Dale Armstrong

He bought his first car, a 1936 Ford Coupe, for five dollars at age 14.

Armstrong was born in Holden, Alberta, in 1941.

In 1957, he began drag racing the car on a dragstrip at an airport near Calgary.

It took him five attempts to make a 60 mph pass; he took out non-essential pieces of the car such as the back seat to lighten the load.

His reputation for repairing cars quickly grew and soon there were cars lined up for repairs behind his family's garage.

He began drag racing in NHRA's Northwest division in a Chevrolet Z-11 in the B/Factory Experimental class in a front-ended machine that had 11-second passes at 115 mph. Armstrong and a friend towed his dragster to Southern California for the February 1964 Winternationals.

In January 1965, he moved to Southern California and began campaigning a Chevrolet II at local tracks since he could compete up to five nights per week.

He converted the car into a Funny Car and began running the car in early 1966 using the nickname "The Canuck".

The car appeared on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine in December 1966; the article in the magazine said "Even a diehard Chevy lover would have trouble telling just what had been the original vehicle".

The supercharged engine achieved runs in the 8-second bracket with a top elapsed time (e.t.) of 8.89 seconds.

In 1969 he drove a Chevrolet Camaro in the Super Stock class and he followed it up with making passes in Funny Cars "Travelin' Javelin" and Tom Strum's Swapper.

After winning 12 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and 12 International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) events in the 1970s, including the Pro Comp title in 1975, he became Kenny Bernstein's crew chief.

Armstrong switched to the Injected Funny Car class in a 1973 Barracuda before moving to the new Pro Comp class in 1974.

He joined Ken Veney's team and beat Veney in the finals of his first A/Fuel event at the Winternationals.

He also won the AA/Altered U.S. Nationals for Jim Foust that season before moving to Pro Comp in 1975.

While competing in Foust's Alcoholic BB/Funny Car, he won the Pro Comp championship including wins in the U.S. Nationals and Worlds.

Armstrong continued racing in Pro Comp for three more years.

In 1976, he won seven of nine IHRA Pro Comp National events and the championship.

During that time, he won eight more National events including the 1977 U.S. Nationals.

He moved to Funny Car in 1980 and 1981 and had three final-round loses.

He used Mike Kase's Dodge Omni at the 1981 World Finals to set a national record with a 5.891 second pass to break Bernstein's 5.90 mark.

During the 1981 season, he had two accidents.

Armstrong described the fiery 240 mph crash of his Dodge Challenger at Columbus, Ohio: "Yeah, that was kind of a bad one," he said.

"It told me it was time to get out of driving."

Armstrong joined Bernstein's team as his crew chief in 1982.

In late 1983, he took their new Ford Tempo-bodied Funny Car to a wind tunnel and found additional speed after some modifications.

Bernstein had a 5.80 e.t. with an all-time-best 260.11 mph pass in the 1984 Gatornationals finals to beat John Collins.

Bernstein ran third in points that season in his Budweiser Tempo.

Armstrong tested an on-board computer to see when the clutch was engaged and when the spark plugs were firing.

The combination produced four consecutive national championships in Funny Car (1985 to 1988) and another in Top Fuel.

Bernstein became the first driver to top the 300 miles per hour mark in an engine tuned by Armstrong.

Armstrong has been inducted in numerous halls of fame.

Bernstein won the 1985 championship after winning six of 12 national events and reaching nine finals.

The Armstrong-wrenched Tempo set two national records during the season.

Bernstein continued winning in 1986; he won five of 14 events.

He qualified number one eight times, set the low e.t. ten times, and reached eight finals.

Bernstein had the first Funny Car 270 mile-per-hour pass at the U.S. Nationals (271.41 mph / 5.50 seconds) and lowered the record e.t. into the 5.4 second range with a 5.425-second run at the Chief Nationals.

Dale Armstrong (1941 – November 28, 2014) was a Canadian drag racer and crew chief.

He died on November 28, 2014, at his home in Temecula, California, at the age of 73.

He had sarcoidosis.