Suppose there’s a statistical question that has virtually all of the drag racing community scratching its head. In that case, there’s a good chance noted historian and iconic announcer Bret Kepner has it stored away in the back of his mind for safekeeping.

Back in March, the day before the NHRA Gatornationals was set to kick off the 2021 season, Kepner was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Even after giving his acceptance speech, Kepner remains surprised he was considered for such a prestigious appointment.

“I was really, really shocked when I got that phone call from [Don] Garlits,” Kepner said on a recent episode of the CompetitionPlus Power Hour. “And that would’ve been Labor Day of last year. I did not know that I was on the ballot, and therefore, it was really goofy when he called me up. And one of the first questions I asked was why? Obviously, there’s a trillion people far more worthy than me to be in that group. To be inducted into any Hall of Fame is an incredible honor. I’m lucky enough to be in a couple of others, but this one’s special.

“I asked Garlits, ‘Why?”

And he said in typical Garlits fashion, ‘Everything.”

“And I don’t even know to this day what that means, man. So I don’t know that I have a response other than just awe. It certainly makes you humble real quick. I’m speechless.”

To render a man speechless, who has had a propensity for saying the right things at the right time when it comes to delivering drag racing storylines is uncharted territory.

Kepner, whose knowledge and memory of drag racing staistics is as sharp as a tack, attended the inaugural NHRA SummerNationals in 1970.

“The very first NHRA SummerNationals, which was held in 1970, was at an airport in York, Pennsylvania.  It was at York US 30 Dragway, a very famous drag strip,” Kepner said. “It was everything I could have imagined. I was into drag racing before I went to that first race. I was absorbing everything I could through every magazine and what little was on television at the time, and therefore, I had an idea of what I was looking at. Gene Snow ran an NHRA record 214.28 miles an hour at that race in nitro Funny Car. It was the last win for a Ford top fuel dragster in an HRA competition, Pete Robinson and Dick Landy won Pro Stock.”

Kepner’s accomplishments in the sport are as seemingly endless as his knowledge of the straight-line sport, as is his resume, which includes stints with the AHRA, IHRA, ESPN, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated, to name a few. He’s also credited for developing the blueprint for today’s Factory Stock Showdown, as well as holding the dubious honor of being the most successful rental car drag racer ever.

Just to think, such a storied career began when an announcer had to “go take a leak.”

” I used to race a ’66 Barracuda, L/Stock Automatic,” Kepner said. “And I raced at a local track in St. Louis and was at St. Louis [International Raceway] one night racing, got my butt kicked in the first round, and I was up in the timing tower talking with the announcer who was a friend of mine and is to this day still a friend of mine named Roger Monroe. Roger was up there announcing away, and we were chatting and Roger turned to me, and he said the same line that has started a tremendous number of announcers careers. He turned to me, and he said, “I have to go take a leak. Here, take over,” and hands me the mic.

“At the time, I had already started my writing career, so I wasn’t terrified. I’d never done it before, but as it turns out, it’s just like writing except you can’t make any mistakes. Roger goes to the restroom, comes out, lends an ear to the PA and says, ‘Oh good, he’s talking. I can go hang out with my buddies.”

“So he went out for like an hour and then came back up to the tower. I handed him the mic back, and that was the end of that.”

Months later, Kepner got another shot, courtesy of track operator Phil Trover.

“Hey, I need an announcer,” Kepner recalled Tover telling him. “I said, “Yeah, I know Roger left.”

“And he says, ‘Well, what about you? You announced.”

“And I said, “Well, I did once.” And he says, “Well, that’s good enough.”

“Well, the class that I raced in paid 50 bucks to win and 20 bucks runner-up, and he said, ‘I’ll give you 25 a night.”

“And I thought, ‘Okay, I can keep coming over.”

Then Kepner got the chance to announce at the AHRA alongside legendary voice John Lundberg, who in turn introduced him to AHRA founder Jim Tice.

“Hey, this guy isn’t that bad,” Kepner recalled of Lundberg’s introduction. “It didn’t mean that I was good, it meant that I didn ‘t completely suck.

And I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was born with a voice that’s kind of announcer sounding. So the long story short, in a very short period of time, I was announcing AHRA national events. I was announcing UDRA national events. And that led to IHRA national events.”

in the end, Kepner summed up his career through his introduction to announcing.

“It’s all about being in the right place, at the right time, and be persistent,” Kepner said. “You have to keep showing up.”

Watch Kepner as he appeared on the CompetitionPlus POWER HOUR.

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