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As for Boyd’s family
racing background, it’s a story he is proud to tell.
“My dad Ed Beyer was heavily involved in racing for most of his life,
and many folks remember him as one of the Hurst Shifty Doctors,” Beyer
said. “This was a program set up by Hurst to serve racers in all forms
of motor sports. Dad would set up in the pit area at the races and
then provide service to any racer no matter whose shifter he was
using. During this time dad worked for and with some of the most
famous names in the sport. Over the years he was involved in Stock,
Super Stock, Junior Stock and Pro Stock with the AHRA and NHRA.
“In the late 1960s dad landed one of the first factory Super Stock
rides from Ford, which was a 428-powered Mercury Cyclone. After that
he also had a 1970 Mercury Cougar. He ran those cars for several years
and was able to win his class at Indy a couple of times.”
After moving from Pennsylvania to Dayton, Ohio, Ed served as crew
chief for Bobby Yowell’s Pro Stock team before resuming his own racing
career. Boyd and his dad raced together in later years, with Boyd in a
Maverick and Ed in a Super Comp dragster. Both Ford powered, of
course.
“I got started as a bracket racer and later ran the Maverick in
10.90-class competition. In NHRA the class is called Super Street and
in IHRA it’s Hot Rod,” said Boyd when asked about his on-track racing
experience. “I later decided to move up a bit so bought a Mustang,
which was a nitrous car, and went Top Sportsman racing. When dad got
really ill I quit racing so I could take care of him. It took a while
for me to get back into it after he passed away, but eventually I got
in touch with a buddy of mine, Gary Reavis, at Huntsville Engines, and
told him I was looking for a car. A little later Chuck Ford, another
friend of ours and also an engine builder, called and said he had
found me a car and that I needed to come down to Bristol, Tennessee,
right away. I drove down there the next day and ended up buying the
yellow 2004 Mustang that I’m driving today. Chuck freshened up the
motor so that I could bracket race it, you know what I mean? Make it
simple to race, in other words.
“The Mustang was originally built by Jerry Haas for Richie Stevens to
race in Pro Mod,” Beyer said. “I bought it from Bryan Seward, who was
the second owner, and we spent a year getting it ready. We took the
clutch and everything out and put in a Bruno automatic transmission
with a Marco Abruzzi converter. The car has a Roots-blown Brad
Anderson engine in it, which Chuck Ford freshens up for me. Driving a
blown car presented me with a steep learning curve in the beginning. I
was always a nitrous guy, so I found it hard to see over the
supercharger! The car has run a best elapsed time of 4.02 in the
eighth. I’m just out there running Top Sportsman and having a lot of
fun.”
Like so many other racers, Boyd finds the PDRA a solid and
well-managed sanctioning body, designed for racers by racers and for
the most part an organization going a long way towards overcoming the
major shortcomings of similar bodies in the recent past.
“For my money the PDRA is the way to go for so many reasons,” Beyer
said. “It’s family oriented, it’s fun, there are fierce competitors
and it’s good racing. In my heart I know it’s going to fly. It’s like
it was back in the ‘60s and ‘70s – the racers hang out together, have
a beer or two together and just get along. At some levels of the sport
today the racers are all enemies, and I hate that it has come down to
that. When you pull to the line, yes, I’m going to try to whip you to
death, but once we cross the finish line it’s over. And I think we’ve
lost what I think is the soul of the sport in so many cases. The PDRA
has brought that old school atmosphere of camaraderie and
sportsmanship back and I think it’s great.”
Boyd went on to express more thoughts regarding drag racing’s newest
eighth-mile racing organization.
“As for the level of competition in PDRA, nothing can touch it,” he
said. “The owners have brought the stability back to this style of
racing that had been lost, and I think that once other racers find out
that this is the real deal it’s really going to become something
great. Racers who I talk to that have gone to a PDRA event for the
first time are just blown away. The same holds true for potential
sponsors who have been burned in the past and are taking a
wait-and-see attitude. Once they see that this is a solid and viable
program, one with longevity written all over it, I’m sure they will
want to get involved, too. It’s a real win-win situation and I’m proud
to be part of it.”
Photo Credits:
Michael Jacobs / RaceWorks.com / PDRA66.com
Article by: Brian Wood
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