Gary Dryer
Gary Dyer was a typical gearhead. Gary grew up in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago and began his drag racing career at the wheel of an Oldsmobile powered 1933 Ford coupe. Over the next ten years, he followed up in a series of Chevys and Gas Coupes.
After making a name as a builder and driver locally, Gary’s first major opportunity came in 1963 when a local racer, Ed Rachanski, fielded a Factory 427 Mercury Comet that was backed by the Chicagoland Lincoln Mercury Dealers Association with Gary driving and John Farkonas tuning. In late 1963, he started racing an A/FX Mercury Comet owned by Rachanski with which he set the world record in Super Stock at 130.44 mph and 10.75 E.T
Gary spent most of his racing career partnering and working with Norm Krause (Mr. Norm), co-owner of Grand Spalding Dodge (GSD) in Chicago. In 1964 Gary convinced Mr. Norm to allow him to campaign a S/FX Dodge Coronet powered by a Dyer built supercharged 426 Hemi under the GSD banner in 1965 with Gary as the race team owner and GSD its sponsor. During the 1960’s Gary competed in around 125 match races per year.
His 1965 car was a Factory Lightweight ’65 Dodge Coronet powered by a Dyer built supercharged 426 Hemi engine. At the end of 1965, Gary acquired an altered-wheelbase Dodge Coronet, formerly nicknamed “Color Me Gone”, and installed a new supercharged 426 Dodge Hemi engine, and upgraded the chassis, becoming one of the very first true Funny Cars. Later that year, Gary set a new NHRA full bodied car record at Lions Drag Strip of 8.63 seconds E.T. and 163 mph.
While Gary was instrumental in making Funny Car racing an integral part of drag racing, in order to pay his bills, he did most of his racing as a match racer where he posted wins numbering in the hundreds. As a match racer, in 1966 Gary competed in a supercharged Dodge Charger with a R&B tube chassis and in 1968 he fielded another Dodge Charger that was ten inches narrower than a stock model and attached to a
“state of the art” RCS chassis. Early that year, Gary experienced a transmission explosion at Houston Dragway that burned the car to the ground, but he escaped from with minor burn damage to him. Unfortunately, later in the season, in the newly built Logghe Chassis Dodge Charger, Gary had an oil filter break off during a run and the resulting fire left him with eight months of burn treatment.
Gary returned to the Funny Car wars in 1969 with a new Dodge Charger body seated on the same Logghe Stamping Company chassis that survived the fire. Still mainly competing as a match racer, he also Competed in the Coca-Cola Funny Car Cavalcade of Stars where he won 11 races and the championship. That same year Gary opened the doors on a new business, Dyer’s Blowers, and began building superchargers for other racers.
He semi-retired from racing in 1970 to focus on his business but he resumed his racing career in 1971, at the wheel of a new Dodge Challenger. Late in the 1972 season, Gary turned over the driving chore to Kenny Safford and became the team crew chief. He also ran a Hemi Colt Pro Stock in races outside of the NHRA sanction, where such cars were illegal.
Dyer retired from racing for good at the end of 1973 selling the operation to Kenny Safford to prioritize Dyer’s Blowers, where he can still be found every day assembling superchargers for his many street customers worldwide.
In 2020, Dyer was inducted into the Biloxi Dragway‘s Hall of Fame, and Mopar Hall of Fame.
