Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max Funny Car.
Three-time NHRA Funny Car champion and former NASCAR team owner Raymond Beadle died Monday.
Bang Shift reported Beadle had been dealing with medical complications.
Beadle was wildly popular among race fans during the golden age of drag racing, winning the NHRA Funny Car championship three years in a row from 1979-1981, and also winning the IHRA Funny Car championship in 1975-76, and in 1981 (when he was champion in both the NHRA and IHRA).
He was notably one of very few drivers who could run toe-to-toe with Don Prudhomme during the height of Prudhomme’s dominance.
Beadle is famous for driving the Blue Max Funny Car built and tuned by Harry Schmidt. The Beadle-Schmidt pairing proved to be motorsports magic with Schmidt building a dominating car and Beadle’s capable hands behind the wheel.
Beadle’s NASCAR team won the Winston Cup in 1989 with Rusty Wallace driving the #27 Pontiac.
Beadle was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2014. He’s also a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and was voted the 20th greatest driver in NHRA history.
You can read more about Beadle’s life and passing at NHRA.com and Nationalspeedsportnews.com.
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