Tim Beebe
Tim Beebe was first introduced to the world of racing by his father, Merrill Beebe, who was racing midgets and sprint cars at the local circle tracks. Tim’s first car was a 1953 Olds that he started modifying and taking to local drag races. Even while he was drag racing the Olds, Tim felt a strong loyalty to circle track racing because of his dad, but it was easier for him to go drag racing, so that is where he stayed. The Olds was followed by a modified 1956 Chevy that Tim raced with some success.
Tim’s first step in becoming involved with the highly modified part of drag racing came when he teamed up with Frank Fedak on an altered Fiat powered by Tim’s blown and carbureted small block Chevy engine and driven by John Mulligan. The car was a class contender from the very beginning and pave the way for his future success. Next came in altered Bantam roadster powered by the Chevy engine out of the Fiat and driven by his brother, Dave Beebe. Like the Fiat, the Bantam was very competitive, but like all races, Tim wanted to go quicker and faster, so he made the move to AA/fuel dragsters.
In the mid-60s, Tim decided to become a full-time race car mechanic/crew chief/owner and teamed up with his brother Dave and Lee SIxt to on the highly successful Beebe brothers and Sixt top fuel dragster with Dave doing the driving.
In 1967, Dave Beebe decided he was just too busy to continue driving and suggested that their neighbor, John Mulligan, take over the driving chores. Tim and John both like the idea, and soon the now legendary Beebe and Mulligan AA/FD team was born. Tim and John were soon on tour with the car and are still counted among the original touring pros of drag racing. At the 1969 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona California the Beebe and Mulligan car beat Don Prudhomme in the final round to win the event. Later that year, Tim and John ran two-tenths of a second quicker than the rest of the entire field at the NHRA Nationals in Indy to set a new ET record at 6.43 seconds. Unfortunately, in the first round of eliminations there was a fiery crash in which John lost his life, and the car was destroyed. The following year Tim and Dave built the Beebe Brothers AA/FC and spent the entire season racing locally in Southern California. At the last points race at Orange County Raceway they set a new NHRA ET record and secured an invitation to the 1970 World Finals. In 1971 Tim built the “Fighting Irish” funny car, hired Dick Roseburg as the driver and again became a touring pro. 1973 saw Tim back in the AA/FD wars when he teamed up with Jim Murphy to run a rear engine top fuel dragster. The highlight of the 1974 season for the pair was winning the UDRA Championship. In 1975 Tim decided to retire from racing and move to Porterville, California where he went to work at B&J Transmissions, which at the time was building one of the more successful automatic transmissions used in drag racing. After a short time at B&J, Tim open B&B Transmissions “down the road a piece” but still in Porterville, and built it into a very successful business.
Tim came at a retirement 2001 when he rejoined Jim Murphy as crew chief for the Jim’s WWII Racing effort in nostalgic drag fuel wars. With Tim as the crew chief, the WWII Racing team has managed to chalk up a number of event wins, run a record top speed of 256 MPH and set the ET record at 5.71 seconds. It also won the VRA Fuel and Gas Championships in 2004. Among his other awards and records, Tim won the Car Craft Magazine Top Fuel Dragster Crew Chief of the Year award in both 1969 and 1970.