RIP Art Malone

[Groundpounder]

Not stock cars but...
A local guy for all of these years...Don Garlits has sent out an email with the announcement.
My best memory of him was driving that big tail-finned Novi at Indy on about 1963...

[Cara]

Found this on another website. He was 76 years old.


Art Malone, a legendary figure in drag racing and other motorsports, died March 29. He suffered severe injuries in an airboat crash a few years ago and never fully recovered.

Few automotive racers have enjoyed a more varied and exciting career than Malone, who not only was a successful dragstrip owner and Top Fuel campaigner, but also gained fame as a driver at the legendary Indy 500.

Malone was also instrumental in providing financial assistance to longtime friend Don Garlits for his return to NHRA competition in the mid-1980s, a move that set the stage for “Big Daddy's” three straight NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel victories (1984-86) and back-to-back NHRA Top Fuel championships (1985-'86).

Raised in Tampa, Fla., Malone got his first taste of drag racing when he and a group of teenage buddies made the trek to the West Coast to attend the first NHRA event in Pomona in 1953. Upon returning to Florida, he began staging races at Henderson Airfield in Tampa, charging 25 cents a head to cover the cost of trophies for the winners.

After substituting as a driver for Garlits, who was recovering from burns suffered during a June 20, 1959, engine explosion, Malone began Top Fuel match racing on his own. He soon ventured into the world of circle-track competition, where he became the first driver to exceed 180 mph on an oval course with a 181.561-mph lap at Daytona Int'l Speedway in 1961.

In early 1963, upon the recommendation of NHRA founder Wally Parks, Malone was introduced to Andy Granatelli, who later hired him to drive his beloved V8-powered Novi in the Indy 500. He qualified for the 1963 and 1964 events and finished 11th in the latter. Following a brief stint with Funny Cars in the late 1960s, Malone continued to race in Top Fuel until he retired from active driving in 1975.

He later operated a pair of Florida racetracks under NHRA sanction, Sunshine Dragstrip and DeSoto Memorial Speedway.

[Don Nerone]

Art dod hold a track speed record at Daytona in the ild days.
After he retired in the 70s he teamed up with Big Daddy and they wan a NHRA champinship.
I did a lot of work fo Art at Desoto dragstrip and he was a mans man.
Im sure he will be remberd and missed.
RIP tough man

Don62

[Osmosis Jones]

Hey Don....

Remember that Shaver all aluminum 410 sprint motor he put in the Airboat?

[Don Nerone]

Remember that Shaver all aluminum 410 sprint motor he put in the Airboat?

Yep

rember the big block track blower with a franklin gear box anda bottle??

[Osmosis Jones]

Yep, I guess after the BB blew up they put a regular 350 Chevy on it and used it at the dragstrip. Still had it (but in pretty sad shape) when I was doin' the EMT thing at the dragstrip for Troy and Jeanette.

Ol' Art was a different kind of guy. Didn't know him well but everybody I knew that did, spoke well about him.

Had I known better when I did get the chance to talk to him I would have asked him about Granatelli and the Novi.

Kinda like when Charlie Alfater was living at one of my parent's ACLF homes. I took him some Open Wheel magazines that had stories with some of the Indy cars he built back in the day. He enjoyed it but his memory by that time was pretty ragged.

RIP Mr. Malone (and you too, Charlie)