Benny Osborn
Benny Osborn was typical of the racers from the 50s and 60s. He started racing because of his interesting cars and engines, and he liked the speed. While he was quiet and unassuming in his everyday life, when he was in a race car he was one of the strongest competitors around. Osborn began his career in 1958 in a Chevy powered B/Modified Roadster. While the roadster itself served as the basis for the next four years, it did undergo several modifications as Osborn periodically lengthened it to meet the increasing speeds and then the carburetors on the Chevy were set on top of a supercharger. Osborn’s final conversion to the modified roadster was to stretch it enough to accommodate a second blown Chevy engine and remove the roadster body so that was a legal top gas dragster.
While Osborn had a lot of success and wins in the modified roadster, the twin engine dragster really moved him into the national spotlight. In 1962 Bernie won the AHRA Nationals Top Gas title at Green Valley, Texas and campaigned the car throughout the Southwest, winning against the likes of Eddie Hill and Jimmy Nix. Always searching for greater performance and speed, in 1963 Osborn sold the twin-engine car and built a super lightweight Chevy powered top fuel dragster. While the car was very competitive, while racing at Mo-Kan Dragway in Kansas, Osborn crashed and was seriously injured. After recovered from his injuries he joined his friend Leon Fraser’s crew but decided he really wanted to drive again.
As soon as he made the decision to drive again, Osborn purchased Fred Swanda’s Woody Gilmore built top fuel car and put together a blown Chrysler for power. The car proved to be one that would give Bernie his greatest moments in racing. It was in this car he won back to back NHRA top fuel world championships. In 1967 he defeated Don Prudhomme in the final round of the NHRA World Finals in Tulsa Oklahoma to become the NHRA Top Fuel Champion (at this time, the winner of the world finals was declared the top fuel champion). By 1968, Osborn had added a full body to the dragster, making it not only one of the most feared cars on the circuit, but also one of the most beautiful ones as well. 1968 proved to be another stellar year for Osborn. He defeated Beebe and Mulligan to win the NHRA World Finals in Tulsa in and won the AHRA Top Fuel World Championship event in Kansas City. Earlier that year in what was billed as the “richest-per-second” sporting event, Osborn beat Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen in a one-shot match race for $14,000, which was a lot of prize money at that time.
Osborn continue campaign his front motor dragster through the 1970 season. In 1971 he fielded a rear engine powered dragster but midway through the year decided the cost of running the car both in time and money was too much, and he retired from the sport. Osborn went on to operates a garage that did all around service on street driven cars. Like most strong competitors, their times Benny does miss the sport, but he admits he also likes it much better when everyone was into making a lot of their own parts and it was a lot cheaper to run a car.