Sometimes the most valuable life lessons are taught in the humblest of settings. In the summer of 1971, a pair of young men, one several years old than the other, began working at a wheel & tire store in Houston, Texas. One was the son of the business owner, and the other was a teenager looking to earn some extra money. 

Little did the two know this pairing would lead to a friendship that is still in place more than five decades later. The two became championship-winning tuners with a combined winning percentage which accounts for national event victories in 12-percent of all the NHRA national events contested. 

Credit Dick Venables for setting Dickie Venables and Rahn Tobler in the right direction.

The elder Venables passed away on December 29, 2021. He was 82.

Although his Mom, Nedra, took him to his first drag race when he was just a few months old, it was his Dad who set him up for a pathway of success. The pathway began at eight years old when he was all too eager to clean parts for his father's Top Fuel dragster. 

"The mechanical skills came from Dad, as far as being a mechanic, as far as knowing how to organize my tools and how to do a job and stay organized and clean and know where your tools are all the time," Dickie said.  

For Tobler, Venables was much more than a drag racing mentor. 

"It was certainly the springboard into my almost 50-year long racing career," Tobler explained. "He took in a 17-year-old kid who bagged groceries at the store down the street and took me to my first race in Amarillo in 1971. He gave this teenage kid an opportunity to do pretty much everything, build short blocks and build every facet of a race car. And he actually even gave me the opportunity to drive his race car in 1975 when I was 21 years old and get my Top Fuel license.

Tobler saw Dick Sr. as more than just a mentor. 

"I would not have obviously had the career and met the people and became friends with the people that I have over the years," Tobler said. "I was a teenager that had never really had a father. So he got me in my formative years and taught me so much, not only about racing, but also about life."

Eventually, Dick Sr. watched his two students go off into the drag racing world; Tobler first with Marvin Graham, and then two were reunited for Shirley Muldowney's 1982 championship season. They later were reunited with the Pedregon Brothers and finally at Don Schumacher Racing. 

Dickie remembered his dad as a man of few words.

"I know he was proud of us," Dickie said. "I was 18 years old when I packed my bags, jumped in the rig, and off I went. Not knowing that 40 years later or whatever, I'd still be doing this. 

"He would say, 'Well, you're doing good. I'm proud of you and all that." 

"As time went on, I didn't realize how proud he was. And I even realized that more this past week talking to people. He would tell his friends how proud he was more than he told me. So knowing that he was proud of that it's a good feeling. It's just a storybook deal Tobler and me, both."

As Dickie sees it, it was the foundation laid for the two kids that made all of the difference.  

"It was as solid as you could get," Dickie said.