Raymond Beadle, Drag Racer, Is Dead at 70

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Raymond Beadle, a drag racer who was a three-time funny car world champion and the owner of a championship Nascar team, died on Monday in Dallas. He was 70.

The National Hot Rod Association confirmed his death but did not specify a cause. He had a heart attack in July.

Beadle won 28 N.H.R.A. national events and titles from 1979 to 1981. A two-time winner of the United States Nationals at Indianapolis, he often drove a car called the Blue Max.

He fielded his first Nascar team in 1983 with Tim Richmond, who won two races for the team. Beadle then fielded cars for Rusty Wallace for five seasons, and Wallace won the 1989 Winston Cup championship.

Beadle was ranked 20th on the N.H.R.A.’s list of the greatest driversthrough its first 50 years. He was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Michigan.

Beadle retired from motorsports in 1990 and operated cattle ranches in Arkansas and Texas.

Survivors include his wife, Roz; a son, Ryan; two daughters, Tara Campisi and Amber Campisi; a brother, Ralph; and a sister, Debbie Sartain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/sports/raymond-beadle-drag-racer-dies-at-70.html?_r=0