Who was the first NHRA national event winner, at Great Bend in 1955?

Calvin Rice was the first NHRA national event winner, taking Top Eliminator at Great Bend, Kansas, in 1955.

The inaugural National Championship Drags were held on an 8,000-foot runway at Great Bend Municipal Airport in late September. Rice drove a distinctive yellow-and-black dragster sponsored by J.E. Riley & Son and reached about 143 mph in qualifying. The event was an important step in turning regional hot-rod competition into a national championship system.

Rain interrupted the Great Bend finals, so the remaining championship contest was completed nearly two months later at a neutral site in Perryville, Arizona. Rice faced Fritz Voight in the decisive final. After repeated foul starts and a transmission failure, Rice’s crew installed a replacement transmission under severe time pressure; the improvised repair did not even allow normal clutch adjustment.

Rice nevertheless won the final in 10.30 seconds at 141.95 mph. Wally Parks founded the NHRA in 1951, but Parks was not the winner, and Jack Jones’s name is associated with the trophy’s design rather than the race victory.