John William Bradley [1] (29 October 1925, San Bernardino, California-29 November 2012, Dolan Springs, Arizona), nicknamed "Mr. Flathead", [2] was a pioneering American drag racer and land speed racer. [3] He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. [4]
Bradley was a veteran of the United States Navy during World War II. He was a member of National Hot Rod Association for sixty years. [3]
Bradley started racing in Southern California in 1946, competing on dirt tracks and in illegal street races, with a Deuce roadster. [5] His first dragster used Ford Model T frame rails and a Ford flathead V8; built in 1952, it hit a speed of 147 mph (237 km/h). [5]
He set records beginning in 1956 and was still doing so until a few years ago. [2] He recorded twenty-eight wins in Top Eliminator in 1956 alone. [2]
He drove the tube-chassised [5] Gene's Brake Shop Special digger in 1961. [2] Running on gasoline, Bradley would cheat, hiding nitro in the fuel line to pass scrutineering; nitro had been banned as unsafe for racing by NHRA in 1957. [2] Track officials routinely tore down the carburetors and intake manifold, and tested the front-mounted fuel tank, without finding anything amiss. [2] This car would take Bradley to 50 Top Eliminator titles and a number of track records during 1957 and 1958. [5]
At the Colton Dragster Invitational (Bradley's home track) in 1957, Bradley defeated Emory Cook (in the hemi-powered Cook and Bedwell digger). [2] He lost in the semi-final at the NHRA Fuel and Gass Championship in Bakersfield, California, in 1959, but won that year's Southern California Championship, hosted by the Pomona Valley Timing Association. [2]
Bradley also drove a twin-engined car which used a pair of flattys, in a chassis welded up in Bradley's garage, built with the assistance of long-time partner Max Romero. [2] This car ran 100% nitro, and turned in a pass of 8.98 seconds at 172 mph (277 km/h). [2] He campaigned this car from 1958 to 1962. [5]
Bradley used a high-gear-only transmission in all his dragsters, which resulted in bogging off the starting line when combined with the flathead's poor low- rpm torque. It was because of this he used the nitro. [2]
Unlike other racers, Bradley continued to campaign a flatty-powered digger, earning him the nickname "Mr. Flathead". [5] Bradley retired from professional racing, but continued to run a 9-second flathead-powered exhibition car on California's nostalgia drag racing circuit into his late 70s. This car uses eight- plug billet aluminum cylinder heads Bradley designed himself. [5]
He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. [4]
Bradley's wife, Jeanne, died in 1998. He had two children, Frank and Lori, and five grandchildren, Mona and Travis (from his son's marriage), and Nichole, Holly, Tige from his daughter's. [3]
Bradley is buried at Riverside National VA Cemetery, Riverside, California. [3]