Oversees
Member Inducted 2011
Harlan Thompson
History
The World Series at Santa Pod in September 1980 saw the
largest ever entry of nitro Funny Cars in one place outside the
USA. Twenty teams from Sweden, Norway, America and the UK were
there to qualify for a sixteen-car field including Don Prudhomme,
Tom Hoover and Gene Snow, but when the smoke had cleared only one
winner emerged: a little-known American racer called Harlan
Thompson driving the Knut Söderqvist-owned "Tre Kronor" Plymouth
Arrow. The fans certainly knew him now...
Thompson and Soderquist had met in New York where Knut had
offered Harlan a drive in his ex-Ed McCulloch Plymouth Arrow funny
car. They ran it at Maple Grove before Knut called Roy Phelps to
enter it at Santa Pod as Knut Söderqvist was moving back to Sweden
along with Harlan and the Arrow funny car.
One year later Harlan was back at Santa Pod driving the
"American Graffiti" Dodge Omni Funny Car in the 1981 World Finals.
Could he win again? It didn't look like it when he came up against
favorite Tom Hoover in the "Showtime" Corvette in round two but
despite a strong 6.32 from Hoover, Thompson tripped the win light
with a fantastic 6.20/218 mph! This put him in the semis where he
put out a cherry pulling "Houndog" and his luck held out in the
final when Allan "Bootsie" Herridge broke the crank in "Gladiator"
while Thompson nailed it for the win with a 6.30 blowing the roof
off through the traps!
1982 saw Harlan in the "Protector" Dodge Omni. He
qualified number two at the September World Finals but fell foul of
the burndown rule receiving a red light in round one.
The following year Harlan had Budweiser sponsorship on
his Omni and he entered the July 1983 Cannonball Run. Reaching the
final he ran out of luck when the blower drive pulley sheared on
the line and he had to sit and watch "Panic" take the
win.
July 1984 saw Harlan back at the Cannonball in a beautiful
new Budweiser-backed Trans Am Funny Car. Harlan reached the final
again and this time faced Tony Boden beating him with a 6.49 to
Tony's 6.96 and the Cannonball trophy went to the Budweiser car. At
the September World Finals Frank Hawley was driving Tony Boden's
car with Austin Coil as crew chief. Harlan met them in the first
round and took the win before the rains came putting an end to the
meeting.
The 1985 Cannonball saw Harlan back looking for another
win and he blasted to a convincing 6.23 number one qualifier in
another new Budweiser Trans Am. In the race he took the trophy
again despite coming within inches of the centreline in round one
and shutdown Gary Page in the final. Following his Cannonball win
Harlan took Mantorp Park by storm with a thundering run of 6.06
before shaking the ground with the first European Funny Car Five at
5.94 seconds.
On to 1987 and once again Harlan was in top form at the
Cannonball Meet with a dominating series of ETs. Fellow American
Tom Hoover was hungry for the one trophy that had eluded him but
Harlan had different ideas when he came up against him in the
final. A 6.05/228 took the trophy over Hoover's game 6.29/202. Then
at the September World Finals Harlan shut down Hoover again in the
Funny Car semis and went on to take another World Finals
win.
The 1991 Cannonball was full of drama after Harlan in the
Budweiser Dodge Daytona beat Norm Wilding in the semis but blew the
motor in the process. He then pursuaded Rune Fjeld to loan him his
car for the final which he did and Harlan took the win with a Funny
Car ET best of 5.57/245 to John Spuffard's 6.05/219. Harlan
continued racing the Budweiser cars through the 1990s taking yet
another Cannonball win in 1994.
October 2007 saw Harlan in one of Knut Söderqvist's Top
Fuel dragsters at Bahrain where he ran a 5.23/259 as part of an
exhibition race. In 2009 Harlan was back behind the wheel of a
Funny Car. It was Jonny Nilsson's replica of the "Tre Kronor"
Plymouth Arrow and he put on an exhibition run for the fans in
Sweden.