| Raymond Beadle | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Born | (1943-12-16)December 16, 1943 Spur, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | October 20, 2014(2014-10-20) (aged 70) Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Retired | 1987 (as racer), 1990 (as owner) |
| NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series | |
| Years active | 1970s–1990 |
| Teams | Don Schumacher Racing; Blue Max Racing |
| Previous series | |
| IHRA | |
| Championship titles | |
| 1979, 1980, 1981 1975, 1976, 1981 | NHRA Funny Car Champion IHRA Funny Car Champion |
| Awards | |
| 2014 | Motorsports Hall of Fame of America |
Raymond Beadle (December 16, 1943 – October 20, 2014) was an Americandrag racer and auto racing team owner.
Beadle was perhaps best known as the driver and owner of theBlue MaxTop Fuelfunny car. Beadle won three consecutiveNHRA Funny Car championships from 1979 to 1981 and threeIHRA Funny Car championships, 1975–76 and 1981.
InNASCAR, Beadle owned aWinston Cup team from 1983 to 1990, winning the 1989 Winston Championship with driverRusty Wallace. Beadle's car number was 27 and his car was usually aPontiac.[1]
He also owned aWorld of Outlawssprint car, driven bySammy Swindell.
Almost immediately after joining Harry Schmidt'sBlue Max team, Beadle rivaled"Jungle Jim" Liberman in popularity andDon Prudhomme in on-track success.[citation needed] By the end of his first year with the Max, Beadle won theNHRA U.S. Nationals Funny Car class, and by the end of the decade, he was the reigning world champion and abona fide superstar.
Beadle never claimed to be a tuner, and Schmidt was not interested in driving, promoting, or worrying about the day-to-day business of racing. Beadle was. He had theBlue Max name copyrighted, lined up sponsors and race dates, and immediately demanded four times what Schmidt had commanded in appearance fees, and got it.[citation needed]
In 1975, the car had been Harry Schmidt'sBlue Max, and in 1976, it said Beadle and Schmidt. The 1977 car, also aFord Mustang II,[citation needed] was Beadle's alone, sponsored by English Leather and Napa Regal Ride.[citation needed]
Beadle won the NHRA championship in 1979 with two wins in five finals againstTom Hoover, Gary Burgin, Billy Meyer, a youngJohn Force, and Jim Dunn.[citation needed] In 1980, he won in Columbus, Denver, and Seattle, was runner-up in Gainesville and Ontario, and defended the championship.[citation needed] In 1981, he won the title a third time, and again Prudhomme was second. TheBlue Max, now aPlymouth Horizon, reached the final round four times in 1981 and again won NHRA's most prestigious event, the U.S. Nationals. Driving aFord EXP in 1982, Beadle went after a fourth straight championship, but slipped to fifth in the points standings by year's end.[citation needed] In this period, Beadle also "set a new standard for apparel marketing to fans".[2]
In 1983, Beadle won just once, at the Springnationals,[citation needed] and in 1984, he scored back-to-back wins, in Englishtown and Denver, with another blue Mustang Beadle put veteran "Lil' John" Lombardo in his red and blueSchlitzBlue Max[citation needed] in 1985, and Lombardo won the U.S. Nationals, defeating Dale Pulde's Miller High Life-sponsoredBuick Regal and giving Beadle his last great win.[citation needed]
Beadle got back in the seat in 1987 and reached the final round of two races late that year. Richard Tharp, one of the car's original drivers when Schmidt owned the car, drove in 1988.[citation needed]
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Beadle entered NASCAR Winston Cup as a team owner in 1983 by buying out the equipment ofM. C. Anderson Racing, continuing with Anderson's No. 27 number.[3] He started with sponsorship fromOld Milwaukee beer and driverTim Richmond. Mixed success followed for Beadle'sBlue Max Racing team.
When Richmond moved toHendrick Motorsports in 1986, Beadle picked upRusty Wallace and sponsorship fromAlugard Antifreeze and in 1987, they picked upKodiak.Jimmy Makar served as the team's chassis specialist. In its penultimate year of operation, the team won the1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship.[4] That year was reportedly marked with acrimony between Wallace and Beadle. However, Wallace remained under contract with the team for the 1990 season.[5]
For 1990, the Kodiak sponsorship moved toHendrick Motorsports to sponsor the No. 25, and the No. 27 was sponsored byMiller Genuine Draft beer. The four-year sponsorship deal was specifically tied to Wallace, meaning it went where the 1989 champion went as well.[5] Wallace left the team at the end of the season.[6] The team suspended operations and left the Cup Series at the end of the 1990 season.Roger Penske acquired their equipment and the car runs today as theTeam Penske No. 2 car driven byAustin Cindric.
As the No. 27 won two races with Wallace in 1990, Beadle was eligible to participate as a winning team owner atThe Winston in 1991. Because of this, Beadle struck a deal with team ownerDick Moroso to field the No. 27Oldsmobile driven byBobby Hillin Jr. for the exhibition race. Hillin finished the race 19th after experiencing engine valve issues.[7]
Post racing, Beadle operated cattle ranches in West Texas and Arkansas, as well as a quarter horse farm near Valley View, Texas. He said he opened the ranch at least partially as a way to entertain sponsors while racing and bred grand champions at both.[8]
During the 1989 Championship, Beadle's car, with Rusty Wallace as a driver, battled the Richard Childress Racing car driven byDale Earnhardt Sr. for the Cup title. Beadle and Earnhardt's sons are connected. Ryan Beadle, an attorney, is General Counsel forDale Earnhardt Jr.'s motorsport operations,JR Motorsports.Tyler Reddick noted that during the Old Milwaukee throwback car announcement, crediting Ryan Beadle for negotiating the deal.[9]
In July 2014, Beadle suffered a heart attack and underwent surgery to relieve artery blockages. Beadle died on October 20 of the same year.[10]