The Blue Max. Just a brief mention of the name brings back unrivaled memories to many drag racing enthusiasts across the world who were lucky enough to witness the fleet of highly successful Blue Max nitro Funny Cars in action during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The late Raymond Beadle, who passed away just a few weeks ago in Dallas, Texas, etched his name permanently in the record books with three consecutive NHRA Funny Car Championships from 1979 to 1981 and wowed the crowds from coast to coast with his epic on and off track successes under the Blue Max branding.

Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Beadle is also an honored member of both the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Before we dive into what’s new with the Blue Max racing team, we want to revisit a story current car owner and driver, Ronny Young, a close friend of Beadle’s, shared with us about the legend.

“He (Beadle) sent me to one of his ranches one weekend and wanted me to go take a load of things down there to some Pontiac people he was entertaining that weekend and I said, ‘Raymond, I really don’t want to go’ because I had some things to get done on my end and he said, ‘you run all these steaks and fishing gear down there for my guys and I’ll get you back home with my plane.’  So, as soon as I got down there the plane was waiting on me and I get on the plane and it’s just the pilot and I on our way back to Dallas.

The calm before the storm. Fans know when they see a flip top Funny Car with the body up headed to the starting line that it’s almost time to unleash the crowd favorite nitro floppers!

“So we land in Addison (Texas) and I see these people running towards the plane rolling out a red carpet and I’m thinking to myself, ‘What’s going on here?’ This is pretty cool, and it just happened to be my birthday and I had dinner plans with Mike Burkhart and our families to go out and eat. So at the airport, Raymond had my truck ready to go, all cleaned and gassed up with balloons and a big happy birthday sign. So that was pretty cool for me.”

With the recent growth of the Nostalgia Funny Car category over the last decade, fans were treated to delightful news when Texan Ronny Young and company announced the return of the Blue Max to the drag strips of America in 2010. By the end of summer that year, Young had successfully tested and debuted his 1978 Plymouth Arrow–bodied masterpiece and the heat was on as the Blue Max team has since then thundered the stands across the country, including a whopping 18 race dates in 2014.

Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

In the fall of 2014, Young debuted the latest edition of his Blue Max arsenal with his 1981 Ford EXP–bodied machine at Ardmore Dragway in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The original EXP body was short lived, seeing competition in 1981 and 1982 until it returned to Charlotte and was converted to a show car for Winston. Thirty years later, Beadle himself found an original 1985 Tony Casarez Blue Max chassis which was then owned by Funny Car racer, Bob Gilbertson. This car became the current Blue Max Funny Car fans see today. Young and his team are thrilled to still be racing an original Blue Max chassis and body, which have both been through modern safety updates and are NHRA Heritage Series–legal.

The EXP body was found when a fan walked up to the pit rope at an event in the spring of 2013 claiming he had the body behind a Texas BBQ restaurant in Dallas. Just a few weeks later, Young was the new owner and the restoration was underway. In their limited spare time, crew members, Kenny Vaughan and Aaron Morrow, fully restored and upgraded the body to current specs. Vaughan, who crewed for the Blue Max team in the late 80’s, masterfully crafted the tin work, windows and bracing of the body while Morrow, Young’s son in law, handled the paint and lettering duties on the EXP.

One of the most identifiable logos in drag racing is the “Blue Max”, which is an alteration of Pour le mérite, the highest military honor that the Kingdom of Prussia could bestow during World War I.

Underneath this stunning fiberglass body sits an original 125-inch Tony Casarez Funny Car chassis originally built in 1985. Again, this chassis has been updated to current specifications but still holds the original Blue Max chassis tag. A 413 cubic inch Brad Anderson powerplant sits between the frame rails with Alan Johnson heads, a single point magneto, 22 gallon fuel pump, Strange 9.5-inch rear end with carbon fiber brakes, a two-speed transmission and Littlefield 6:71 blower peeking through the front of the windshield.

Most recently on October 25th, Young and company won a best-of-three match race at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas, which also included a special tribute pass by the team to their dear friend Raymond Beadle. This restored EXP body has only made a handful of trips down the track and already, Young has plans for yet another Blue Max machine to join the rotation.

In 2015, Young plans to debut a brand new chassis currently being fabricated by Ty Baumgartner in Missouri. This chassis will sit below a brand new, custom–designed 1979 Dodge Omni body which will pay tribute to the championship-winning entry from 1979 to 1981. This particular car is arguably the most memorable of the Blue Max fleet and the team referred to it as the “Wonder Car” after it’s incredibly successful reign. Young will not retire his current machine, but continue to have both cars race-ready using the new car as the primary in an effort to keep pace with the rapidly growing Nostalgia Funny Car craze.

The maiden voyage for the EXP body at Ardmore Dragway.

Young would like to thank his crew including his daughter Lacey, son-in-law Aaron Morrow, Terry Darby, Rob Ragland and Guyniece Ragland.  Support from Strange, Moroso(link), Amalie, Hedman Hedders(link), Champion Spark Plugs, Performax Trailers and Buddy Wood help keep the Blue Max on the track and running hard.

Ronny Young is loving life at the drag races. When he isn’t blasting down the drag strip, Young owns and manages his highly regarded trailer business, Performax Trailers, in Wylie, Texas.

A primary focus of Young and his team’s effort to campaign the Blue Max is to not only relive the glory days of Funny Car racing but to continue the tradition and expose new fans to the way it was done in the “old days” as we say, yet just a few decades ago. Corporate involvement and technology have sent the sport of drag racing to new extremes and without a multi-million dollar sponsor, a person cannot compete in the current NHRA championship drag racing series in Top Fuel or Funny Car. This fact is what intrigues so many to the NHRA Heritage Series Nostalgia Funny Car class and IHRA Nitro Funny Car events currently being ran from coast to coast.  Young and the Blue Max team compete in both and will continue that trend in 2015. Which Blue Max will you see? Well, we can’t tell you that, but we can tell you it will be worth the price of admission!