Vance Hunt
Although he had only a brief driving career, Vance Hunt’s name became synonymous with Southwest top fuel racing. For years, his cars bore the legend “Texas quickest and fastest”. Beginning in the mid-50s with a stocker followed by a ’41 Ford altered, Hunt put the Chrysler out of his coupe into a dragster owned by Ed Mabry which the team raced for several years. In 1960 fuel racing beckoned Hunt but not Maybry, so JL Payne was hired to drive. Together they defeated both Chris Karamesines and Don Garlits for the number one spot on the Drag News Mr. Eliminator list and won the 1962 AHRA Nationals at Green Valley Texas. It was at Green Valley that Hunt and Payne handed the nearly invincible Greer, Black and Prudhomme machine its first defeat. Although a top-notch fuel racer, Hunt never gave up his “real job” at the General Motors plant in Arlington and spent many weekend nights towing across the Southwest to make race dates, often getting home just in time to go to work on Monday morning. Payne left Hunt in 1963 and was replaced by several drivers including the late Ted Arnold, Jerry Ellis, a young Kenny Bernstein, and Watts Samson. In the mid-60s, Hunr once again regained ranking on the Mr. Eliminator list and later even ran both a fuel dragster and funny car for a time. In 1971 Hunts car made the semifinals at the Bakersfield US Fuel and Gas Championship shortly before his retirement from racing.