They were Ellison, McGarvey, Karp, and Hughes. They were some of the biggest names in drag racing to come out of the New England area. They were the Boston Strangler team and Keith Hughes was their tuning maestro. From 1977 through the 1990 season the team won 10 national events in NHRA and IHRA funny car competition and that doesn’t speak to the dozens of match race victories over the years running a busy circuit between major events. Hughes passed away recently in his home in Florida. That’s basically where the story behind the video below begins.
With deep roots in Massachusetts, Hughes was remembered last night by many of his friends, racing family, and fellow competitors. The most amazing twist in this story is the fact that his friends were able to talk the funeral home into allowing them to roll the recently recreated Boston Strangler Mustang II funny car into the home for attendees to see.
We never like to jump to claims about firsts in the sport of drag racing and we’re sure that there have been plenty of race cars in funeral homes before but watching this video and seeing a funny car, a real damned funny car rolled through the doors is amazing.
You want to know what drag racing is? This is drag racing. This is friendship, respect, honor, and all of the things that we hold dear around here on full display. This group of largely aging hot rodders wanted to do one last really cool thing for their late friend and boy howdy did they ever.
Speaks volumes about Keith and drag racers in general
We did the same thing for one of our motorcycle buddies who sadly passed away while on a ride in New Hampshire. Of course funeral homes are a little more accommodating when you only want to roll a Moto Guzzi next to the casket.
Still can’t believe all the love and support from everybody that came to my grammpys funeral I can’t thank you all enough an Paul zona for bringing the strangler down for me an saying yes an Dave solomine for saying yes to my question when I thought the answer would be no to putting the strangler in the funeral home I love you all thank you.
I graduated from northeast metro tech in 2000 , Keith was my auto shop teacher .
We always knew he was involved in the drag racing community but I never knew to what extent . I had incredible respect for him as my teacher but even more for what he has given to everyone in the racing community. I had the chance to see the Boston Strangler at the funeral home . Paying respects to Keith was a must in my eyes . He taught me and many friends the fundamentals of automotive and from there it was our choice what to do with it .
I have been turning wrenches since high school and currently work as a mechanic to this day . I bring both my sons to the local car shows and I hope they can grow up seeing how much of a tight knit group car lovers are .
I would love to learn more about Keith’s racing history and the team of the Boston Strangler funny car .