NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

As part of NHRA’s 75th Anniversary celebration, an elite panel of Sportsman racing legends — Dan Fletcher, David Rampy, Peter Biondo, Luke Bogacki, Justin Lamb, Gary Stinnett, Jeff Taylor, and Austin Williams, who have combined for 411 NHRA national event victories and 35 world championships  — has collaborated to select the Top 50 Sportsman Racers from NHRA’s first 75 years.

Each racer named to the Top 50 Sportsman Racers list will receive a large commemorative NHRA challenge coin recognizing their place among the most accomplished Sportsman competitors in NHRA history.

The Top 50 Sportsman Racers list will be unveiled in groups of 10 over five consecutive Tuesdays. Here's the second group, selected randomly from the list and presented here in alphabetical order.

Peter Biondo

Between national and divisional events, Peter Biondo has amassed an astounding 112 victories, 52 of them at the upper level. 

The ace who hails from the ultracompetitive Northeast Division is one of the best — some would argue the very best — behind the wheel in any category, with seven world championships, a large stack of division titles, and wins in six different categories to back it up (seven, counting divisionals). 

Biondo didn't just win championships, he dominated as he's got the three highest point totals in the history of NHRA sportsman racing including a record 792 point score in 2005.

They call him "the Terminator" for a reason: Biondo has blazed to the winner's circle at national events in Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street; twice doubled at a national event (Columbus 2005, Las Vegas in the spring of 2014); won the NHRA U.S. Nationals an incredible six times (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007); mentored countless young drivers; and carries on a wildly successful bracket racing series originated by he and the late great Kyle Seipel.

Dave Boertman

Dave Boertman was one of NHRA Drag Racing’s early standouts in the 1970s, then returned for an encore in the mid-1980s, where he showed he had not lost his winning touch.

Driving almost primarily for the famed Ohio-based Rod Shop, Boertman collected 16 national event wins, 18 divisional wins, and five world championships.

His first national event win, in Stock at the NHRA World Finals in Tulsa, Okla., in 1968, earned him his first world championship then followed with another Stock crown in 1971 by winning the World Finals in Amarillo, Texas, then duplicated that feat the following year in Super Stock, and captured a fourth by winning the World Finals in Ontario, Calif. Boertman won the U.S. Nationals twice, in Stock (1970) and Super Stock (1976).

Boertman was coaxed out of retirement in the mid-1980s to join the newly established Rod Shop/Nationwise “superteam” as its Super Stock representative and won five more national events and the 1985 world championship in Super Stock.

He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Luke Bogacki

The line between humility and confidence is difficult to walk, but Luke Bogacki made a career of it. The three-time world champion took a lifetime of experience and channeled it into helping others achieve their own racing goals as an instructor and founder of ThisIsBracketRacing.com. 

Back-to-back series titles in 2013 (Super Comp) and 2014 (Super Gas) were exceptional — particularly the latter, when his 731 points were more than anyone had ever tallied in the class. Few have scored more than 700 in any category, and Bogacki did it again with 734 points earned in his successful 2021 campaign. He's also one of the few to have doubled, with Super Comp and Super Gas trophies earned at the 2017 Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Chicago. 

The JEGS Allstars winner has earned more than a handful of division titles and owned 16 national and more than 20 divisional trophies leading into NHRA's 75th Anniversary season.

Brad Burton

When Brad Burton got his '72 Formula Firebird for Christmas in his early teens, the original plan was to restore it as a street car. Burton, though, could only see a race car before him, and he debuted it as such when he was 17. 

Five years later, he drove it to the Stock eliminator world title. Two more years passed, and Burton was a champion again with a remarkable 721-point total, and he has been a title contender many seasons since. A dozen national event wins and more than 20 triumphs at the division level complement a career that has come to include a great run in Super Stock, as well, in the Burton family's deceptively plain-Jane '91 Firebird. 

An accomplished bracket racer, Burton has built a fearsome reputation in the Northwest region. A stunning triple at Woodburn Dragstrip's doubleheader in 2025 was evidence that this racer won't be slowing down anytime soon. 

Jerry Emmons

With the Emmons name affixed to your birth certificate, success on the dragstrip is almost inevitable. Jerry Emmons, the 2021 NHRA Stock world champion, took that responsibility to heart.

Although a case could be made for the racing abilities of any of his three brothers, particularly 1994 Stock champion Harvey "Speedy" Emmons III, Jerry was the first of the clan to earn 20 national event wins. A regular in the Top 10 and a multitime champion at the division level, the amiable Texan has a pair of U.S. Nationals victories on his scorecard — 1994 and 2020 — and is a three-time JEGS Allstars victor, with two esteemed trophies earned in Stock and one in Super Stock. 

From his first win at the 1989 Houston South Central Division race through his 2025 victory at the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Jerry has led with a polished, professional aesthetic and an incredibly competitive stance on the racetrack.

Sheldon Gecker

In the business world, it’s often said the key to success is to “be first or be best,” but when it comes to NHRA Super-class racing, Sheldon Gecker fits both of those parameters. Coming from an E.T. bracket racing background, the Wisconsin native became one of the first true stars of Super Gas when it first became a championship category in 1982.

During his career, Gecker and his familiar King Kong Dodge appeared in 40 final rounds and scored 24 victories, including 1985 and 1998 U.S. Nationals titles. He also won world championships in 1987 and 1999, becoming the first driver to win two Super Gas titles. Championships aside, the 1985 season was arguably Gecker’s best as he claimed three national event wins.

There was no mystery in Gecker’s success as he was easily one of the hardest-working racers, often changing transmissions and converters between rounds in a never-ending search for consistency. 

Bill Maropulos

When it comes to NHRA Comp eliminator racing in the mid-1980s, one name stands out: Bill Maropulos. The Simi Valley, Calif., racer’s econo dragsters were the scourge of the West Coast with three world championships and eight divisional championships.

Maropulos, who worked closely on transmission and torque converter development with good friend Marv Ripes of Al-1 Transmissions, scored his first career divisional win in Sacramento, Calif., in 1976 and his final one in 1995 in Phoenix, carving a two-decade legacy of quarter-mile greatness. En route to those eight divisional titles, he collected 36 divisional wins and won his division six straight years from 1983-88 in his wheelstanding red and white B/Econo Dragster. He’d win it again in 1990 and then for a final time in 1993.

Maropulos also collected nine national event wins en route to world championships in 1985, 1987, and 1993 and won the TRW All-Stars event twice. He won the tricky NHRA Mile-High Nationals three times and also collected a trio of wins at his home track, Pomona Raceway, winning at both the NHRA Winternationals and World Finals.

Tommy Phillips

In many ways, Tommy Phillips is the Dan Marino of NHRA Sportsman racers as his statistics scream Hall of Fame, yet the one thing he’s lacking is a world title.

Championship or not, Phillips easily qualifies as one of NHRA’s best Sportsman drivers with 40 national event wins across four categories and a final-round record that is nearly unparalleled.

The Texas native won his first national event in Super Comp at his home track in Dallas in 1995. He went on to add wins in Super Gas, Stock, and Super Stock. Phillips did his best work in his backyard with an amazing nine wins at the Texas Motorplex and five more at Houston Raceway Park. He also tacked on a pair of U.S. Nationals titles and 33 divisional wins.

Phillips’ record in national event finals is staggering as he scored his 40 wins at the expense of just 11 runner-up finishes. 

Joe Santangelo II

The battle to be recognized as the best is brutal between the divisions, and Joe Santangelo II has been a strong contributor to a case for NHRA's Northeast Division. 

Heavily influenced by the example of his father, Joe Sr., the younger Santangelo ventured around Division 1 as a kid, watching his dad run Comp and establishing himself as a terror in the Jr. drag racing series. His career in a "big car" started in a 15-second Camaro, but for a long while now, he has been quite a bit quicker as a hired driver for Super Stock and Top Dragster world champ Anthony Bertozzi. 

Santangelo has been threatening in multiple decades across the categories of Comp, Super Stock, and Stock, winning 23 national events ahead of NHRA's 75th Anniversary season and the 2010 JEGS Allstars title. His 2011 Stock world championship came with an impressive 701-point total that knocked out Jody Lang by two marks. 

Mike Saye

For some racers, actions speak louder than words, and that was certainly true for Mike Saye, who spoke softly yet carried a big stick during a career that produced 15 national event wins and two world titles.

A native of Columbia, S.C., Saye was not just as a racer, but also a successful engine builder. Saye’s company, Carolina Machine Engines, was responsible for many wins and national records for racers in Comp, Super Stock, and Stock.

As a driver, Saye claimed his first win at the 1988 NHRA Gatornationals and then went on a tear. He earned the Super Stock world title in 1995 and went on to claim the 2002 Comp championship. When Saye scored his final win in Bristol in 2015, he joined a select group of racers who have claimed a Wally at age 70.

Saye passed away on Jan. 12, 2026, at the age of 80.

Top 50 Sportsman Racers to date (20 of 50 announced)

Group 1 bios

Group 2