, at the Golden Gate Nationals in Fremont, California, Beck trashed Gary Ormsby in the final with the sport’s first 5.3-second blast (a 5.391) and then followed it up with a backed-up 5.391 at the World Finals event at Orange County International Raceway. Gary had his second Winston Championship, won during a season that saw him run 17 of the quickest 18 runs in Top Fuel history. It was a totally dominating performance.

During the next three years, Beck drove Minor’s car to second, seventh and ninth place finishes. But times change, and in racing, sometimes a lot faster and more often than anywhere else. At the end of the ‘86 season, Gary was informed that his services were no longer required, and he decided to call it a career. Well, almost.

“After my ‘official’ retirement, it took me about ten years to get racing completely out of my system,” Gary said with a chuckle. “I raced from time-to-time with various teams, the last being the Peek Brothers about five years ago. I think I’m done driving now, but I still love the sport, and especially like the nostalgia races that are going on here in California now.”

That’s right - California. These days, Gary lives in Laguna Niguel, where he has an executive position with homebuilder Fieldstone Communities. His job keeps him busy, but as he travels the country as a purchasing agent for the company, he can’t help reflect back on his great career in Top Fuel, and all the people who helped him along the way. Gary has never strayed too far from the track, however, and he is still active in drag racing. He and fellow 1983 Championship team members Henry Walther, John Cox, Willie Wolter and John Rodeck serve as crew members on Terry Cox’s Northern California-based “Cheetah III” nostalgia top fuel dragster, which will seek its first Goodguys top fuel victory at the 46^th March Meet.

And in the country he represented for so many years, his accomplishments will never be forgotten. In 1999 Gary Beck and Ray Peets were inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, joining old friends Dale Armstrong, Bernie Fedderly and Graham Light on the Hall’s prestigious roll of honor.  

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