The King gazed from the window of his three-bedroom castle across his
wooded domain. In his view was a new Ford T-Bird, a guest house for his helper,
and a garage filled with race cars. He smiled as he thought about his sizable
bank account, his numerous sponsors and his solid reputation. All was well in
his kingdom and he was very pleased.
Jerry Ruth has much to be pleased about. Of all the professional drag
racers in the country, he is one of the most successful. In 1971 he raced both
his Dragster and Funny Car in all the Division Six WCS (World Championship
Series) meets. He won nine out of a possible ten races and the division title
in both categories. He has been the Division Six Top Fuel champ six times in
seven years. Depending on who's doing the talking, Ruth has been called either
"the undisputed King of the Northwest" or "the self-proclaimed King of the
Northwest." No matter which interpretation you accept, Jerry Ruth still comes
out as The King.
He is by no means modest about his title, or anything else for that matter.
There's a sign in his shop that reads, "When You're as GREAT as I Am . . . It's
Hard to Be HUMBLE!" Jerry is not humble. When Hank Johnson, a Northwest buddy
of Ruth's, won the Supernationals, he responded in the usual manner to reporters.
He thanked everybody profusely, and took his bows quietly. Ruth said later that
if he were Johnson he would have taken a Muhammed Ali trip and let all the boys
he'd beaten know who was the best. A recurring fantasy of Ruth's has him winning
a national event and then giving everybody a loud reaspberry. He has yet to
win that elusive race, but if he ever does, it will be interesting to see if
his fantasy manifests itself into reality.
The odds of Ruth winning a major national race are not that good anyway.
He seldom goes to them. Oh, he'll make the Winternationals, Indy and the points
finals, but even then it's as much for publicity as it is a serious effort for
him. The thought of attempting a full schedule of such meets is anathema to
Ruth. "Last year I could have blown $2000 and still been ahead rather going
to the Nationals," he said. The expenses, the odds and the trouble, when balanced
against staying in the Northwest and reaping a substantial harvest, do not,
in Ruth's mind, warrant a heavy touring schedule.
When he does step across the moat to do battle in the hinterlands, he
doesn't fare all that badly, though. In 1968 he won the prestigious PDA meet;
at the recent OCIR Manufacturer's Meet, his was one of the few cars in the 6.7's;
at the World Finals he drove the Dailey-Johnson car and was doing well until
he redlighted against Garlits. In short, he generally acquits himself quite
admirably against national competition.
But it's in his native Northwest that his efforts are the greatest. By
doing the majority of his racing there, he has been able to dominate the area
and establish a very lucrative racing enterprise.
Ruth has a steady and profitable relationship with the strip operators
in the Northwest. Over the years he's provided them with good racing and they've
provided him with an income few racers can match. Unlike other areas, the Northwest
is a loser as far as the average touring pro is concerned. "There are no tracks
on the way here," Ruth explains, "and there are lots of rainouts. It gives me
a 'lock'."
Last year, for instance, Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen were booked into
a big race at Seattle International Raceway. It was rained out on the scheduled
weekend and they had to sit around for a week, waiting to fulfill their commitment.
The time they lost out of their schedules may have been worth several thousand
dollars to them. For a racer based in the East, the situation is even worse.
The distances he must travel to get to Washington or Oregon to race make it
necessary for him to cancel dates in order to find traveling time. As a consequence,
most pros have to raise their fees to race in the Northwest. Ruth can race for
less and keep more because his overhead is low.
"I'm tricky about money," Ruth confides. There is absolutely no fat in
his organization. He hires one helper a year. Since he has a spare house on
his property, he essentially provides room and board for his often-harried
employee. There are no obsolete parts cluttering Ruth's shop, either, because
when he's through with something he sells it immediately. And he always gets
top dollar for his stuff.
He has, over the years, accumulated a group of sponsors whose support
easily exceeds $30,000 a year. Pay 'n' Pak, a chain of home supply stores in
the Northwest, is his major sponsor and he is on their payroll. Bowen Scarff
Ford provides Jerry his Funny Car body, a tow truck and a new T-Bird every
year. Pamco Crankshaft Service handles his machine work. Pennzoil, Goodyear,
Milodon, Donovan, Crower, Schiefer, Cragar, Hall Race Products and Jardine all
bless him with their products. And when you translate tires, oil, manifolds
and parts into money, the support of these companies adds up to a sizable sum.
Ruth doesn't cut any corners to keep his operation tight. He buys or
makes whatever he thinks is best. "When I built my Funny Car," he recalls, "I
could have put together a standard car. You know, a Woody chassis, Nye Frank
aluminum, Kirby paint, Black motor. A good car, mind you, but still bourgeois."
Instead he opted for a chassis by Don Long, aluminum by Tom Hanna, paint by
George Cerney (the elder) and engine by Ruth, all of whom are considered to
be the best by The King. His new rear-engined dragster was built by the same
combination of craftsmen.
Although he insists on running the best equipment, Ruth has fixed ideas
on how to do it. He is not a subscriber to the "trick of the month club."
Realizing that much of his profit would disintegrate were he to follow every
new development, Ruth maintains a conservative and cautious attitude about
running his equipment. "I like to see what everyone else does," he explains,
"and then try to be in the middle." By this he means that he'll avoid things
like a $1200 dry sump system until it is proven to him that he absolutely needs
it.
A perfect example of his cautious approach is his current Funny Car.
Ruth, like most Dragster racers who run Funnys, doesn't like them. "They're
not real race cars," he says, "they're phoney cars... P-H-O-N-E-Y." But economics
has forced him to race one. When he built his Mustang he chose to go with a
stock-displacement late hemi, rather than invest in an expensive stroker motor.
He ran the car cautiously, not "leanin' on it" too much. As a consequence,
the same engine has lasted the entire season with no major breakage and the
car has more than paid for itself. It didn't run any parts-crunching 6.5's,
but it was a consistent 6.7 car and any money that Ruth makes with it from now
on is almost pure profit.
Ruth sits back and gloats over the success he has had in Funny Car racing.
"When I first decided to build a Long car everybody said, 'Back East on tour
it won't last... Back East on tour it'll never make it... Back East on tour'
was all I heard. Well I didn't have a single problem with the car and I probably
made more money than 90 percent of those guys." He shakes his head and smiles.
"Funny Car guys don't have a brain in their head," he says, and reflects on
the lack of originality displayed by most of the replica-racers. He realizes
that he is also caught up in the "me-too" syndrome that plagues drag racing,
but he fights it as much as possible.
"We're self-sufficient up here," he says. "We build our own engines,
we'd build our own chassis if it were possible, and we do have more fun." To
demonstrate his self-sufficiency, he points to a pile of broken blower belts.
"Twenty belts, all ruined, and they cost 35 dollars each... that's 700 dollars
worth of belts in a year." Ruth solved the belt problem by building his own
millimeter drive (a new design belt and pulley) before they became commercially
available. Hank Johnson (the same one who won the Supernationals) machined
the pulleys and Ruth saved money while other racers were waiting and breaking
Gilmer belts.
Ruth has come to his success, and to the system he uses to ensure it,
through a long association with the sport. As a matter of fact, he could be
included among the small number of active racers who date their participation
to the legendary strip at Santa Ana, California. Back in the days when the Bean
Bandits, Red Hensley and the Chrisman Brothers were laying the foundations of
the sport, an 18-year-old Jerry Ruth was competing with a '50 Oldsmobile.
That was in 1956, and over the next four years Ruth raced his way up
with a '55 Chevy Gasser, a '38 Chevy, a '40 Stude Altered, and then he started
dabbling with his first Dragster. He raced a Dragmaster car and a Scotty Fenn
(Chassis Research) car with gas and fuel Chevys, blown and unblown. In 1964
he bought a blown Chrysler Dragster from Gene Adams and quickly became "the
scourge of the area." He quit working then, and hasn't done anything but race
since.
When Ruth began steamrolling his way through Northwest drag racing he
became an instant, thought not always popular, hero. "When I first won a meet,"
he recalled, "everyone was happy. When I won one or two more they weren't so
happy. Then when I was winning a lot they began to boo and throw beer cans.
I wasn't the underdog anymore." Over the years, a succession of racers have
tried to dethrone Ruth; all have failed. Larry Hendrickson was the Division
Champion the one year Ruth did not win, but couldn't hold on to the title. Dick
Kalivoda, who Ruth calls "one of the best guys on the tree in the business,"
had a bitter fued with Ruth, but couldn't overcome him. Now the challenge is
from Herm Petersen and Hank Johnson, formidable competitors, but Ruth still
has the pyschological edge on them. With satisfaction, Ruth says, "To some of
these guys, beating me is more important than winning the whole meet."
There's a bit of the Ruth ego in that statement, but it has truth to
it. That ego, which has been a keystone of the Ruth reputation, is another part
of the reason for his success. John Jodauga, the artist and writer, said it
perfectly in a National Dragster article about Ruth; "There isn't much
you can say about Jerry Ruth that he hasn't said himself."
"I've promoted myself successfully," Ruth admits. He loses no opportunity
to pick up a little publicity or to provide a writer with a suitable quote.
His career has been helped by his articulation, but he has often grated on
others, particularly competitors. Ruth just shrugs, "I'm not trying to be a
good guy," he says. "That nice guy image is just bull----." But over the years
he's had his share of attention and it is a rare place in Seattle where people
haven't heard of him. Now, at age 33, he's mellowed somewhat and concentrates
on things other than self-promotion.
Ruth realizes that racing is not a pursuit that you can follow into your
old age, at least not as a driver. And his goal has been to hang on to as much
of his earnings as he can while still being a winner. It's hard to do because
winning often requires sacrifice. It may cost an engine to win a race, and that
price is a high one for Ruth to consider paying.
But don't get the impression that Ruth slacks off; it's just that he
picks and chooses the time and place where success is very important to him.
The points chase he pursued so successfully last year took a tremendous effort.
Running two cars, particularly a Funny and a Dragster is a feat that few racers
have managed to accomplish. Prudhomme, McEwen, Keeling & Clayton... they've
all had a tough time trying to run two cars. Ruth managed to do it well but
he hated it. "The burden of running two cars is tremendous," he says. "After
a while you don't care if you win, lose or draw... just so long as you get that
weight off your shoulders."
The end of his extremely successful season allowed him to relax and
shake the pressure. His weight varies as much as 15 to 20 pounds between the
off-season and when he's racing. His temper gets shorter as the pressure mounts,
but when relaxed in his castle, The King is free to follow other pursuits.
His time has been occupied by sleeping until the wee hours of the afternoon,
selling off last year's obsolete parts, planning his new Dragster, seeing to
the preparation of his '72 T-Bird, and never missing an opportunity to slip
a good line to any girl within earshot.
The King thought about the future. It looked good, next year was even
more promosing than the year before had been. And as for the past, "I'm proud
of my accomplishments and drag racing has been good to me. Everything I have
now... drag racing paid for it all." And as for what other people think of The
King, he says "I'll settle for no affection, but a lot of respect."
