Shirl Greer, 75, a former NHRA Funny Car champion from Kingsport, Tenn., passed away today at 11 AM.
Greer was hospitalized at the James H Quillen VA Hospital in Johnson City, Tenn., with complications from a previous surgery. He had undergone four surgeries in the last two weeks.
“It’s been a pretty rough day,” said Brian Greer, youngest of Shirl’s three sons. “But he’s not suffering anymore. I can’t believe he’s gone. We love our drag racing family and my dad did too. Your prayers helped us through a tough time.”
Greer is survived by wife Deborah, and sons Van, Rusty, and Brian.
Shirl Greer, 75, a former NHRA Funny Car champion from Kingsport, Tenn., passed away today at 11 AM.
Greer was hospitalized at the James H Quillen VA Hospital in Johnson City, Tenn., with complications from a previous surgery. He had undergone four surgeries in the last two weeks.
“It’s been a pretty rough day,” said Brian Greer, youngest of Shirl’s three sons. “But he’s not suffering anymore. I can’t believe he’s gone. We love our drag racing family and my dad did too. Your prayers helped us through a tough time.”
Greer is survived by wife Deborah, and sons Van, Rusty, and Brian.
Services will be announced tomorrow.
Greer is best remembered for his heroic efforts at the World Finals at Ontario Motor Speedway in California, the final event of the season. Greer was locked into a tight championship battle with Don Prudhomme, Paul Smith, and Frank Hall when his Mustang Funny Car suffered a massive engine failure on a Saturday qualifying pass and the resulting fire destroyed the entire rear half of the car’s body.
Fortunately for Greer, Smith and Hall both failed to qualify, but Greer suffered painful burns to his hands and figured that he championship bid was through, but overnight a multitude of people jumped in to repair the body with a patchwork of tin and fiberglass, and Greer decided to give it a go anyway. Al Hanna loaned Greer his firesuit and helmet to replace Greer’s damaged equipment and Prudhomme displayed sportsmanship but providing a set of gloves to cover Greer’s burned hands.
Greer won his first-round match with Leroy Chadderton, but a blower explosion in the lights further damaged the body. Again, Greer’s fellow competitors leapt into action but before they could complete the work, Prudhomme was upset in round two by Dale Pulde to secure the championship for Greer.
Earlier that year, Greer had won his first and only NHRA national event title, at Le Grandnational in Montreal, but also used key wins at divisional races that year to boost his score.
Greer began his racing career in 1952 with a flathead-powered ’39 Ford that he ran while serving in the Air Force. He later competed in Super Stock with a 413 Dodge and later in A/FX with a Hemi-powered Dodge, campaigning under his familiar Tension name. As FX transitioned into the Funny car class, Greer was right there with a series of Mopar entries and in 1970 even held the national record at 7.40 with a Charger-bodied entry. After a brief stint in Billy Holt’s car, he built the Mustang with which he won the world championship. He campaigned his own equipment through the end of the decade before partnering with Larry Coogle in the early 1980s and then returned again to his own equipment, A mid-1980s fire at his business forced him to the sidelines for several years, but he returned to racing briefly in 1989 with an experimental B-4 overhead cam engine before retiring.
