Driver, sponsor

Born into a drag racing family, Allen became the youngest licensed Top Fuel driver at 17 and the youngest professional-class winner a year later by winning the 1972 Summernationals. All of this while still attending Bellflower (CA) High School. He went on to become a three-time Top Fuel champion in the AHRA (1977), IHRA (1980) and NHRA (1981). An accident at the 1973 AHRA Nationals in Tulsa slowed Allen’s progress, but by 1976 he was back in the wins column. His 1981 NHRA Top Fuel championship was one for the ages, taking the Winternationals, Cajun Nationals, Mile-High Nationals and inaugural Golden Gate Nationals. In so doing, he became, at 27 years four months, the NHRA’s youngest world champion, a record that stood until 2018. Allen retired in 1982 and became a successful builder. “I owe my success in business to the lessons I learned in drag racing,” he says. He returned to the sport in 2018 to sponsor Leah Pruett’s Top Fuel dragster. Allen was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2018.