Any NHRA fans in here?

Doggie Daddy · Mar 29, 2012

A heads up to all drag racing fans on EO, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins has passed away today.

Anyone who was a Chevy fan of drag racing knew the "Grump" as a pioneer in Pro Stock, and many of his innovations and inventions are still in use today. "Grumpy" regularly beat the Mopar boys that were running the big block 426 hemi's using his small block Chevy 327.

Voted #8 in the top 50 NHRA drivers of all time Bill Jenkins was 81

Doggie Daddy · Mar 29, 2012

"Grumpy's" Hemi killer.

duramaxvan · Mar 29, 2012

I used to really like the 66/67 Nova's that he ran before the switch to the Vega. A white tee shirt and ever present cigar. He was one of the greats on the 1/4 mile.

Doggie Daddy said:
View attachment 4527

"Grumpy's" Hemi killer.

SHARP327 · Mar 31, 2012

I remember Grumpy all to well!... Great Drag racer but he earned that name!...I for one will
miss him along with a lot of other Drag racing legends!

LDB · Mar 31, 2012

The Novas and Vegas were cool cars. I especially liked the Vega when they used the split bumpers.

Doggie Daddy · Mar 31, 2012

SHARP327 said:
I remember Grumpy all to well!... Great Drag racer but he earned that name!.

Hmm, sounds like you might have a story to tell. As NHRA fans know, unlike NASCAR you can get up close and personal with all of the drivers. And in Grumpy's time, many of the top drivers actually worked on the engines of their cars.

So did he catch you "borrowing" tools from his toolbox, or did you say to him "Bill, I don't think you've got that carburator jetted right"....LOL.

SHARP327 · Apr 1, 2012

My friend and I were watching him work on his car and my friend kept asking all kinds
of questions trying to impress Grumpy I guess and Bill turned and said ain't you got something better
to do than bother me right now!...to which my friend said Sorry!..and we moved on.