![]() They were looking for something different over there (in NHRA), and we put together a deal to get things going. Bill Holt, the NHRA Division 2 director, and myself, talked about doing this Top Sportsman class several times and he liked it. “I started Top Sportsman on my own and it started in Division 2 as a five-race experimental series in 2002. “When NHRA contacted me in late 2001, and told me they were interested in Top Sportsman, and wanted to know if I was interested in building Top Sportsman in NHRA, I jumped on it,” the 55-year-old Davis said. He also had a bye run into the final, and I never liked that idea.”įlash forward to the present and Davis has become a Top Sportsman legend, not only for his driving ability, but his impact on the class.ĭavis is responsible for introducing the Top Sportsman class to the NHRA. “When (Bill) Bader bought the IHRA (in 1998), and went to the 48-car field, that’s when I stopped liking it,” Davis said. “I went three-and-half years undefeated in that king of the hill category, that’s why they started calling me “The King”.”Īlthough “The King” was a star competitor in IHRA, he became disenchanted with the direction of the sanctioning body by the late 1990s. “They had a local deal called the king of hill where you run what you brung and hope you brung enough,” Davis said. In his early racing days in the early 1980s, he garnered “The King” nickname because of his amazing success and countless victories in heads up races at the old Atlanta Speed Shop Dragway. Additionally, he took home two division crowns in 20.ĭavis’ IHRA accomplishments weren’t surprising, considering his racing roots. In 1990, when I won a world championship, I was a door car, and I had to run against dragsters and altereds.”ĭavis became a Top Sportsman IHRA world championship contender wining titles in ’91 and ’97. That’s what Scotty Cannon, Blake Wiggins and those other old timers did. They would go to the tracks, qualify at national meets, run the Quick 8 and load up and leave. When I heard about Top Sportsman in 1989, I knew some guys that ran it, but I was an NHRA racer. “Pro Mod spawned or grew or burst out of Top Sportsman. “It never even entered my mind,” Davis said. Ronnie Davis was instrumental in getting Top Sportsman added to the NHRA program.Īt the time, however, Top Sportsman racer Ronnie Davis didn’t worry at all about the class being eliminated.
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