Ron Correnti, who raced everything from door cars to gas dragsters to nitro Funny Cars, died April 5. He was 65.

Ron Correnti, who raced everything from door cars to gas dragsters to nitro Funny Cars, died April 5. He was 65.

In the 1960s, Correnti raced one of two Super Stockers against a pair of Top Fuelers on Rockford Dragway’s famed four-lane strip. Correnti began a long relationship with Dave Emerson when he wheeled Emerson’s AA/GD in 1970, and together they fielded Ron Pelligrini's injected Chicago Charger Funny Cars from 1971 to 1973. Correnti then transitioned into Top Fuel with a self-funded operation in the mid- to late 1970s and later drove Funny Cars for the likes of Larry Coogle, Bill Dunlap, and Tom Motry.

The ride with Dunlap was perhaps his best effort, if ill-fated. Dunlap built the sport’s first modern Thunderbird Funny Car body in late 1985, but Correnti had a major fire with it in Edgewater, Ohio. A new Thunderbird was built but quickly destroyed in a terrifying crash at the 1986 Winternationals, where it was rear-ended at speed by Dave Uyehara. Neither driver suffered serious injuries, and the incredible footage has been aired on reality shows such as Real TV.