Famed Drag Racer Kenny Safford Dies – Career Marked With Strong Performances In Well Known Cars


Famed Drag Racer Kenny Safford Dies – Career Marked With Strong Performances In Well Known Cars

There was a time in the sport of drag racing that drivers mattered more than they do now. Don’t get all weird on us here and think that we’re taking a pot shot at today’s modern crop of professional drag racers because are not. The men who laid the cobblestones of drag racing’s first proverbial streets were of a different breed. For a span of more than 15 years, Kenny Safford was one of the best drivers that the sport had ever seen. From his early days of driving the famous “Sour Sisters” Oldsmobile powered top fuel dragster in the 1960s through his time with the Champion Speed Shop and “Terrible Ted” Gotelli, all the way into his time as a racer on the Coca Cola Cavalcade of Funny Car Stars, Safford was respected as a racer and as a person. He was not a guy that generated a lot of controversy and seems to us like a real “racer’s racer”.  The photo shown above and below depict him completing a burnout in one of the coolest cars he drove, the Mr Norm’s Charger.

Another neat thing about Safford is that he was a member of the famed “Road Kings” car club of Burbank, California. This car club is still in existence and it was one of the great incubators of drag racing talent in history. How can we say that? Has another club turned out guys like Ivo, Prudhomme, Safford, Tony Nancy, Bob Muravez, and a host of others? We didn’t think so. By all accounts, Safford was active and involved with the club right up until the end and this is not only a great testament to him but also the club which has remained close as the years have gone by. Hot rodders are hot rodders and we all love to hang out with one another.

During an era where drivers truly put their lives on the line every time they strapped into a car, Kenny Safford proved himself to be an exemplary talent. The foundation he built for himself in the early 1960s during drag racing’s growth spurt paid huge dividends for him when he was front and center as a recognized talent when the drag racing cultural explosion took place just a few short years later. As recognition and proof of a career well raced, Safford was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall Of Fame in 2002.

He joins many other worthy opponents and off track friends at the big strip in the sky. Godspeed Kenny Safford.

 

safford


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2 thoughts on “Famed Drag Racer Kenny Safford Dies – Career Marked With Strong Performances In Well Known Cars

  1. paul

    Who or where will his Elco go? Ken was one of the best and not Just as a drag racer. Business owner, partner, racer, friend, family man just an all around class guy. Once again, one of the founders of the sport passes and we have no documentation for all the story’s that are now gone forever. God speed Kenny.

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