Steve Carbone
Steve Carbone was typical of most racer; he had a lifelong love affair with cars and racing, particularly drag racing. As a teenager in Downey California Steve started out as a spectator but before long was competing at the local track in his 1957 Corvette. Next, he competed in a C/Gas 1957 Chevrolet followed by him becoming a crew member on Dave McKenzie’s twin Chevy engine powered top gas dragster. In 1963 Steve accepted an offer from the Porsche Brothers to drive their top gas dragster making his first driving effort in a dragster at Lions Drag Strip.
In 1964 he teamed with chassis builder George Britting on what started out to be a JR fuel car but when the Porsche Brothers offered him there blown Chrysler it soon turned into a top fuel dragster. Steve estimated that between 1966 in 1967 he piloted around 26 different top fuel dragsters but it was in mid-1967 when he notched his first top fuel when driving Jon Bateman’s AA/FD at the Hot Rod Magazine meet at Riverside California. In 1968 Steve set a new track record on his way to winning the NHRA Pro Circuit Race in Amarillo Texas. In 1969 he won the NHRA World Finals in Larry Huff’s AA/FD and the same year one the AHRA World Finals and Bob Creitz AA/FD to become one of the few to win both events in the same year and probably the only one to do so in two different cars. In 1969 Steve also took home the NHRA World Championship crown, won the Popular Hot Rodding Magazine event at Martin Michigan, set top time at the AHRA Points Final in Tulsa and was runner-up to Larry Dixon at the Orange County International Raceway PDA event.
He toured Australia in Larry Huff’s AA/FD in 1970 posting an impressive win streak down under. It was at the 1971 US Nationals in Indianapolis that Steve, driving his own car, really entered his name into drag racing history books. This is the now famous race where he and Don Garlits entered into a staging dual that lasted for something like two minutes before leaving the starting line. Don spun the tires at the start and Steve crossed the finish line first recording what was his most memorable win. Steve continued to campaign his front motor AA/FD until 1972 when he won the AHRA Winternationals in Phoenix. Shortly after that, he debuted a new rear motor AA/FD but in 1973 he decided it was time to quit driving. Steve had moved to Tulsa in 1970 and in 1973 opened his Tulsa base Steve Carbone Racing Engines where he built engines for everything from hot rods to boats to sprint cars. In 2001 Zach Chappell was running engines built by Steve when he won that year’s American Sprint Car Series.
In 1968 Steve received the Faces in the Crowd award from Sports Illustrated Magazine, was director of the National Championship Racing Association in 1987, and in 1992 he purchased Port City Raceway. It should also be noted that Steve was the last person to win any NHRA national event in a front motor top fuel dragster when he won the 1969 World Championship and the last to do so at and AHRA national event when he won its 1972 Winternationals in Phoenix. Steve did return to the driver seat one more season when he entered the NHRA Cacklefest events in 2005 at both Bakersfield and Bowling Green in the restored Creitz & Donovan front motor dragster.