NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Recent passings of notable figures from within the NHRA world. The NHRA extends its sincere condolences to the family and friends of those we have lost. Notices of passing can be sent to nhra@nhra.com.

Linda Mazi, who with her then husband Frank, thrilled Comp eliminator fans with supercharged-gas powered Opels and Firebirds from the 1970s through the early 1990s, passed away Feb. 15.

Their colorful red-hued machines were known for smoky burnouts and the throaty roar of a blown early Chrysler powerplant. The Mazis co-founded the Supercharged Outlaws touring circuit comprised of fellow like-minded racers whose thrill came from racing wild, supercharged machines.

While Frank masterfully wheeled their cars, Linda was the glue of the team, not only assisting with preparation but also taking care of their three daughters -- Dawn, Tammy, and Wendy – who were a constant site at the track.

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Veteran racer and jet-car pioneer Fred Sibley Sr, passed away Feb. 13. He was 93.

Sibley, a 2018 inductee into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, started working on cars when he was around 14 years old, not to go racing but simply to repair them. He attended the local drag strip the first year the NHRA Safety Safari came to Indiana and was hooked on the sport. His first race car was a set of rails powered by a modified four-cylinder Model A Ford engine. His next move was to replace the four-banger with a stout GMC six-cylinder powerplant and in 1951 he built a new “slingshot” dragster that was powered by a 12-cylinder Ranger Aircraft engine. By this time Sibley was working with Art and Walt Arfons at their shop so he was exposed to the jet-powered vehicles they were racing. In 1951 he followed the Ranger-powered dragster with his first jet car.

In 1964, Fred took over some of the driving chores for Arfons’ jet-powered “Green Monster” dragster but preferred to build and drive his own cars. In fact, Fred debuted the first jet-powered Funny Ca,r which boasted a sleek Plymouth Barracuda body wrapped around a J-46 jet powerplant. After the Cuda, Sibley switched from Funny Cars back to dragsters when he built his famous “Quarter Horse” J-46 powered dragster. After the Quarter Horse, Sibley introduced a string of jet-powered dragsters that carried names that are still legends and this arena, names like: “The Hugger”, the J-33 powered “Fat Albert,” “Gypsy Moth,” and “US-1” a car that was formerly owned by Bill Fredrickson and rebuilt by Fred.

Sibley introduced his first jet-powered truck, the “Maxi Taxi,” in 1980 and also set a class record of 353 mph at Bonneville and later made a run in the “Goodyear Wingedfoot” streamliner of 421 mph.

Sibley’s contribution to the sport extends beyond just building and driving classy, exotic racecars, he and Jim Hullinger teamed up to design and build the first “roller starter,” a Chevy-powered set of rollers that was installed at the starting line and eliminated the old push-starting process. Sibley also worked with Jim Deist in developing different parachute designs and other pieces of safety equipment.

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Frank Cook, a fierce Texas-based competitor in both Top Alcohol Funny Car and Top Fuel, passed away Feb. 10. He was 88.

Cook became interested in cars and performance in the early 1950s soon after high school, winning his first drag race in Cedar Hill, Texas, in his 1955 Chevy running in B/Stock. In 1957 he bought a new Chevy Bel-Air 2-door and ran in Super Stock class with his 270-hp Corvette engine. He raced at many tracks including Caddo Mills, Circle, Cedar Hill, Lake Waco, Prairie Hill, Whitehouse and Interstate 20. In 1965, Cook and fellow California Pools employer Bob Miller bought a Chevy-powered fuel altered Roadster and raced all the division 4 tracks. The car ran low 10s at 14mph. In 1968 Cook and Miller bought a dragster and put the injected fuel Chevy in it. They were charter members of the South Central A/Fuel Dragster Association.

Cook was awarded NHRA Sportsman driver of the year in 1974, then moved to blown Alcohol Funny Car with sponsorship from Racing Fuels Inc. in the famous Drag-On Vega. The All American Funny Car Series, founded in 1978, was a group of about 15 Blown Alcohol Funny Cars who booked races all over including the NHRA WCS races. Frank and new partner Chuck Lander enjoyed immediate success in 1978 winning 10 of 13 races run. They went on to win two more AFC Championships, four NHRA Division 4 Championships, and Cook was named Driver of the year three more times.

In 1989 Leroy Hess enlisted Frank to drive the Hess & Cagle Gunite Express Top Fuel Dragster. Cook was runner up to Gene Snow at the very first race he ran at Rockingham N.C., and with Dave Settles as crew chief he went on to grab low qualifier at the Cajun Nationals in Baton Rouge La. The next weekend he won the Motorplex Top Fuel T-Shirt race and went to the semifinals several times in 1989.

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Lance Boyer, a former Division 3 Motorcycle champion and three-time runner-up in NHRA national event competition, died Feb. 9. He was 81.

Boyer scored runner-ups in Columbus in 1989 and in Houston in 1993 in Pro Stock Motorcycle. He also was the runner-up in Pro Comp Bike at the 1984 Atlanta event. He was a three-time NHRA Top 10 finisher in Pro Stock Motorcycle with a best finish of ninth in 1993.

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Fred Hurst, a prolific Division 3 campaigner who raced in the Gas classes with both the “old” and “new” body styles, passed away Feb. 6. He was 88.

Each of Hurst's vehicles produced winning records and set high standards for appearance with a trademark Candy Apple Red paint scheme.  After ­beginning his career with a ’57 Chevy, Hurst joined the Gasser ranks for good in 1963 with a Pontiac-powered A/Gas ’40 Willys coupe. He switched to a Chrysler Hemi engine in 1965 and reset the A/G national record. In 1968, Hurst began driving an injected ’68 Barracuda, his most successful car, and won the Street national championship by defeating Bill ­Jenkins in the last round of the NHRA World Finals.

Hurst later drove a ’70 Barracuda for four years. With both cars, he combined to win the A/G class trophy at the 1969 Nationals and three class titles at the Springnationals. Hurst was named the 1968 Division 3 Driver of the Year, a top 10 Hot Rod magazine driver in 1969 and 1971, and a member of the Car Craft ­Magazine All-star Drag Racing Team. His final ride was a Norm Paddock-built ’70 Opel GT that he ran from 1974 to 1977.

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Division 3 standout Rock Running, who scored five NHRA national event wins – four in Super Stock and one in Stock – passed away Feb. 6. He was 84.

Lapeer, Mich.-based Running scored his breakthrough win in Stock at the 1981 NHRA Springnationals in Columbus, Ohio, and added a quartet of Super Stock wins: SPORTSnationals (Indianapolis, 1983), Chief Nationals (Dallas, 1986), Sears Craftsman NHRA nationals ( Topeka, 1994), and JEGS NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals (Columbus, 2007) in his wife Ginny’s Super Sleeper Oldsmobiles.

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NHRA Top Fuel Harley racer Tak Shigematsu passed away Feb. 5, after a bout with pneumonia. He was 60.

Shigematsu several times recorded the fastest Nitro Harley passes in drag racing history and also competed in the All Harley Drag Racing Association, where he was a multi-time event winner. In 2008, he was the first Nitro Harley racer to reach the 6-teens.

He and crew chief Don “DJ” Johnson embarked on quest to have the first pushrod, v-twin supercharged nitro Harley in the five second zone. By November of 2019 the team made great strides and in testing recorded a 6.02 pass. The anticipated five never came, but the team was able to lower the national record to a 6.06 in competition. Shigematsu also briefly held the NHRA record at 6.10.

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Other recent notable passings: Jim Daniels of Wildfire BB/FC fame, Feb. 10; National record-setting Division 1 Super Stock racer Don Morely (pictured), Feb. 22

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Joe Squires, known both for his racing exploits in the early days of Jr. Fuel and Pro Comp and behind the scenes as a tuner, engine builder, and providing customer support in his longtime role at prominent crankshaft manufacturer Bryant Racing from 1994 until he retired in 2022. passed away on Jan. 13 due to pulmonary complications. He was 82.

The mechanically savvy Squires made motorsports his livelihood in 1963. Working as a milkman in Laguna Niguel, Calif., a daily route that included delivery to legendary nitro tuner Gene Adams fostered a relationship that led to a job at Stu Hilborn Fuel Injection Engineering. During that time, Squires was part of the dominant Jr. Fuel team with Adams in which driver Don Enriquez recorded the first unblown 200-mph run in 1968 and the first such 6-second elapsed time in 1971.

Squires is a pioneer of NHRA’s Pro Comp category, which began in 1973 and was the genesis of today’s Top Alcohol classes. He served as crew chief for Dave West on the Instant Karma front-engine dragster powered by an injected nitro DeSoto in 1973. He teamed with Scott Porter in 1974 to campaign their hard-running Porter and Squires front-engine dragster that utilized a nitro-injected 392 Chrysler initially before switching to a supercharged powerplant the next season. After Porter was sidelined with health issues, Squires joined the Miller & Darien team during the 1976 season, where he built the team’s blown 417 Donovan engine.

In 1978, Squires began tuning Jim Wheat’s blown alcohol dragster, driven mostly by Enriquez, through the 1980 season. When the car was sold to Las Vegas resident JJ Mucha, Squires stayed with it and opened Squires Performance Engines Inc. Squires lent his expertise to teams throughout the category, including Dave Hage’s Land Lord entry, Tom Tupper’s Dan Dunaway-driven High Roller dragster, and others. He returned to Southern California in the 1990s and applied his engine-building knowledge to a career at Bryant Racing.

Squires is survived by wife Louise; son Tom; daughter Teresa; grandchildren Aaron, Logan, Sarah, Rebekah, Thomas, Joshua, and Jonathan; and 16 great-grandchildren.

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Mike Saye, a two-time NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series world champion, passed away Jan. 12. He was 80. Saye, standout Division 2 Sportsman racer, won the Super Stock world championship in 1995 and Comp eliminator crown in 2002. In his long career, Saye scored 15 combined national event wins in Comp and Super Stock.

He is survived by his wife Gail Saye, children Michelle (Wes) Ingram and Keely Saye, grandchildren Walker, Chandler and Kinley Ingram, sister Wanda Brunson, brother Tim Saye, and many extended family members and friends who will forever cherish his memory.

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Rich Carlson, a longtime photographic standout in the Northwest and a past NHRA Division 6 Photographer, passed away Jan. 9. When Rich was in high school he took photography courses and as a result, many photos of high school events. A classmate asked him to shoot photos of a pal’s car at the Arlington Airport drag races. Although only 16 years old in 1963, he saw an opportunity to make a little money and charged racers 50 cents for a photo of their race cars. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, his life long career was beginning to take shape.

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Olan Gotcher, a foundational presence in NHRA’s Division 4, Texas Motorplex and across the NHRA national event stage, passed away Jan. 7. He was 81. Gotcher, along with his wife, Judy, were named Texas Motorplex Legends in 2024.

Gotcher’s dedication to the Motorplex, Division 4 and the NHRA national events, as well as weekend races was special. His leadership and mentorship will carry on through dozens of Texas Motorplex staffers and national event facilities who were lucky to work with him over the years. Gotcher also spent time on the track behind the wheel as an avid sportsman and local racer. He was dedicated to supporting DRAW and many other charitable endeavors, always sharing his time, heart, and great sense of humor.

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Hollis Colleasure, a longtime Southern California-based Super Gas racer known for having a pair of surfboards protruding from the rear of his roadster and acting as spoilers, passed away Jan. 2. The past Division 7 Super Gas champion had raced from coast to coast for decades. The Vietnam veteran’s Warren Brogie-built ’27-T roadster was his final machine that he drove for decades after launching his career at the original Irwindale Raceway and Orange County International Raceway, and which carried him to his lone national event win at the 2009 Pacific SPORTSnationals in Fontana, Calif.

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Bob Struksnes, who with his wife Joy campaigned a strong-running independent Top Fuel operation out of Minot, N.D., passed away Jan. 2. He was 85. Although Struksnes never won an NHRA national event, he nonetheless finished third in the 1977 world championship race and fourth in 1976, winning six divisional events over that span. He was inducted into the Division 5 NHRA Hall of Fame and the North Dakota Motor Sports Hall of Fame. [2008 interview]

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Joy; daughters, Sonja (Kevin) Struksnes Weber, Heidi (Phillip) Broderson, and Amber Struksnes; grandchildren, Miranda Struksnes, Ashlee (Landon) Possen, Kaylee Jaensch, MacKenzie Broderson, Casey (Teirney) Jaensch, Nathaniel Ferm, Brandon Broderson, and Kolby Ferm; great-grandchildren, Shaylee, Makayla, and Jayce VanWinkle, Riker, Braylee, and Kinlee Possen;; great-great grandchild, Brinlee; sister, Mary (Rodger) Zurcher; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.