Veteran drag racer Howard Haight passes away
Veteran racer Howard Haight, who competed in nitro-burning cars from Top Fuel to Fuel Altered to Nostalgia Top Fuel for five decades beginning in the early 1970s, passed away Dec. 13.
Best known for a hard-running California-based Top Fueler with partner Ron Cochrum for more than a decade, Haight launched his nitro racing career as a 17-year-old in Jim Moore's James Gang dragster in 1971 and also piloted Nick Cirino's Warlock entry, and went on to drive for Al Reid (Speedcraft), Harry Lehman (American Way), and Nelson Lengle (California Sun) before he and Cochrum built their cast-iron Chevy-powered entry that was among 1972's quickest of that breed. He also drove the Bad Actor Fuel Altered of Gary Hazen and Tom Topping in this era.
In addition to driving the Cochrum & Haight car, Haight also wheeled Jim Johnson's and Mike Duffy's Hemi Hunter on the East Coast in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1981, the Cochrum & Haight team moved from its traditional Chevy-based powerplants to late-model Hemis and, although they seldom competed at national events, there were staples of the West Coast match race scene through 1987, when they parked the car.
Haight drove a couple of races for "Nitro Noel" Reese with an engine reportedly out of Don Garlits' famed Swamp Rat XXX but qualified for neither.
Haight drove a couple of races for "Nitro Noel" Reese with an engine reportedly out of Don Garlits' famed Swamp Rat XXX but qualified for neither.
Haight raced Fuel Altereds, including the famed Pure Heaven entry and Don Ewart's Equalizer, in the early- to mid-1990s before jumping into the Circuit Breaker Nostalgia Top Fueler in 1998 and continued racing in both of those worlds up through the 2014 season.
