He’s one of only three drag racing crew chiefs to have won NHRA Championships in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car divisions, but Bernie Fedderly’s real value to John Force Racing lies in his organizational skills.
Fedderly, who shares with Austin Coil responsibility for the performance of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang in which John Force has won 14 of the last 18 NHRA Funny Car championships, also is the team’s personnel director and quartermaster, the man in charge of hiring and firing and setting budgets.
Nevertheless, it was solely for his mechanical aptitude that he originally was hired to assist Coil in a collaboration that, through 2007, had yielded 108 victories.
That experience served him well, earning him election to the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame as one of three crew chiefs (along with Dale Armstrong and Leonard Hughes) to have won NHRA championships in the sport’s top two categories.
Entering the ‘08 season, Fedderly has won 129 NHRA tour events with five different drivers including Gary Beck, another transplanted Canadian with whom he shared the 1983 Top Fuel championship.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Fedderly took automotive classes at St. Joseph’s High School and spent his weekends tinkering with hot rods as a member of the Capitol City Hot Rod Association. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, ultimately earning a degree as a formally-educated engine technician.
Not that Fedderly was immediately able to parlay that education into a racing career. In fact, his first job was as a fleet mechanic for a Canadian dairy firm “just keeping the milk trucks running.”
At about the same time, he and a high school friend, Terry Capp, were building a
reputation for racing prowess, albeit only as hobby racers. Beginning with gas coupes
and dragsters, the two moved up to Top Fuel in the late 1960s with partner Wes Van
Dusen.
Racing primarily in Western Canada, with an occasional foray into the States, Capp and Fedderly leapt to prominence in 1980 when they won the world’s most prestigious drag race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Clermont, Ind. That led to a commitment to run the entire NHRA tour the following season.
With a runner-up finish at Baton Rouge, La., Capp earned enough points to finish seventh in the 1981 driver standings. A year later, after Capp bowed out, Fedderly went to work for Larry Minor Racing as Beck’s crew chief.
During the next three seasons, he directed Beck to seven wins and five runner-up finishes in 30 starts. During one stretch, Fedderly and Beck qualified No. 1 14 times in 16 races and became the first in Top Fuel to break the 5.50 and 5.40 second barriers. That performance earned Fedderly, Beck and car owner Minor the ‘83 Car Craft Magazine Person(s) of the Year Award.
Moving to Minor’s Funny Car operation in ‘85, Fedderly and driver Ed the Ace McCulloch won 12 times and runner-upped on 14 other occasions. Although they were runners-up to Force in ‘90, Minor fired McCulloch to start the ‘92 season. Soon thereafter, even though he tuned rookie Pedregon to a victory at Houston, Fedderly found himself in the same predicament.
Nevertheless, a crew chief with Fedderly’s credentials was not long without work. In April, 1992, he was hired by Force to work with Austin Coil. The two developed an immediate—and unexpected—rapport, one that transformed a very good John Force Racing team into a high speed dynasty.
In addition to his tuning responsibilities, Fedderly was actively involved in the build-up of the teams that prepare and maintain Top Alcohol dragsters for Force’s youngest daughters Brittany, 21, and Courtney, 19.
When he’s not racing, Fedderly enjoys shopping for antiques with his wife of 40 years, Mary Francis.
