Trackside with Richard Bays

 

 

 

 

Richard Bays has spent a lifetime in motorsports, and he is widely known as being part of the Drag Racing Fuel duo of  Bays & Rupert. Richard’s thirst for racing came in 1966 when he was running a foreign car repair shop.  

He was in his early 20’s at the time and worked mainly on Volkswagen's and was one of the pioneers of VW performance. At night he was street racing his own home built Hot Rod and gained quite a reputation in the tuning department.

 

 What started out as his daily driver soon turned into a Drag Strip terror. Richard started with a 1958 Fiat 600 that needed an engine. He made adapters and installed a Porsche engine. 

Why not, his shop was full of go-fast parts. He said he chose that combination because it was different. Richard won so many street races with it, that the spectators would make side bets and would frequently win betting on him.
 

He called the car a street-sleeper and a Corvette killer. In 1966 he also raced it in ET brackets at Lions Drag strip, then in 1967 he drove it to the Winter Nationals. Since there was no class that fit his car, the NHRA put him in D-Modified Sport. The class was filled with six cylinder cars and Corvettes. Richard was also one of the founding fathers of the I-Gas and H-Gas class and his car just dominated the competition.

                      

 

 

Soon after that outing the Fiat was rebuilt and dressed in full race attire, a Porsche transaxle replaced the weak Fiat unit, then a custom racing suspension was installed. After the hard work was completed the little Fiat became an I/Gas record holder, with 13 NHRA records. With the Porsche 912 engine bored to 1790cc’s the combination was good for low 11’s in the 110-115 MPH range.

 

 The Fiat was so deadly on the track and on the street that Richard named it “Little Giant
Killer''. After his successful winning streak Richard decided to retire the car in 1970. He
continued to hold the national record for 2 years after retiring the car.

During the 1970’s Richard was involved with all types of racing from Circle Track racing to Off-Road racing and he was very successful. He would race Saturday nights at Ascot Raceway where they raced Sprint cars and Volkswagen powered sand rails. Richard said he went on to win three straight championships with Tim Lightfoot’s car.

 

He built an off-road car for the mayor of Long Beach, and he built engines and
transmission for other drivers. When he teamed up with Tim Lightfoot he was the first
person to run Weber carburetors on alcohol. 

 

Richard raced against future Indy star Rick Mears and also built his Formula Super Bee engines. It didn’t matter what kind of car it
was, when Richard put his hands on something it became a winner!

 

When Richard raced at Lions dragstrip he said that all the cars would be pitted together,
a streetcar could be parked next to a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car. When he heard the
Top Fuel Cars start up the ground rumbled and he knew that’s what he wanted to try next.
The sheer sound and amazing speeds of the Nitro cars got him hooked ! 

 

 His career in Nitro racing began in 1970 when he decided to build his first Funny Car.
When he was racing at Lions, Richard was winning weekly it's also where he also met his future racing partner Frank Rupert.