They don’t build ’em like Fred Goeske anymore. His story of evolution in the sport of drag racing mirrors that of many from his era. He began tinkering with cars in his teens, spent time in the service, came home, opened a business, and said business provided him the means to really go after his ultimate goals in the sport of drag racing. With a career that spanned from the age of funny cars that still had operational doors, to the awesome machines of the late 1960s and into the 1970s, through the era of rocket powered floppers, and then into a successful manufacturing business, the guy lived the life of 10 men combined and had epic stories for days. It seems incredible in today’s world that a guy could get sponsorship and make a living traversing the country with a funny car match racing and barnstorming from track to track but a bunch of guys actually did.

Goeske was a member of the famed Coca Cola Cavalcade of Funny Car Stars for several seasons, he was a guy who won huge 32 car shows at places like Lions Drag Strip, he hauled flopped bodies around the country and delivered them to racers, he was a talented machinist who made parts for other racers, he earned his nickname by driving stuff that had proven scary and even flawed to some degree. This was proven early in his professional career driving the rear engine Barracuda that Mongoose McEwen had driven and literally flown at 150mph. Goeske somehow tamed the thing and was a holy terror in it during the 1967 season. His move to the world of rocket cars was made because Fred was a smart guy on the financial side and saw that he could run a rocket car on way less budget than a nitro car and book himself into tracks all over the country. Simply put, the margins were way better and he did that for several years before wrecking hard in the early 1980s and stepping out of the driver’s seat.

The thing we love about guys like Fearless Fred Goeske is the fact that they are guys who true, hardcore, drag racing fans remember and celebrate. No, his obit won’t be in the NY Times. No he won’t have city streets named after him but he will, for decades to come, be remembered as one of those racers who did whatever it took to make it to the next track, to please the next crowd, and to endear himself to drag racing fans all over the country through his skill, acumen, and bigger than life antics.

We’re just wondering if he’s headed down the big strip in the sky driving a rocket car or a nitro burner!

HERE ARE SOME COOL PHOTOS OF GOESKE’S GREAT FUNNY CARS FROM OVER THE YEARS –