Fritz Voigt
When you read the story of Fred “Fritz” Voigt’s involvement in racing, it sounds a lot like many of his competitors. Fritz grew up in Vernon California with neighbors that would soon become household names, the Drake family Louis Meyer who developed the infamous Myron Drake engines and the Novi engine. Another big influence on his life was another business located not far from his home, Bell Auto Parts where he would hang out and learn about the sport. After the usual teenage street activities Fritz began participating at the dry Lakes and Bonneville, first in a 1932 Ford Roadster powered by a “big” flathead and later with a Chrysler powered Model T pickup. After these vehicles, he paired off with another well-known racer, Leland Kolb and the two of them campaigned a series of different cars.
As soon as drag racing became organized, he put together a gas dragster and started competing at Santa Ana and later Long Beach. At the first NHRA Nationals runoffs in Perryville, Arizona, Fritz was competing with the gas dragster but still managed to become a runner-up to Calvin Rice who was competing in a fuel dragster with both cars stopping the clocks with identical ET’s of 10.30.
Shortly after that he started working with Mickey Thompson where his first job was to help convert Manuel Coelho’s twin engine dragster into Mickey’s first twin Chrysler streamliner dragster. Upon completion of the twin engine dragster they headed to Oklahoma City for the 1958 NHRA Nationals but managed a side trip to Bonneville where they turned in a speed of 294 MPH. After that trip Fritz became the man who was responsible for building and tuning all of Mickey’s engines. Fritz built all of the two cylinder, four-cylinder, and eight-cylinder Pontiac engines Mickey used in his FIA and drag racing efforts along with the engines used in Challenger 1. He built and tuned the hemi Pontiac powered dragster that Jack Chrisman drove to the 1962 Nationals win and along the way even put together some powerplants for Ed Roth’s show cars.
In 1946 Fritz opened his own garage in Maywood California building and repairing just about anything that came through the door. Even during his stint with Mickey, Fritz kept the doors to his shop open. The doors remained open even after Fritz his retirement.