Eddie Hill
Voted in 1999 as one of the most popular drivers in the history of motorsports, Eddie Hill garnered the first championship of his life when he captured the 1947 Tri-State Flat Track Motor Scooter title in Shreveport, Louisiana. A few years later he moved on to dragsters and won the first drag racing event he entered with a Top Eliminator car he built himself and drove to and from the track. Hill won the class with a pass of 106 MPH (1955 – Karnack, Texas) at age 19. Eddie built his own chassis and a few for other customers in his early years of drag racing.
His move to the professional ranks of the fledgling National Hot Rod Association circuit was inevitable, and young Hill moved up to the pro ranks when he lined up and raced against Jack Chrisman’s “Sidewinder” in 1959 at a racetrack in Inyokern, California.
Since that date with destiny, Hill has done it all in the world of drag racing, both on land and in the water. He is credited with:
1. Introducing small profile front tires on dragster (1958).
2. Introducing front wing on dragster.
3. Introducing charcoal-filled breathing masks for safety (1959).
4. Inventing the tire-smoking burnout (1960), which is standard practice on all top fuel cars today.
The record books show Hill to be the first driver to cover a quarter mile in less than five seconds, a feat he accomplished with a 4.990-second pass on April 9, 1988, in Ennis, Texas. This car is currently on display at Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles. He was also first to break the 200 MPH barrier in a gas-powered car when he attained a speed of 202.07 MPH in Hobbs, New Mexico in 1962.
Over the course of his career, Hill also proved to be one of the best dragboat racers of all time. His most notable accomplishment occurred in 1983 when he covered the quarter mile track at Firebird Lake in Phoenix, Arizona, in 5.16 seconds. It was the first time in history that the world’s quickest quarter mile time was recorded on water rather than on asphalt. Hill went on to set records in all four sanctioning bodies of dragboat racing and collected five world championships along the way. He was noted in The Guinness Book of World Records for eleven years for recording the fastest speed ever turned in a propeller-driven boat at 229.00 MPH, which occurred at Chowchilla, California, in 1982. This 229mph boat is on display at Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles.
Eddie was inducted into the NHRA Hall of Fame in 1978 and named Person of the Year in 1988 by Car Craft Magazine, Hot Rod Magazine, and the International Hot Rod Association. The International Hot Rod Association, Car Craft Magazine, Hot Rod Magazine, and National Dragster honored him as Driver of the Year in 1993.
Ever the romantic, Eddie met his wife Ercie at a dragboat race and married her on Valentine’s Day, 1984. Eddie has two children – Sabrina Hill and Dustin Hill. Sabrina has been employed by Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles, Inc for 20 years. Hill was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2000 and into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2002, and the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007.
Hill is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Technology. Eddie, his father (Dr. James E. Hill, Sr.), and Eddie’s daughter, Sabrina, represent three generations of Texas Aggies.
Hill is the namesake and owner of Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles, Inc. in Wichita Falls, Texas. The dealership is the oldest Honda and Kawasaki dealership in Texas.
