Legendary Funny Car racer, fabricator,

and race car restoration guru Pat Foster died March 27 after a short

illness. A former national event winner and record holder, Foster was

known as one of the best fuel coupe drivers in history with a long

résumé of famous rides in a driving career that spanned 15 years. He

was 68.

Foster had a reputation for being able to drive anything on wheels,

and, as a renowned "test pilot" for wary owners, claimed to have driven

more than 50 race cars from 1964 through his retirement from racing in

1979. His career was saluted when he was named an honoree at the NHRA

California Hot Rod Reunion in 2001, the same year he was voted No. 68

on the list of NHRA’s top drivers of its first 50 years.

Foster’s greatest acclaim came during a two-year stint, 1971-73,

behind the wheel of the Vega Funny Cars of North Carolina clothing

manufacturer Barry Setzer.

Foster won the tough 1971 Manufacturers

Meet and was runner-up at the NHRA Springnationals. He had the quickest

time of the 1972 season, a dazzling 6.29 at 235.60 recorded during a

runner-up showing at the NHRA Supernationals in Ontario, Calif.

His best year on the NHRA tour was 1973, when he reeled off three

consecutive final-round appearances, winning the Gatornationals and

notching runner-ups at the Springnationals and Summernationals.

While wheeling a variety of cars, including such notable and

memorable rides as Rocky Childs’ Addict Top Fueler, the Beach City

Corvette, Roland Leong’s Hawaiian, "Big John" Mazmanian’s Barracuda,

Larry Huff’s Soapy Sales Demon, the Chicago Patrol Mustang II, and Joe

Pisano’s Firebird, Foster was building chassis.

Foster began working as a chassis builder for Woody

Gilmore, John Buttera, and Mickey Thompson. He built two revolutionary

Mach 1 Mustangs that featured narrowed framerails, a dragster-like roll

cage, and zoomie headers. He drove one, and teammate Danny Ongais drove

the other.

Foster later teamed with Jim Hume from H&H Race

Cars, which built some of the sport’s fastest cars, including the last

Funny Car he drove in competition, the Super Shops Arrow that on April

8, 1979, he piloted to the class’ third five-second clocking in

Fremont, Calif.

After stints with a Can-Am team, as a chassis builder for Raymond

Beadle, and with Nissan’s IMSA GTP race teams, Foster joined with race

car body builder Tom Hanna and in 1992 moved from his Southern

California roots to Wichita, Kan., to work on building the world’s

fastest street-drivable sports car.

Foster later formed Foster Pro-Fab Inc. and set about restoring and

re-creating vintage dragsters, such as those of Creitz & Donovan,

Steve Carbone, Beebe & Mulligan, Benny Osborn, and Candies &

Wales, the Jade Grenade, and an array of vintage Funny Cars such as Tom

McEwen’s Corvette and, most recently, the Fiat coupe of "Flamin’ Frank"

Pedregon. He moved to Moscow, Idaho, in mid-2006, where he set up shop. His most recent restoration was a Top Fuel car for Billy Lynch, and he had five new projects waiting in the wings.

Foster’s attention to detail and meticulous reconstructions made the

cars virtual twins to the original entries and brought smiles to the

faces of those who saw them compete in their original incarnations.

He is survived by his sons, Cole, Dan, and Justin; sisters, Linda and Kay; brother, Burch; and grandchildren, Savannah and Ellah.