TRIBUTE

By Bret Kepner

In our industry, the title of“ champion” can be determined by a variety of criteria. Round wins and event victories are usually the chosen point of reference on the success of a drag racer. Performance rates high as does engineering innovation, business acumen, popularity and personal character. Al Hanna will be remembered for all of these traits and more.

Alan Thomas“ Al” Hanna was a drag racing fan from his earliest years attending events at Connecticut Dragway in East Haddam from its opening day in 1961. At twenty-one years of age, he married his first and only love, Ellen Wolf, on July 18, 1964. Their relationship was the foundation upon which was built everything accomplished by the Hanna family.

With Ellen always by his side, Hanna began his actual racing career with a Super Stock 1966 Ford Fairlane. Like every other fan of the sport that season, however, Al became enamored with the new“ Funny Car” category sweeping the nation. One year later, he began tenure as a crewman for fellow Connecticut driver Bill Flynn before becoming a driver for and, soon after, the owner of Flynn’ s renowned“ Yankee Peddler” injected nitro-burning’ 66 Plymouth Barracuda. In 1970, Hanna debuted his third Funny Car, a 1970 Dodge Charger which was the first to drop the previous name for his machines,(“ Phantom”), and carry the livery for which he would become known for over a half-century. As New Englanders whose favorite football team was the Californiabased Oakland Raiders, Al and Ellen named the Dodge“ Eastern Raider” and began a dynasty of supercharged fuel Funny Cars which stretched into 1983.

Hanna quickly became a touring professional, racing his Funny Cars on every possible date at paid match races or open National Events of every known sanction. He raced from coast to coast and from January through December while Ellen either travelled with him or ran the business from their Enfield, Connecticut, base using her substantial organizational skills. The duo became one of the best-known and most-liked teams with fans, sponsors, promoters and even fellow racers.

Hanna always maintained a genuine and sincere

friendship for his drag racing comrades and assisted many drivers in their own careers. A classic example of Al’ s willingness to help anyone in distress came at the 1974 NHRA World Finals at Ontario, California, when point leader Shirl Greer suffered a massive fire which virtually ended his chances to win the title. With Greer recovering from burns in the hospital, Hanna organized a huge group of racers and crewmembers which rebuilt Greer’ s torched AA / Funny Car to the point it could be raced in eliminations by a bandaged Greer who, only by the grace of the overnight thrash, won the World Championship the next day.

When touring dates for nitro racers began to diminish in the early 1980s, Hanna wearied of expensive fires and crashes while taking note of

one segment of the sport which seemed to enjoy unending profitability: jet-powered Funny Cars and Dragsters. In late 1982 he took delivery of new Ford EXP Funny Car powered by a General Electric J-85 jet engine, something Al knew very little about. He engrossed himself in learning the principles of what was still an internal combustion engine but without power sent to the wheels. With the hundreds of friends he’ d made over his first two decades, he relied on the assistance of those whom he had helped through his career.

Hanna brought brand-new technology and engineering to the world of jet-powered drag cars. From aerodynamics to chassis design, Al quite literally rewrote the rulebooks with new jet configurations. Hanna also brought major sponsorships to the world of jet racing and expertly

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF HANNA MOTORSPORTS