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[
Dale Armstrong ] [
Jim Bucher ] [
Jon Lundberg ] [
Ken Veney ] [
Dave Wallace Jr. ]
[ Jim McFarland ]
[
Weekly, Rivero, Fox & Holding - The Frantic Four
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Dale Armstrong
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Dale Armstrong, a native Canadian, started his racing career in the early 1960’s while still living in Canada by competing in a Z-11 equipped Chevy. After moving to Southern California, Dale stepped up his competition by competing in the Funny Car wars with a blown small-block powered Chevy II. In 1969 Dale changed his focus again by moving to the potent Super Stock with a SS/C Camaro.
In 1964 NHRA created the Pro Comp categories that later became the Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car classes and Dale found a home for his talents. In 1974 he drove Jim Foust’s AA/Altered roadster winning the U.S. Nationals and followed up in 1975 by winning the Pro Comp championship in Foust’s BB/Funny Car. By the time Dale switched from competing in the Alcohol classes to a nitro Funny Car in 1980, he racked up twelve national event titles. As a nitro Funny Car owner/driver Armstrong made three final round appearances at national events and set a new NHRA elapsed time record. He was also the man who first broke the 6.7, 6.6 and 6.5 barriers in an Alcohol car.
Dale retired from driving in 1982 and signed on as the crew chief for Kenny Bernstein’s AA/Funny Car where he began putting together another long list of firsts for the class. In 1983 he put the team’s new car into a wind tunnel and made enough aerodynamic modifications to enable Kenny to post the first 260 MPH run by a Funny Car. In 1985 the team, with Dale as its crew chief, won the first of four consecutive NHRA Funny Car championship titles. In 1990 the team switched to the AA/F Dragster wars and tied the existing record for the most wins in a year with six podium appearances. In 1992 the team became the first car to break the magic 300 MPH mark with a run of 301.70 at the Gatornationals. Just a few items on Dale’s list of firsts include being the first crew chief to use a wind tunnel, development of the lockup-style clutch, development of a dual-source fuel delivery system and dyno testing for nitro burning engines. Additionally, he assisted in the development of the RacePak onboard data recorder, he developed the first high amperage magnetos, and was the first to tune a Top Fuel Dragster to a sub 4.50 elapsed time.
After departing from Bernstein’s camp in 1997, Dale worked with Don Prudhomme and later Jerry Toliver before retiring from drag racing in 2000. In 2007 Dale came out of retirement for a short go as crew chief for Jerry Toliver’s AA/Fuel Funny Car but made it known from the start that this was a temporary assignment.
Along the way Dale was also named to the Car Craft Magazine All-Star Drag Racing Team a total of ten times, was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and in 1997 shared Car Craft Magazines highest award, the Ollie Award, with Kenny Bernstein. Dale may be retired from racing but he is still involved with the sport building some really fine street vehicles and enjoying life in general.
