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Tommy Ivo
Today’s professional drag racing features elaborate haulers,
hospitality areas and equipment to rival that of any motorsport. Tommy Ivo
played a major role in getting it there.
“T.V. Tommy’s” nickname was earned by appearances as a young
actor in nearly 100 movies and 200 television shows. His show business
experience taught him that a good show will always bring crowds back for
more and he became drag racing’s Master Showman.
Most drag racers of the 1950s were concerned primarily with
performance and the appearance of their machines often suffered.
From the beginning, Ivo’s cars looked as good as they ran. His first
success came with a new ’55 Buick that won its class and set a new track
record on the same day. Before his career ended he turned speeds over
300 mph, and raced 36 different cars in 12 classes.
Ivo’s first real race car was his Buick-powered Model T roadster
pickup. It was versatile enough to be undefeated in class, earn
countless show trophies and magazine features and appear in teenage
exploitation films of the 1950s.
The roadster’s success led to Ivo’s first dragster. Powered by
an injected Buick, it was the quickest gas dragster in the country and won
Top Gas honors at the first U.S. Fuel and Gas Championships in 1959. When
the 1957-63 fuel ban was enforced at most Southern California strips, Ivo
elected to build a twin-Buick dragster to make up for the lack of liquid
horsepower. Like its predecessors, it graced magazine covers and
became the first to run under 9 seconds on gasoline, the first to run over
170 mph and the first over 180 mph.
In 1960, he became the first drag racer to tour the country with a
nationwide season-long tour. Appearance money made him drag racing’s
first touring professional. It was good for Ivo and good for the sport.
He designed and built his spectacular four-Buick dragster, arguably
the most successful drag racing exhibition car of all time. Producers of
the TV show “Margie,” in which Ivo co-starred, put a stop to his drag
racing when the behemoth appeared on the December ’61 cover of Hot Rod
Magazine. Unlike fellow cast members, he was delighted when the show was
cancelled.
He immediately embarked on a 20-year odyssey that took him from fuel
dragsters to jets and every corner of the country. Moving to the fuel
ranks, Ivo was the first in the 7-second bracket and the first to exceed
190 mph. He was a proud member of the first United States Drag Racing
Team and won the 1964 British Drag Festival. Ivo and Don Garlits became
the talk of Europe. Back home, they hit the match race circuit,
meeting as many 72 times at 72 different drag strips in a single season. For
many years, Ivo averaged about 70,000 miles on the road and 80 to 100
dates. He once raced at eight different strips in seven days. Despite
the “Hollywood Movie Star rich kid” image he fostered, Ivo built,
tuned, drove and maintained his own equipment. In 1972, he became the
first member of the Cragar Five Second Club and shortly after survived a
horrific 240 mph crash without a scratch.
When most racers still towed trailers behind the family station
wagon, Ivo toured in a glass-sided 10-wheeler truck carrying two dragsters
and a matching Corvette push car. As dragster popularity waned in the
mid-‘70s, Ivo switched to Funny Cars. He also built a state-of-the-art
jet dragster complete with glass showcase trailer. The jet gave him the
high-speed ride of his life for two years. But the years on the road
finally took their toll and he finished his career on a farewell tour with
his old four-engine car in 1982.
After 30 years of drag racing, he retired leaving behind a legacy of
professionalism and showmanship that paved the way for the corporate
sponsorships and superstars of today’s drag racing.
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