All images credit: Jerry Baltes/NitroGeezers.com

Fans of drag racing in the 1960’s and the early part of the 1970’s will certainly remember the name Jerry Baltes, who garnered his share of race wins, national records, and impressive national rankings during his driving career behind the wheel of a host of A/Fuel and Top Fuel Dragsters.

Baltes, born in Minnesota, grew up in what would become the nitro-rich area of San Diego, and attended his first drag race in 1951 at Paradise Mesa near his home. Only 16 at the time, the seed was planted.

Baltes began his racing career driving a B/Stock ’46 Ford Sedan, followed by a C/Gas ’32 Coupe that later ran in the C/Gas and C/Altered categories with the top chopped and the engine positioned back. Along with Paradise Mesa, Baltes ventured to Holtsville, Calif.,Pomona, Perryville, Ariz., and even the U.S. Nationals out in Great Bend, Kansas.

In 1956, Joaquinn Arnett of the famous “Bean Bandits” built Baltes his first dragster, powered by the flathead engine from his coupe. The car was alter switched to Oldsmobile power and campaigned as the Balgtes – Tucker entry, winning numerous titles at Paradise Mesa, including six Top Eliminator titles in a row. During the next six years, Jerry piloted a number of different Gas dragsters throughout his home state, even earning a spot on the Drag News 1320 Top 10 list for a period.

In 1963, Baltes made the step to Top Fuel with good friends Don Croshier and Billy Lovato behind the wheel of a former Tommy Ivo car. Baltes had great success during the ’63 and ’64 seasons in the Croshier – Baltes – Lovato fueler, grabbing the track speed record at Inyokern and six wins in a row at San Diego Raceway, topping the best racers in the nation, including Tom McEwen, Don Garlits, John Mulligan, Rick Stewart, Ted Cyr, and others. At one point, the C-B-L car was ranked #3 on the national Mr. Eliminator List. At that same time, the team also held the NHRA Top Fuel speed record.

Jerry won the 1964 World Series of Drag Racing in Cordova with a run of 7.86 at 204.54 MPH, and that year, in an unheard of concept for the time, built a second car to compete on the west coast while he was fulfilling race dates on the east coast. Bill Leavitt drove that second car, known as the Croshier, Baltes & Leavitt AA/FD. Baltes actually fielded a two-car team again in 1972-73 when he owned and operated the Tom & Jerry Mustang and Tom & Jerry Duster Funny Cars.

After stepping out of the seat following a crash in Muncie, Ind. in 1967, Baltes returned to drag racing in ’72 to field the aforementioned Funny Cars with business partner Tom Woodbridge and drivers Bob Mayer and Harlan Thompson.

In 1985, Jerry was inducted into the Inyokern Dragstrip Hall of Fame, where he held the track speed record for 47 years before its closure in 2004. In 2002, he was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and a year later, the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame.

While attending the first California Hot Rod Reunion in 1992, Jerry got s glimpse of the vintage AA/FD’s and set out to restore his old race car. Unable to find any of the original cars, a clone was created and debuted at the National Hot Rod Reunion in 2005.