Fred Sibley Sr.
Fred Sibley senior started working on cars when he was around 14 years old, not to go racing but simply to repair them. He attended the local drag strip the first year the NHRA Safety Safari came to Indiana and was hooked on the sport. His first race car was a set of rails powered by a modified four-cylinder Model A Ford engine. His next move was to replace the four-banger with a stout GMC six-cylinder powerplant. That was okay but like every racer he believed he needed more power to go faster so in 1951 he built a new “slingshot” dragster that was powered by a 12-cylinder Ranger Aircraft engine. By this time Fred was working with Art and Walt Arfons at their shop so he was exposed to the jet powered vehicles they were racing. In 1951 he followed the Ranger powered dragster with his first jet car.
In 1964, Fred took over some of the driving chores for Arfons jet powered “Green Monster” dragster but preferred to build and drive his own cars. In fact, Fred debuted the first jet powered funny car which boasted a sleek Plymouth Barracuda body wrapped around a J-46 jet powerplant. After the Cuda Fred switched from funny cars back to dragsters when he built his famous “Quarter Horse” J-46 powered dragster. After the Quarter Horse, Fred introduce a string of jet powered dragsters that carried names that are still legends and this arena, names like: “The Hugger”, the J-33 powered “Fat Albert”, “Gypsy Moth”, and “US-1” a car that was formerly owned by Bill Fredrickson and rebuilt by Fred.
Always looking to introduce something different and unique, Fred introduced his first jet powered truck, the “Maxi Taxi” in 1980 which he still drives at exhibition and nostalgia events today. Fred hasn’t confined his driving to jet drag racing, in 1964 he said a class record of 353 MPH at Bonneville and later made a run in the “Goodyear Wingedfoot” streamliner of 421 MPH.
Fred’s contribution to the sport extends beyond just building and driving classy, exotic racecars, he and Jim Hollinger teamed up to design and build the first “roller starter”, a Chevy powered set of rollers that was installed at the starting line and eliminated the old push-starting process. Fred also worked with Jim Deist in developing different parachute designs and other pieces of safety equipment, many of which Fred still produces today.
At 76 years old Fred still actively participates at various events, driving his jet powered truck and the US-1 at nostalgia events. He also still has the original V-12 Ranger powered dragster that is in mint condition in which Fred will give a demonstration run with if asked to do so.