Kenny Bernstein — the first racer in the classroom Funny Car, managed to repeat the resounding success of Don Prudhomme, winning four consecutive NHRA championship titles (1985–1988) and then moved to the cockpit Top Fuel dregster and twice won the top. Before that, nobody had the privilege to become a champion in both divisions nitromethane, and then it was only Gary Scelzi.
Hard to believe that the career of the legendary racing driver, later received the nickname King Of Speed and has become a textbook example of an incredibly talented driver and a prominent businessman, began in a small garage somewhere in the Texas wilderness. In twenty years, the young Kenny he built his first dregster based Studebaker fifties and moved to Cochran Hill, the center of a small local «hangouts» amateur races on Quarter. There Bernstein was able to rent space in the garage for Donald Anderson, where, together with more experienced guys in full experimented with nitromethane, and parallel to that received economic education.
In the late sixties Bernstein participated in various local competitions in the many semi-professional teams, has not yet acquired his first Funny Car dregster built Gilmore Woody (Woody Gilmore). It was almost uncontrollable Mercury Cougar, which Kenny safely separated without any regrets at the earliest opportunity. In 1973, Texan marked the second place on the NHRA Winternationals, second only to Don Schumacher (Don Schumacher), it is now the owner of perhaps the largest and richest teams serving NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Bernstein greatly touched, if not irritated, the absence of the financial framework required in order to compete with the top teams, and as a result, they have had a good business education, Kenny gave up on all of this is your motor racing, and early in his career I decided to stop racing with. Together with a friend, they opened their first bar Chelsea Pub. Advances in the field of public catering were far more impressive, and a few years later failed a pilot with a companion already owned thirteen institutions in four states. Money appeared, and a craving for quick movement from point A to point B has not disappeared anywhere, and in 1978, Bernstein returned to the strip for driving your own Funny Car dregster, received immodest name Chelsea King.
Not only that, it is fundamentally not happy with the prospect of drag racing on their hard earned, so he also wanted his hobby pay dividends. For that I needed a sponsor, and the richer, the better. Therefore, Bernstein Zaretsky district that if before the end of 1979 and will not be able to get decent material support, it will turn once and for all of its racing activities and fully concentrate on the restaurant business, good pub chain continued to generate stable income.
In all that relates to the economic component of drag racing, Bernstein truly was not equal, and the following story — a direct confirmation. In 1979, because of the abominable weather conditions races at NHRA Cajun Nationals have been postponed indefinitely, and enterprising Kenny companions decided to not wasting any, loaded Chelsea King on the trailer and waved to St. Louis, where asked for an audience with the chief marketing itself a major in the US brewer Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. Within five minutes the young racer with a virtually pristine track record (at the time) briefly sounded all their calculations high-ranking managers and withdrew from the study.
Naturally, the outlandish unit immediately gathered around him dozens of white-collar workers, who with genuine interest crowded around the car. This bold maneuver made the head of the marketing department of a strong impression, and he immediately considered in the race for the quarter-mile untilled field to promote their products. The contract was signed on the same day, and Kenny with the team returned to the Cajun Nationals, where to celebrate in the final left behind John Force (John Force), and thus laid the foundation for his victories in the NHRA. By the way, Bernstein cooperation with Budweiser lasted nearly twenty-two years — record time in world motorsport. Despite the fact that at the event in the late seventies, the Texan is not particularly shine in 1979 Kenny won his first major title, having finished the regular season atop the IHRA standings.
By 1983, Bernstein was marked by five stage wins national championship, among which the most important were the prestigious US Nationals and Big Bud Shootout, where the first-place Kenny was at that time the largest in the history of the NHRA prize of $ 80 000. On the other hand, in 1981, the future king of speed on six of Event row could not get out of the qualification so, despite all the advances, the statistics pilot looked in the early eighties pretty depressing. The turning point appeared in 1984, Dale Armstrong (Dale Armstrong), hired two years ago to the post of chief mechanic team decided to skip the Budweiser King through the wind tunnel, the benefit of the budget allow such experiments. Configuration dregster was finalized within a few months, and NHRA Gatornationals 260 mph barrier proved to be defeated for the first time. A new record in the class was like a bolt from the blue and announced the beginning of a new era, radically changing the approach to aerodynamics. After that, the duo Bernstein — Armstrong was unstoppable.
Kenny was not only faster than all of his opponents in the last four years, he broke many records, remained inaccessible for a long time. It started on the first event of the season 1985 — NHRA Winternationals, where the debut of Ford Tempo, which is even visually was longer last year's car teams Budweiser. Tempo on their aerodynamic characteristics dregster utterly superior to the other teams and allowed Bernstein early to become a champion in August, setting it on the NHRA Gatornationals new record time — 5.64 seconds. Failing the start of next season, Kenny with unprecedented ease catch up with the competition at the expense of another innovation — the dual-clutch, which had never been used in professional drag racing. As a result, ten wins in thirteen events and the status of two-time champion at the end of the season.
In 1987, with the support of experts in aerodynamics Jim Duffin, and after spending a few months on a detailed study of all body elements for maximum effect, Bernstein rolled to a strip without any exaggeration, a revolutionary car, which was completely different from all previously created. New Buick LeSabre, was due to the fans nicknamed «Batmobile» for his incredible form, different from the usual dregster huge area rear spoiler rounded «snout» fairing on the hood and a reduced angle of the windshield. All this generated a combined crushing downforce on the condition that the drag coefficient was almost lower than the competition. The result of this latest, brilliantly done by Dale Armstrong works became the third top trophy for a hero of our NHRA history. Next season, Bernstein spent in the cockpit over the standard in terms of body design Buick Reatta, but despite the fact that the top NHRA under him again, putting the pilot on a par with the legendary Don Prudhomme, the superiority of it was not so overwhelming.
Also worth noting is that, being at the peak of his racing career, Kenny has managed to create a parallel with the two teams for performance in NASCAR and INDYCAR, and noted in a variety of marketing campaigns in the motorsports environment.
Which once again underlines the organizational talents and business acumen of one of the most successful drivers in the history of world dreg- racing.
In 1990, Bernstein after Don Prudhomme turned into a Top Fuel. And if the Thunder in the seventies indiscriminately serpent in the fastest class, and not a shot, then Kenny Dale and money beer giant so many pilots battered nerves in the new territory for themselves. Two years after its debut at the NHRA Gatornationals four-time champion in the history of the first to overcome the symbolic barrier of 300 mph, and then press immediately dubbed him the King of Speed. A little later he was subjected to and the mark of 310 mph, and in 1996 he won the world title in the class Top Fuel. None of Funny Car driver had not been so successful ten-dregster driving, in which the engine burns nitromethane buckets. The following year, Dale Armstrong left the team, and the place went to the team chief mechanic Lee Byrd (Lee Beard). It is difficult to overestimate the role of engineering talent in the victories of Kenny Armstrong, but the new tandem of continuing the glorious traditions of the past, even if not immediately. In the first year of the third millennium Bernstein added to his collection of seven trophies, and in 2001 became a double champion in the class Top Fuel.
In 2003, after a farewell tour «Forever Red... Run To Remember», Bernstein put a fat point in the career of a professional driver, replaced in the cockpit of his son Brandon (Brandon Bernstein). After that Kenny has repeatedly returned to the strip with varying success, he participated in many of Event NHRA as a guest star, and at the end of the 2007 season finally retired from racing to concentrate on the most «family interests». Since then, the doors of his office on a regular basis flaunts sign «Gone fishing.»
