Frank Bradley
Frank Bradley is one of the first people to make a full-time living as a drag racer. His actual racing career spanned 33 years and included being the guy turning the wrenches, driving the car and driving the hauler for himself to becoming one of the most sought after crew chiefs in the Top Fuel ranks. With one exception when he drove the Bailey Brothers Junior Fuel dragster, Frank’s driving career was always at the wheel of Top Fuel dragster, his first ride coming in 1963 when he teamed up with his long-time friend Dennis Quinian to build their first car and continuing until the later part of 1991 when he decided to quit driving.
Frank’s list of national event wins as a driver include his first time on the podium at the 1976 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, wins at the 1984 NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, the 1989 NHRAAutolite Nationals at Sonoma and 1991 NHRA Winternationals again. Mixed in with the NHRA event wins are three AHRA World Championship. Bradley is the only Top Fuel driver to win at least one NHRA race in the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s. He is also the only Top Fuel driver to earn membership in both Cragar 5-Second club and the Cragar 4-Second club. One of these things that make these accomplishments even more remarkable is they were done without any major sponsorship. One of the more memorable items from Frank’s career other than his driving and tuning ability came in 1980 when he introduce his 18-wheel transporter complete with solar-heated hot tub on board.
As soon word got out that he was retiring as a driver, Bradley began receiving calls from teams all over the country to become their crew chief. Frank was crew chief for teams such as Brad and Shelly Anderson, Roger Primm, and several others, but one of his more rewarding stints came in when he joined Walt Austin Racing and quickly put Pat Austin in the NHRA record books and Slick 50 300 MPH club with a 303.64 run at Atlanta along with a string of impressive wins. With Del Worsham at the wheel of the Primm dragster, Frank was able to put another driver into the 300 MPH club, but probably the team he enjoyed being with the most was Jerry and Darrell Gwynn. Together they rang up and impressive string of event top speed and low ET runs along with a just-as-impressive string of event wins including three NHRA victories in 1995 alone.
In 1996 Frank retired from active drag racing completely, and has since becoming involved in simply enjoying life and playing his “toys”.