NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Maynard Rupp, who will live forever in NHRA annals as the association's first Top Fuel world champion, passed away April 8. He was 84.

In 1965, Rupp defeated Danny Ongais, driving the Broussard Garrison-Davis Mangler, in the final round at Southwest Raceway in Tulsa, Okla,, for that distinction.

Rupp, a Detroit native, began his career in 1958 with a small-block Chevy-powered ‘37 Ford sedan gas coupe that he ran in and around the Motor City for two years. From 1960 through 1962, Rupp teamed with Larry Krowlinski on a C/Gas Dragster that they campaigned for two seasons.

Rupp's first nationally known ride was Larry Posluszny’s Grunt AA/Gas Dragster that he raced in 1963. The Grunt, a national event-caliber dragster, ran in the low eights at 180 mph. In mid-1964, Rupp also drove an injected, nitro-burning Chevy CFD for the Logghe & Steffey team. Jim Marsh drove that car to the first unblown seven-second time at California's Fremont Dragstrip in March of that year. The team later built an ill-handling, streamlined injected car that Rupp drove at the end of the season.

While racing the Krowlinski, Posluszny, and Logghe dragsters, Rupp worked at Logghe Stamping Company in Fraser, Mich., where he struck up a friendship with Roy Steffey. The two teamed on the car that would make Rupp famous. 

“In 1964, I began to build my own race car,” he told NHRA National Dragster in 1994. “Roy and I went into partnership and called it the Logghe-Rupp-Steffey Prussian Top Fuel dragster. It provided me with my greatest season in racing." 

Rupp beat Connie Kalitta in the inaugural 1965 NHRA Springnationals final in Bristol, and in October of that year, he won the world championship.

Funny Cars had caught the imagination of the fans at the time, and in 1966, Rupp crossed over from Top Fuel. He ran a radical, rear-engine blown nitro-burning Chevelle called Chevoom with which he toured the country for a season. 

In 1967, he ended his career with a full season behind the wheel of the STP Mercury Cougar Funny Car. When Mercury pulled out of the Funny Car arena at season's end, Rupp retired. 

Rupp had been a pilot since the late 1960s and flew to a lot of his race dates, and after retiring from racing, he became a commercial pilot for American Natural Resources and raced sailboats with the U.S. Yacht Sailing group in Newport, R.I.